Ben WesthoffHave you ever been to a rap show? Of course not. Why? Because they suck!
Well, not all of them. Sometimes if there's a live band or cool freestyling or naked acolytes lighting flares from a mountain they can be good.
But even the aforementioned Kanye West show was bad at points. Why? Because the DJ kept cutting the music mid-song, so the crowd could sing along “a capella.”
This is becoming a cancer at rap shows.
Watch Future performing “Same Damn Time” above — the music is silent practically as often as the music is playing.
The idea is so the crowd can sing along. But, c'mon, this is not a campfire. We paid money to hear you, not ourselves.
Yeah, we know this kind of thing has been going on at concerts since the dawn of time. Probably when Beethoven was playing his fifth symphony in front of a psyched audience he would instruct the orchestra to go silent at the “Duh duh duh DUH” part so the crowd could chant along.
In fact, we'll admit that when we first experienced this phenomenon, we thought it was pretty cool. The idea that here's a giant mob of people, all knowing the words, all singing along — wow.
And even today when it's used at, say, arena rock shows, it's usually done sparingly, at climactic moments.
The problem is that at rap shows it's done constantly. As a result, all the wonder, surprise, and novelty is gone.
And it's not just the DJ. The rappers themselves fade in and out, ceasing to rap at random moments and then holding the mic out to the crowd so they can rap along.
So then maybe for a couple lines you'll have both the backing track and the rapping, but then no backing track, and then a backing track but no rapping.
It sounds like garbage.
There's a reason that on recorded music the beat runs continuously. There's not a part on Ice Cube's “It Was a Good Day” where the music drops out and we at home are encouraged to fill in the blanks.
Because that would be retarded.
So shape up DJs, and stop cutting the damn beat!
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