H to the Izzo K to the Wizzay!

"Yeah I wanna go Gold, Platinum, Uh huh Etc. but why put out some wackness when no one will respect ya."
A Tribe Called Quest - Peace, Prosperity, & Paper

"Damn, they don't make 'em like this anymore
I ask 'cause I'm not sure
Do anybody make real shit anymore?
Bow in the presence of greatness
'cause right now thou has forsaken us
You should be honored by my lateness
That I would even show up to this fake shit"
Kanye West - Stronger

"Only rapper to rewrite hisory without a pen, No I.D on the track let the story begin...begin...begin......."
Jay-Z - D.O.A (Death of Auto-tune)


Ok the countdown continues.................... well technically not a countdown as no chronology to the order of my listing of these gigs but am sure you guys know what I mean!!

Kanye West - Brixton Academy 2005 (?)/O2 2008

Kanye is an artist I have real mixed feelings about, do I like his music? - I should do, his credentials are completely atuned to my music sensibilities and before his "College Dropout" album I was always a fan of tracks he had produced such as Jay-Z's "Izzo" and "Brown Sugar" by Mos Def and Faith Evans from the movie of the same name.

To be fair the "College Dropout" album is still a great album to me and I was fortunate enough to see that tour. It was also my first visit to Brixton Academy and also my first time in "standing" and being the naive person I was back then decided to wear 4" heels. this was a big mistake - those of you who've been to Brixton Academy will know that it has a sloping floor so wherever you stand you get some sort of view of the stage and as you ladies know heels+slope =pain!! Poor Mr H, my good friend who attended with me spent half of the gig alone as I was at the side of the floor pleading with the steward who looked after the disabled seats to let me sit down ( the nagging worked!). Back to the '05 gig - Talib Kweli opened and thankfully was great ( unlike my next encounter with said Kweli) and anticipation was high for Mr West. You have to remember this was pre gimmicks, some indication of his ego was present, but what I remember from the gig was how happy he was to be there and how much he interacted with us - he even played a medley of tracks he had produced and all in all I came out of the show satisfied ( even if my feet did not!)

Fast forward 3 years, in that time Kanye had produced another 2 albums ( Late Registration and Graduation) and was about to unleash his 4th Album "808's and Heartbreaks". The "Glow in the Dark" tour in the US was a mammoth deal - Kanye, N*E*R*D, Lupe Fiasco and Rhianna all on one bill performing together. The UK as per usual only got Kanye and for probably the same price as the US punters paid for all 4 acts. This time Kanye played at the behemoth entertainment venue that is the O2. Now the O2 get a bad rap sometimes for being too commercial, but I personally think it is an excellent use of this otherwise useless space and has shown the now very tired Wembley Arena how it should be done - I also think the indigo2 within the O2 is an amazing venue and have not had a bad night there yet! This time I managed to get hold of 6 tickets, 4 standing and 2 seating ( the 2 seats were for myself and my friend Puds, who being small yet perfectly formed often seems to act as a tall person magnet and therefore has no view of a gig when choosing standing). My other friends who attended included Mr H who came with me the first time so I was keen to hear what he thought in comparison to our first experience. And a different experience it turned out to be. If I was to describe this gig in five words it would be:

Cirque du Soleil "hood" style

Was the staging spectacular? - yes
Were the band tight? - yes
Did Kanye "act" well - kinda..................

and this was the trouble this was NOT a gig, it felt like a west end production, and I can sort of see where Kanye was going with this. After reading all the plaudits ( inc. Diddy's famous youtube vidblog proclaiming this show as the most earth shattering event to happen to hip hop since public enemy told us all to fight the power!) I was looking to be blown away - and I was not even feeling a slight breeze.

It felt like Kanye was going through the motions and was generally not happy to be there - it is true this was around a year after he lost his mother and the one time I felt some emotion from him was when he performed "Hey Mama" and freestyled a verse in tribute but apart from that it was really difficult to engage with the gig. The audience were actually spectators and even though I could see 5 rows ahead of me 3 boys rhyming flawlessly along with Kanye it all felt a bit sterile, the only saving grace was the frankly "cheap shot" of bringing Estelle on to sing "American Boy" which got the crowd up on its feet - but any slight warm glow from that performance was short lived as a bad tempered Kanye stalled and stomped off thestage twice before completing a rendition of "Love Lockdown"

All in all we ALL felt it was a lacklustre experience - I probably would have got the same feeling from watching a blu-ray HD of the gig.

Kanye West - UFONWK - Kanye posts a "girl of the week" on his blog "kanyeuniversecity" and has chosen such beauties as Eva Mendes, Angelina Jolie, Gisele and...... Jennifer Metcalfe aka Mercedes from Hollyoaks!

Jay Z - Wembley Arena 2003

Jay - Z is a hip hop mogul, some would say an urban Donald Trump - treading that fine line between commercial and credible, he has shown entrpreneurship and also appreciation of culture ( I watched with interest his "imagine" show on BBC1 with Alan Yentob where he discussed without irony his love of modern art) - plus he is married to one of the hottest chicks in the game ( sorry went all blokeish there!).

I went to see him at probably the worst venue ever for a hip hop gig - Wembley Arena and I remember 5 things distinctly:
1) The support act was really good - the Clipse who's excellent first album had just been released. Still remember the beats from "Grindin" blaring out and singing along to "Ma I don't love her" and really enjoying their performance.
2) I had awesome seats block A2 row 8
3) These awesome seats euphoria was quickly negated by the whole of "blazin squad" turning up in front of me in row 6 - the polo shirts with upturned colours and strategically placed spikes in hair combined with their dire attempts at getting rowdy obscured my view and my mood!
4) Jay Z's ( and my) utter dismay at the fact that few people in the audience reacted when the first bars of " Can't knock the Hustle" dropped ( for those who don't know click/cut and paste here -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96sFW-3vGv4) - seemed like all were waiting for Big Pimpin and Hard Knock Life!
5) Damon Dash is a cock - no more explanation needed

I think this was Jay-Z at a commercial high, but credible low and it is a credit to him that he has upped his credibility to the point now that no question in his hip hop credentials - and dropping that idiot Damon Dash from his posse has done him no harm! If you want to see Jay Z at the top of his live game either check out his unplugged session for MTV ( with The Roots as his band) or his set at Glastonbury where he disproved the sadly naive Noel Gallagher's prediction that he would flop at Glasto - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrDIOVXx-y8

Jay - Z - UFONWK - Jay Z's middle name is Corey and he is still considering buying a stake in the greatest football club known to man the mighty Arsenal and if he does will ensure he becomes my favoruite rapper EVER!

For those who don't know Jay-Z and Kanye West are inextricably linked - Jay signed Kanye, and Kanye started off as a producer on Roc - A -Fella Records producing hits for Jay himself as well as Ludacris, Alicia Keys, Common and Brandy to name a small selection. They are still collaborators and I like to think friends and there is no doubt in my mind their importance to hip hop as a genre but looking back I have to say their concerts were not particularly amazing experiences for me - but if they ever do go back to playing smaller venues with just them and a DJ I am sure I'll do my best to be there!

Peace out Naima

P.S. I am waiting with extrememly high anticpation for Jay's "blueprint 3" album - particularly if the track "D.O.A (Death of Auto-tune) is anything to go by - sums up my whole anti autotune/eurohouse rap song stance!