It's a shame how bad rap music is live.

[ToxicAdam]

I'm watching highlights from the Isle of Man concert and got excited when they said Outkast was performing next. Then they came on and i remembered that live rap music is pretty awful. It almost never translates well live and even worse through a television. The only live rap performances that really stand out to me in the past two decades have been Kanye ones. I'm not even that great of a fan either.

[seagrams hotsauce]

My advice would be to see better rappers. Last two shows I went to were Danny Brown and Action Bronson, and before that, El-P, Killer Mike, Mr Mothafucking Exquire and Despot, and both shows were dope. The "rap over your own songs off your phone" thing is garbage though. Get a DJ and some fucking acapellas. It's the easiest shit in the world.

Also was that the Coachella video of Outkast? Even Dre said that was terrible recently.

[ToxicAdam]

My television says its Isle of Wight, but I'm not sure.

I've been to a lot of live shows in the past ( public enemy, ice t, ice cube, tribe) but was always disappointed. Either the sound was shit, there was no real "show" with the music or the crowd was lame as fuck.

[seagrams hotsauce]

I'm kinda surprised that those sucked. I don't know about cube or PE but I've heard Ice T and Tribe shows were great back in the day. I was like 6 then so I have no real perspective though.

[Oblivion]

[Eric P]

Usually live rap is a pain in the butt because the sound is mixed horribly and you can't make out the lyrics clearly thus negating a large part of the show.

this is usually fine if you know the act's music.  if you don't, then it's essentially just "rhubarbrhubarbrhubarb" with enunciated punchlines

[Stoney Mason]

I'm going to put on my old grumpy man hat and say pretty much any music where the large majority of it isn't performed live isn't so great. (I mean where a large portion of the performance is simply pre-recorded music or singing being pumped in.

I would say this isn't unique to rap at least with the direction of much of modern music.

[Phoenix Dark]

Thankfully the "rapping over your own vocals" thing has seemingly died down at least. Overall I agree with others that sound mixing is the main culprit but I've seen shows where everything worked well. Sometimes you get the impression these guys aren't sound checking or anything though.

Mos Def was great live when I saw him a couple years ago. Danny Brown is good live too but I'd imagine if his sound mixing is off he'd be horrribleee.

[Stoney Mason]

I also don't think hip hop translates very well to an arena rock style venue. In a more intimate small club setting, its better.

[Diunx]

The sound quality is usually awful at rap shows for some reason, Nas Illmatic tour has been nice, at least the performances online, but as soon as he is done with Ill he stars that "sing half a song" shit that rapers love.

[Phoenix Dark]

I also don't think hip hop translates very well to an arena rock style venue. In a more intimate small club setting, its better.

Kanye, Jay, and The Roots all sound great in arena and festival settings. You just need a good catalog, and songs that work with a big audience. Tracks with nice instrumentation work best.

I'm going to go see Nas this year. All the recent videos I've seen were good.