most live hip hop sounds shitty?

[Mr. Davenport]

Ive been to quite a few hip hop shows and in my opinion many of them sound rather shitty. Then i stumbled across these guys. AI realize that they may have had better recording for the purpose of the video but, damn...these fellas can work a crowd.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ua_JYrHAeOU

[Les Braun]

As far as I know the Roots are very good live.

[Mr. Davenport]

yes of course. The Roots are, a "live" band. I think you know what I meant.

[DREWDANK]

yeah man alotta shit does sound shitty. just a bunch of assholes who eq the show being like oh the bass is gonna kill then it sounds like an obese womans bowels

[plexxsounds]

There's so many things that affect the sound. Some MC's just can't spit clearly enough. The beats might be recorded/EQ'd/mastered badly. The soundman might be wack. Or the whole venue might have bad acoustics and make it sound shitty no matter what you do. After all I've seen many dope and good sounding hiphop gigs.

Here's a song that cane to mind:

Lyrics to Breath Control (Boogie Down Productions) :
[KRS-One]
Hah, giddyap!
Ha ha ha hah..
Another dope dope dope style
by the massive BDP crew
Of course, I will now present to you
a different view, for 1990
Of course, eighty-nine is behind me
Check it out

It's called breath control, breath control, breath control stylee
Breath control a-lone, breath control A-LONE
Breath control, breath control, breath control stylee
Breath control a-lone..

It's KRS-One, yes the t'cha
I wear Clarks and only Nike sneaker
In your speaker, is the new style
Dedicated to the intelligent child
In the front row, or behind me
We're gonna pull somebody file for the 90's
You want lyrics? We come correct
BDP, only movin with respect
The other MC's, they can't believe me
A when I rhyme it sound just like a CD
We don't lip-sync, we go all live
On stage, I bring about four or five
That's D-Nice, Sydney, and Melodie
And myself, Harmony, and Willie D
We come humble, we just grumble
while other MC's crew just crumble
They want DANCERS, they want lighting
They want effects, to make them look exciting
But it's frightening, cause without that
The whole crew, is whick whick whick whack
BDP comes, with the cheapest
and perform miracles like Jesus
The total respect, we achieve it
And the big head-liner can't believe it

It's called breath control, breath control, breath control stylee
Breath control a-lone, breath control A-LONE
Breath control, breath control, breath control stylee
Breath control a-lone.. get ready for the break..

Ha ha ha ha ha hah..
Well the styles I, usually dish out
are so dope that you don't wanna miss out
We got PAGES, of the dope stuff
So in the record store, you can't pass by us
GET the album, HEAR THE MUSIC
And hold on so you just don't lose it
as a reference, for any MC
that wanna test, K-R-S, O-N-E
Cause I've been watchin, these other rap groups
They walk around like they're some kinda big soup
You can't touch them, you only see them
in a arena or big coliseum
So when you watch them, for a second
Them sound NUTTIN like they do on record
Them sound cheesy, them sound wheezy
For twenty dollars boy you know them never please me
So I see this, and prevent this
It's like goin for a checkup at the dentist
Cause when you come to a BDP performance
The microphone, had better have endurance
Cause we'll check it, and then wreck it
And then the soundman has got to accept it

Because it's breath control, breath control, breath control stylee
Breath control a-lone, breath control A-LONE
Breath control, breath control, breath control stylee
Breath control a-lone.. take it out..

[Ill Green]

AV personnel should know how sound travels in any room. Nowadays its like they'll hire anybody that can turn a dial. Louder doesn't make it better because some halls have echoes and then you've got sound bouncing all over the place giving a real shitty sound because the sound is overlapping and at different timing too.

[Sinapse]

Yeah, Hip Hop sounds notoriously bad live. Its real tough to catch all the words if you are hearing a song live and you don't know it. The idea is to have your shit not sound HORRIBLE. You just want your beats EQed well so the they don't distort horribly on the low end, and have room for the vocals in that range ...a poorly mixed beat will sound a million times worse live. Also, a lot of emcees use mad studio tricks (punching in, etc) and just aren't good at translating that to the stage where all you have is your presence and energy to captivate the crowd. Live performance is what sets apart the real emcees imo

[Ill Green]

Word, I've been seeing rappers rap parts of their verse while another unknown cat finish off the lines. Its like these rappers forgot what they wrote.

[kel]

live hip hop shows STOP using the album version of the song for the show. it should be the instrumental! i hate that.

[Sinapse]

live hip hop shows STOP using the album version of the song for the show. it should be the instrumental! i hate that.

lol, lip snycing basically?

I have heard cats with backups vocals still on the track, I actually leave hooks on there sometimes depending on the joint, you need a breather b/w verses or w/e...but I can't say I've ever heard someone just rock the straight up album version of a track hahah would be pretty funny, i think everyone in the crowd would look around like WTF

[Sinapse]

Word, I've been seeing rappers rap parts of their verse while another unknown cat finish off the lines. Its like these rappers forgot what they wrote.

Word up a lot of cats forget shit, but that may have just been to help with the breath control. I am surprised how many emcees simply read their shit off the paper in the studio...I can't say I haven't done it when I needed to flip something quickly, but usually I'll try to memorize my bars before I record a track......this comes in really really handy when it comes time to do a song on stage b/c you really have that song inside of you it's not just something you read off paper when you recorded it originally

[Mr. Davenport]

I think the way en emcee holds the mic may have something to do with it too. why do all emcees wannawrap there fist around the mic head when they spit? does it look cooler? I would say grab the mic around the neck so the mic can do its job without your hand getting in the way.

[mainiakist]

yeah i accredit this to people not understanding how to use their equipment in a public address/live situation...ive been to some shows and helped out with some..the funniest thing i almost ALWAYS see is the person running the board or the levels of the input is always running shit way too hot, the mic isnt running through a good preamp, and theynever try and understand the dynamics of the room they are playing in...its almost the most important part...positioning of speakers and understanding how to use your effects in a live situation....which if done properly can help improve the ability to hear the whole mix in a room full of echo...hip hop can certainly be done right live but its diff than being in a studio producin somethin...you have to basically produce to the situation and be ready to make constant changes...

[ormo]

i wrote a list of mcs that i thought were dope live.

then erased it

cupping the mic acts as a filter of sorts
.

[dman5000]

live hip hop shows STOP using the album version of the song for the show. it should be the instrumental! i hate that.

lol, lip snycing basically?

I have heard cats with backups vocals still on the track, I actually leave hooks on there sometimes depending on the joint, you need a breather b/w verses or w/e...but I can't say I've ever heard someone just rock the straight up album version of a track hahah would be pretty funny, i think everyone in the crowd would look around like WTF

yo come perform at the open mic i dj in philly - the ill @ the khyber feb 28th 9pm