#940 the rap show

 

On Thursday night, T and I went to see Kendrick Lamar's Good Kid mAAd  City tour. The show took place at the Great Saltair and was general admission. The show started at 8PM and we got there around 7:30. The place is not very far from our house. It's kind of a big, cavernous building without seating on the edge of the Great Salt Lake.

Since we got there so early, there was plenty of time to wander around and watch people. T picked a spot at the very back of the venue, and we leaned against the wall and watched the people go by. I'm pretty sure I was the only middle aged woman there, but that's ok. I am who I am and I was fine being there.  I was not the only mom there. I talked to a lady who had brought her son and his friend. She was bummed that she had to pay for a ticket to get in, which I thought was kind of funny. She actually brought a book and sat down on the ground to read. I didn't do that. I stood there the whole time, bobbing my head, bouncing my arms occasionally and generally taking in the scene.

Most of the boys wore what T had on: shorts and a t-shirt. The girls, though, were another story. Most of the girls were dressed to, well, get laid. Short-shorts were the item of clothing to be wearing, along with high heels and mid-riff baring tops. Some of the girls did look good, but not everyone can pull off that look. There was a lot of tugging and adjusting going on all night long, and by the end of the night, there was also a lot of tottering on those heels and just tired, drunk or high girls. It made me glad I don't have a daughter. Oh my god. To think about your little girl going out in those skimpy clothes.

I had an image of T and a girl dressed like that going on a date to Chili's. Yikes.

Kid Ink

 OK, so the music. There were four artists on the bill. First up was Kid Ink. I've never heard of him before Thursday. There were two rappers and they were very energetic. Their set was very short, maybe 20 minutes.

Jay Rock

Next up was Jay Rock. I'd never heard of him either. He performed for about 20 minutes also.

Schoolboy Q

Then there was Schoolboy Q. I have heard of him because he is featured on a song on the Macklemore CD  He performs on the song White Walls which is one of my favorites. Of course, he didn't do White Walls, and I don't know any of his songs. What I do know about him, because he repeated it many times and had the audience repeat it also, is that he had weed. His set was 30 to 40 minutes long. People seemed to like him.

Kendrick Lamar

Finally, there was Kendrick. I actually know two of his songs. I've heard them many times and can sing/rap along with the hook on both of the songs. T loves him and has since at least Christmas. I remember driving back from California and T played the Good Kid mAAd City CD for us. The crowd loved Kendrick. They were bouncing and moshing and waving their arms and chanting right back at him. Since we were in the back, I didn't get the whole effect of the crowd chanting back, but I'm sure it was awesome. Kendrick has a distinctive voice and he's pretty good.

T seemed to really like it. He was rapping his little face off right along with Kendrick. I was impressed. He was bobbing his head and waving his hands and seemed to be having a good time. That was good enough for me. I was sorry that he didn't have a friend with him. I'm sure it would have been more fun to not be with his mom. At least he got to go, right?

I am a sing-along girl, so although I enjoyed the music, it was tough for me not to know the words, although maybe it's ok. Here's the thing about rap music for me: I mostly really like the beats, but the words kind of turn me off. There's a lot of m**f** and the n* word and I just don't really like all that.

One song that I like is called F**n Problems by A$AP Rocky featuring Drake and Kendrick Lamar. I love the beat and the radio edit of the song. T has the explicit version that I home-shared off iTunes. Every other word is either m**f** or n*. Why?

I know, I know. Rap really isn't my genre. I'm more of a pop girl, but I admire and appreciate the work and dedication that any artist puts into his/her music. I love the passion of a performer and if you can get an audience to feel that passion with you, it's very powerful.

Here's another thing about the show: this was probably, no, this was certainly the LOUDEST concert I have EVER been to. I have been to a lot of concerts in my life, maybe averaging a couple a year for the past at least 20 years. This one takes the cake in the volume department. And the vibration...oh my god. You know how you go to a concert and you can sort of feel the music inside you vibrating in your chest and legs? Sometimes you can actually see your pants legs quiver from the vibration? I guess it's the bass, I don't really know much about that stuff, I just know I can feel it. Well, at this concert, all of that was so heavy, it was pressing on me. There were a couple of times, especially during Kendrick's performance, that I had a hard time breathing because the beat was so heavy I just felt like it was pressing heavily on my chest. And it had nothing to do with the smoke. We didn't really get much of that back there in the back. It was all the beat.

I'd never been to a concert where there weren't any musical instruments. At this show, there was just a turn-table and a DJ. Huh.

This was not the first time I'd seen a rap performance. I saw Kanye West open for U2 many years ago, right after his album Late Registration came out. His big song was Gold Digger then. (I still really like that song.) But Thursday night's show was the first full-length all-out rap-only show that I've ever been to. I can't say that it was my favorite show, but it was ok and I was glad to have a little part in making my son happy by making sure he got to the show.