Who Da F#@k Is Next?

By Moe Olivier

So last night, on a school night, I was scooped up by the homie Shani Kulture and we headed out to Hot 97’s Who’s Up Next show, a monthly event sponsored by Hot 97 to showcase the next up and coming artists in the hip hop game. This was my 3rd or 4th time at one of these events and I thought, “since I’m here let me share my piece of POV!”

 

So on the roster there was, in this respective order, two dudes whose names I can’t remember-”homies get your names on the flyer please”, Sonny Digital, Remy Boy Monty and PNB Rocks.  All in all, I will say the night wasn’t a total dud and it wasn’t super duper dope either.  On a scale of 1-10, it landed a 7 for me.  And, let me say this as a sort of disclaimer for my point-of-view.  Imma 80s -90s baby,  so my perspective is filtered by the boom bap era of hip hop.  All this trap shit is like discussing how great the fried liver when what we really wanted was fried chicken, but it was sold til next season.  However, this hip-hop shit, in whatever form it presents itself is music my people created and recreate generation after generation, so for that I fucks with it!

 

Before I get to the artists, I gotta say the crowd seem pretty different from what I’m used to. In the very beginning, they seem like a typical New York crowd except for the lack of representation of the 5 boroughs.  In fact, it was very unclear where anyone in the crowd was from because they were so damn quiet  during the traditional city-callout that happens at most NYC hiphop events, except for the one lone ranger that  screamed out, “Mt Vernon!”  Any attempt, from  the host to illicit crowd participation was futile and fell on many deaf ears. The cricket gave better cooperation. People, if you didn’t come for the show, what did you come for, the standing room?

 

After notsomuch as a woot woot, from the audience, the first on deck was Chad D and I really can’t remember the other dude’s name. Now I could probably go to Youtube and look them up, but I was kinda annoyed at their performance and here’s why: Never ever do a show with all your lyrics playin on the track .  This is why these new artists need some enlightenment on performance history.  Actually, go research the Milli Vanilli Tragedy to understand why this is an important rule.  Otherwise,they got some #stage presence though. Really one dude more than the other and I won’t say which, cause y’all not gonna blame me for fucking up the dou.  All in all, they had a couple of fun records that  would have gone over better had they performed it without the lyrics on the track.

 

The second artist on deck was Sonny Digital. Now it took me a couple of songs in to realize that he is a producer.  His whole set was confusing.  He came on stage like the folks in NY already knew him, bad mistake homie. He came on by saying he brought some hits.  Then started playing what seemed like random records.  Now grant it, he did produce the Kanye Racks on Rack on Rack and I need a big booty hoe, but  how the fuck was the audience supposed to know that shit.  It seemed like he was playing other people’s records,  which is why i tweeted, “sonny digital the new doug e fresh… turn the party up with other people’s record  but he produce them.. just got more than one record tho.”   I heard someone ask,’’Is he a DJ or Nah?”  He never actually performed any songs and at the end of his set he just stop playing music and walked off stage, while the audience just watched without applausing until DJ Juanito was like, “make some noise for Sonny Digital.”  Folks need a teleprompter to show love these days.  I feel like he got upset cause the crowd wasn’t really fucking with him.  Now they were vibing to the songs he produced as one would rock out to any club banger a DJ throws on. There was no chemistry between Sonny Digital and the audience.  The chemistry was definitely between the audience and the songs he played though!

Next up on deck was one of the Headliners, and I say this because the name, The Remy Boy Monty, was one of two bolder names on the Who’s Next banner.  Plus on the way in, Shani Kulture shared with me that Monty was a part Fetty Wap’s team so I’m expecting to see something beyond mediocre.  Sadly, what I did see was not impressive.  The songs were good and could have been great with a better performance.  Again, stop rapping alone with your own lyric. From my vantage point, I could see the body language of 4 people who actually look like they were enjoying the performance, but it was a tough crowd. The performance game is very different from years ago.  These dudes just leave the stage without saying shit… the crowd don’t even applaud. again!

The last and most interesting performance of the night was by PNB Rock.  I actually have never heard of him before tonight and I almost couldn’t point him out in the beginning through the army of 10 billion men on stage with him.  And that was some strange shit to see all these motherfuckers on stage with their phones out looking like they watching Netflix while waiting for the bus.  That was some weird shit or I’m just old. But c
ome on PNB, you gotta billion dudes on stage taking selfies while you going in.   On the other hand, I gotta say, though, people showed up for him.  Dudes and chicks, right, left and center were reciting his lyrics as he rocked. The fucking crowd thawed out.  I guess they were loyal fans and knew who they came to see.   And yea, I was vibing too, especially because  PNB Rock mixed it up with some boom bap shit #realhiphop. The best part was and I got mad respect for the fact  that PnB Rock was the only artist that ain’t perform with the lyric on the damn show track.  Step your game up.  Somebody gotta let these new artists know.