A few years ago on Line Out, I wrote a screed about live hiphop performances. The problems are my problems, granted, but more than being mere personal pet peeves, I see them as a plague on the art form. (If it matters, I’ve been following hiphop since 1979.) These issues that I outlined in that June 2006 post have not really subsided, if my experiences at hiphop events are indicative.

This thought occurred to me over the weekend at Bumbershoot. Both Dyme Def and De La Soul, as excellent artists as they are, fell prey to the sort of onstage antics I decried in that three-year-old post during their sets (Champagne Champagne, to their credit, did not).

So, if I may reiterate: If hiphop performers spent less time coaxing crowds to say this, do that, and make some fucking noise, and spent more time actually, you know, performing, live hiphop shows would dramatically improve—or not, depending on whether they have the goods. Do people in audiences really give a shit what their fellow attendees’ area codes are? I sure as hell don’t, with all due respect, Dyme Def. I can’t be the only one who thinks this way, can I?

On Sunday, after coming on to the Fisher Green Stage 20 minutes late, De La Soul squandered a lot of precious time discussing which side of the crowd was the “party” side and which was the “hiphop” side. Damn, De La: You guys just ought to catalyze the “party” with your “hiphop,” and not waste time talking about it. Do, don’t say (no go). With all due respect, sirs. You are too good to stoop to such pandering nonsense.

• "Yo, Segal—fuck your exegesis."

I know, I know—it’s hiphop “tradition” to rouse the crowd, to generate a vibe. I understand that some artist/audience interaction—in moderation—can be beneficial to the overall experience. But, but… when that function supersedes actual rhyming and beatmaking, then we have a serious problem. We have what I would call "a failure to entertain."

Merely saying it’s tradition and accepting the status quo is bunk. Not all traditions are worth preserving or encouraging. (Oppressing women and minorities were traditions, too.) From the Wu to you who just spit into a mic on a stage for the first time yesterday, please, in the name of all that is unholy, do your shit and drop the bullshit. I don’t want to hear my fellow punters shout stuff in inane call-and-response routines that were tired even when Bush I was in office. I don’t fucking care which part of the crowd’s having the “real” party. There is no entertainment value in trying to discern this.

I can’t be the only one who feels this way, can I?