|
Coming to this disc as an old school fan of rap music, this review was
something that I truly looked forward to doing. I must confess that I was
disappointed with the disc for a variety of reasons.
Being a fan of hip hop I was more than aware that the songs and artists on the
DVD are more or less stars of yesteryear and if you would like a retrospective
then maybe this disc is for you. For the most part however it reminded me of a
time when hip hop had almost made it mainstream however commercial
sensitivities had set in.
The
footage consisted of live performances (not all live) of a joint concert
taking part in both New York and Los Angeles where they would cut to each
other via satellite. The stages for both sides of the country were abysmal and
frankly the venues left a lot to be desired.
It was
nice to see Run DMC and Ice T flow, however that was the first indication that
not all was as it seemed when Run DMC's Jam Master Jay (DJ) spent most of the
time on the stage waving his arms around while you clearly heard scratching
happening on the music. Now I have seen Run DMC live in Australia back in the
day and I know that any true DJ playing live wouldn't have spent that amount
of time running around. Also it killed me to see that during Eric B & Rakim's
set, Rakim was spitting rhymes over a pre-recorded vocal track.
In
between each performance there would be short interludes where rappers would
talk about how they came up in the game and what made them tick. For the most
part, it was rappers that you did not care about telling you how it is (back
then).
The
quality of both audio and visual leaves a bit to be desired however is
passable, although recorded in 5.1 it rarely takes advantage of this as well
as it could have
All
things said and done, this is a disc for the nostalgic only. For those seeking
a great hip hop DVD it will only disappoint. It was nice to see that someone
has put a hip hop concert on DVD such as this but a more up to date release
would have been nicer still. As such I am giving it a 5/10
|
Rapmania
Features
|
- Extra Rapmania
- Artist Selection
|
| 
