When the news dropped
that Andre 3000 and Big Boi would be reuniting for the first time in nearly 10
years on the Coachella stage this summer, hip hop heads rallied together in excitement
to scream, HEEEYYYY YAAAAA!! It seemed
like the hip hop gods had answered our prayers, or at least gave us something
to hold us over until Dr.Dre finally releases the Detox album. But to the surprise
of the duo and us broke people who had to watch the music festival on the
Coachella website, the thousands of people who were honored to be in attendance
weren’t as hype as blog sites had projected.
While the crowd appeared relatively receiving of the 20 year
anniversary reunion, the attendees were not hype enough for hip hop wild boy
Andre 3000. Three Stacks swag bounced in a hoodie and denim overalls with his
quick lipped partner continuously asking the crowd
“Are yall alive?”
“Are yall tired?”
“ Yall still with us?”
“ Are yall not entertained?!” throughout
the set, to generic applause from the crowd. Andre’s frustrations with the lukewarm
crowd led him to perform the award winning hit Hey Ya! (2004) with his back to the crowd.
Why was the crowd so lackadaisical
as if they weren’t watching legends perform? Was the crowd really that dead or
was Andre’s expectations of the crowd a little too high? Here may be some
reasons behind the borderline disrespectful response.
1)
The Coachella Crowd
In hindsight, maybe
the Coachella Valley Music Festival wasn’t the best place for such an anticipated
reunion. Coachella is known for bringing hipsters out of the H&M’s in suburbia
to partake in a 2 weekend vacation at their parent’s expense. With the festival's
roots in rock and roll, the Coachella audience has been slow to fully accept
hip hop acts despite Coachella’s past legendary hip hop performances. (Jay Z,
Kanye, Wu Tang Clan ,oh and can’t forget Tupac) More than likely, the fedora wearing,
Orange County, rich kids couldn’t do much but bounce off beat to Outcast’s non
main stream hits. Hell even something as epic as a live Tupac hologram got a
mild roar from the audience back in 2012. Maybe Andre 3000 would have gotten
the hype that he was wanting from the OVO Festival or Essence Music
Festival crowds.
2)
Energy Attracts Energy
Any artist interview
will tell you that artist tend to feed off the energy of the crowd. If the
crowd is hype, artists feed of that and turn up with them. I could feel Andre
3000’s disappointment from my lap top computer screen. I can only imagine the
amount of doo doo that he made the crowd feel like. The high power, energetic
Three Stacks that hip hop heads had grown to know and love had been reduced to
careless, rehearsal mode by the end of the set. Not saying it wasn’t rude as
hell to perform with your back to the audience, but the crowd got out of it
what they put into it
3) It has been 20 DAMN YEARS
Good music is timeless; especially good hip hop. (Don’t believe me? Play Party Up (1999) by DMX. If you’re not sweaty by the time the song is over; you’re not listening right) Outcast had me bouncing up and down on my couch but let’s be honest, Outcast didn’t do the dreaded “crossover” into main stream until 2004. Even a young music enthusiast like myself had to Shazam some songs. It’s been 20 years since their first album release. Add 7 years of
silence from the group and you got a pretty mixed up
audience. Do you know how many babies have been made in the past 20 years?! That’s
two whole generations that have gone through totally different eras of music.
The poor little ratchets that grew up thinking think that Crank That Soulja Boy (2007)
was a hip hop classic doesn’t know much more of Outcast than a few verses from
Andre 3000 over the years. Its not necessarily Outcast’s fault that their old
but maybe a compilation album of hits before Coachella would have introduced
the new generation to the magic that is Outcast.
Good news: Outcast will have
a chance of a real reunion at OVO this summer. Drake won’t accept anything less
than mosh pit status from his Toronto audience.
Check out the mildly historic
performance HERE
