Thursday, October 22, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn we had the Power 105’s Powerhouse Concert. The show featured a lot of incredibly popular radio acts such as Meek Mill, Fetty Wap, Big Sean, Rick Ross, and Future. They also had R&B acts (yes those still exist) such as Jidenna, Omarion, and Jeremih performing . The one act there that I haven’t mentioned as of yet that doesn’t fit in this line up, Kendrick Lamar. Kendrick Lamar was the top billed headliner for this event.
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Kendrick was the closer for this show. He performed after Future, who performed to a packed stadium. Surprisingly people chose to leave the stadium in the thousands rather than stay for Kendrick’s performance. By the time Kendrick made it onto the stage half of the audience was gone. Why, did this happen?
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You can see how the mistake was made, based on sales Kendrick is the biggest artist in the line up. Future was the second most popular artist on the line up based on sales. However the audience types that Future and Kendrick posses seem to be polar opposites. So when Kendrick enters the stage the audience members for Future leave. However there are other reasons that might contribute, so let’s briefly discuss them.
I will identify two main factors into a further break down of why people left. The first factor is poor time management(in response to performance and to the audience in attendance) by the show organizers. The show started at 7 PM, and Kendrick didn’t make it onto the stage until after midnight(This is five hours into the show). This is especially problematic in Brooklyn, where people depend on public transportation. People ended up leaving the show in order to catch the last train home.Which is something that many other media and opinionated outlets fail to contextualize.
Although the explanation of the people leaving the show because of transportation, is a convenient way to try to brush this under the rug. We shouldn’t discount this event as a one off. This seems to be a phenomenon that has happened repeatedly for Kendrick Lamar. People had a similar reaction of walking out on Kendrick Lamar’s performance at concerts in Philadelphia and Chicago. These shows also featured a similar artist setup. The reason why the audience left is most likely similar to what I mentioned before (poor management and radio audience).
The second factor that contributed to this was that Kendrick was a mismatch on the bill. Although Kendrick has a large audience, however they aren’t made of mainstream hip-hop listeners. This particular show, featured mostly artists that appeal to mainstream rap fans(Kendrick the odd artist out). Once again the show organizers should have recognized this and not placed him after Future. Because Future should be more popular with this particular crowd.
I don’t think this event suggests that Kendrick shouldn’t have done the show. This is a worthwhile risk for Kendrick to take. In addition, the crowd leaving doesn’t necessarily mean that booking Kendrick wasn’t worthwhile for the event organizers. Let’s assume only half of the crowd stayed for Kendrick. If only half of the remaining people bought their ticket because Kendrick Lamar. this alone would more than justify him being on a ticket that had at least ten other artist names.
The biggest conclusion you should draw from this concert is that Kendrick Lamar is very polarizing figure in hip-hop. As opposed to an artist like Outkast ,who is popular in almost every hip-hop circle. Kendrick Lamar is not loved in the same way. –Kendrick rubs a lot of people the wrong way, even amongst hip-hop heads.
Kendrick never has been able to capture universal appeal. Therefore people are going to leave the concert if you put him last, Especially if the concert features a pop rappers. (‘Time has proven that the alternative market is abandoning radio.‘) Though Kendrick needs to be careful of this happening too many more times, because this has the potential to generate negative PR.
My last hip hop review : Mac Miller – GO:OD AM – Music Review
Thanks y’all see you in space
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