Edd’s MANtra: Performance Art

Did you guys and gals check out VH1’s hip hop honors the other night?

For people like me who still live like it’s 1995, it was a pretty good time. Although it was relatively uneventful – except for the discovery that Foxy Brown now looks and sounds like Florida Evans – I did notice a big disparity in the performances.

Did anyone else pick up on the difference in performances between the old school and new school acts? Even though the crowd sat on their hands during most of Public Enemy’s performance, Chuck D and Flavor Flav brought so much energy to the stage. Contrast that with Rick Ross, who came lumbering on stage in front of an excited crowd for “Hustlin’,” but most of them lost interest by the second verse.

The differences were most clear during the Warren G/Trey Songz performance of the classic “Regulate.” No, Warren G doesn’t have the frantic energy of DMX (who probably had the best performance of the night, by the way) but he at least has a stage presence. Your eyes gravitate toward him. Poor Trey was lost beside the G-Child. Trey seemed more concerned with imitating Nate Dogg’s voice than making his mark on stage. I mean, I could have stood beside Warren G and talked in a fake baritone.

There is an art to perfecting a live performance. I hope today’s younger artists were taking notes while the masters were at work.