Fabolous, wearing a bow tie clipped to his T-shirt and backed by a live band, was pleasant but perfunctory. He was outshone by Lloyd Banks, who may have stealthily become the most important rapper in New York — last year his “Beamer, Benz or Bentley” was a local anthem; this year he’s got “Start It Up.” It’s worth noting that major labels have done little for these two: Mr. Banks’s success came after parting ways with Interscope, and Fabolous’s recent surge has been completely on the back of his mixtapes.
The purest New York moment of the night came during Mr. Banks’s set, when Mobb Deep emerged with “Shook Ones Pt. II.” Ten years ago Jay-Z used the Summer Jam bully pulpit to attack Prodigy of Mobb Deep, showing a childhood picture of that rapper dressed for dance class in a leotard. Prodigy’s emergence here — after a recent stint in prison, and with Jay-Z nowhere in sight — was a small piece of turf reclaimed.
The Atlanta strip-club hip-hop comers Travis Porter appeared briefly during the Diplomats set, to perform maybe one-third of its irresistible, buoyant hit “Make It Rain.” “Racks,” by YC (featuring Future), got a couple of brief spins from D.J.’s throughout the night, as did “Novacane,” by the Odd Future-affiliated singer-rapper Frank Ocean, though neither artist was in attendance. Jeremih came out to sing “I Don’t Deserve You” with Lloyd Banks, but got a better response for the few bars of his driving 50 Cent collaboration “Down on Me” that he tacked on the end.
50 Cent wasn’t there to help out Jeremih, or, for that matter, to help out Mr. Banks, his protégé. This year’s Summer Jam marked a generational shift in hip-hop power, away from Jay-Z, 50 Cent and even, to a degree, from Kanye West, to a younger and more Southern cavalcade of stars, for whom Summer Jam, far from home, is just one more stage to conquer.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/07/arts/music/at-hot-jam-97-drake-li...
The purest New York moment of the night came during Mr. Banks’s set, when Mobb Deep emerged with “Shook Ones Pt. II.” Ten years ago Jay-Z used the Summer Jam bully pulpit to attack Prodigy of Mobb Deep, showing a childhood picture of that rapper dressed for dance class in a leotard. Prodigy’s emergence here — after a recent stint in prison, and with Jay-Z nowhere in sight — was a small piece of turf reclaimed.
The Atlanta strip-club hip-hop comers Travis Porter appeared briefly during the Diplomats set, to perform maybe one-third of its irresistible, buoyant hit “Make It Rain.” “Racks,” by YC (featuring Future), got a couple of brief spins from D.J.’s throughout the night, as did “Novacane,” by the Odd Future-affiliated singer-rapper Frank Ocean, though neither artist was in attendance. Jeremih came out to sing “I Don’t Deserve You” with Lloyd Banks, but got a better response for the few bars of his driving 50 Cent collaboration “Down on Me” that he tacked on the end.
50 Cent wasn’t there to help out Jeremih, or, for that matter, to help out Mr. Banks, his protégé. This year’s Summer Jam marked a generational shift in hip-hop power, away from Jay-Z, 50 Cent and even, to a degree, from Kanye West, to a younger and more Southern cavalcade of stars, for whom Summer Jam, far from home, is just one more stage to conquer.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/07/arts/music/at-hot-jam-97-drake-li...
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