Big Boi’s Big Problems
After waiting for nearly an hour, the crowd at Outside Lands Music Festival in San Francisco, CA, was definitely more than irritated. Due to apparent “technical difficulties”, Outkast’s Big Boi did not perform his scheduled set at the California alternative music festival, despite the fact that he was there. He was, apparently, back stage having dinner with comedian Dave Chappelle for two hours, waiting on his tech crew to give him the go ahead. But instead the rapper forced his friend to go out on stage and tell some jokes to appease the angry and frustrated fans who had waited to so long to hear Big Boi. In the end, the rapper would never perform his set, and just let his time slot run out. His producer walked on stage after Chappelle had done his part and said “we’d rather do no show than a half-ass show”.
But isn’t that part of being a performer and a part of the entertainment industry? What happened to “the show must go on” mentality that’s supposed to dominate live performances? When Cee Lo Green decided not to show up to his bill at The Hangout Music Festival in Gulf Shores, AL earlier this summer, headliner Foo Fighters Dave Grohl came out on stage and rocked old school throwbacks while Cee Lo arrived 75 minutes late for his set, and rushed through a couple of his hits in sweatpants to close out what ended up being the Foo Fighters second performance of the weekend. But having your comedian friend cover for you for a measly 15 minutes while you’re not trying to figure out a way to make things work is not a good way to keep your fans happy. Who knows what kind of technical problems they were having, but we know that at the very least the microphone was working. Who cares if the show doesn’t have all the glitz and glamour they planned for, fans waited for well over an hour and in the end got nothing. An acoustic set or impromptu arrangement would have done, and a true performer would have rocked that just as hard as a decked out set. Thunder and rain and mud at Lollapalooza? No problem for house music extraordinaire Deadmau5, who continued rocking the turn tables hard on the final night of the 20th anniversary of the former road show, despite the damage to LED lights and other electrical equipment on stage due to the rain. And electro-dance shows are the most digitally and technically reliant performances of any music genre.
Is Big Boi falling apart after his drug arrest in Miami last week? OutKast’s superstar was charged with possession of ecstasy pills, MDMA powder, and Viagra that he had no prescription for as his luggage was searched while getting off of a cruise ship in the Port of Miami. But in a day and age where it seems like every major musician has had some sort of drug related run-in with the law, and Big Boi’s lawyer is confident he will be “completely exonerated”, we can’t imagine how that would affect his morale so much when it comes to liver performances and pleasing the fans. Big Boi, come back to San Fran and turn it around quick.
