Over the four day weekend, I attended the Jackson Hip Hop Awards at the Alamo Theatre downtown in Jackson, Mississippi. This was a well anticipated event but some say curiosity killed the cat! The event was geared to recognize and expose some of the underground artists here in Jackson. Outside the event were a lot of photographers and videographers from the press getting footage on this event. The event was scheduled to begin at 7:00 pm but the doors did not open until 90 minutes later due to technical difficulties.
I was still eager to see the show however, Dj Moneycure did not have the crowd turnt! I feel that if a crowd is already irritated the least the dj can do is change the energy by transitioning their mind off waiting to enjoying. Don’t get me wrong he was playing all of the songs that I enjoy by the artists I love including Lauryn Hill, Alicia Keys, and etc..but those aren’t going to do the trick at a Hip Hop Awards Show. I’ve heard a lot of good things about DJ Moneycure but this was my first time seeing him in action.
The show began with a lady greeting everyone on a microphone but we never saw her face the entire show. Also, continuously she would call people to the back of the stage on the microphone while the show was going on. I could tell that she was irritated because she had to keep interrupting the show but a better solution would be walkie talkies. After the show started the hosts did not come out to greet the crowd for a long period of time. I did enjoy their energy when they finally came and they were dressed nicely. The guy host (didn’t get his name) was funny at times and I felt that he dealt with the mistakes of the show well. After the girl host came out we didn’t see her come back out besides once or twice.
They attempted to play the cypher featuring various local hip hop artists that was pre-recorded weeks in advanced, on a projector but they were not able to fix the issue in time. So we watched the cypher on two small television screens but if you were sitting behind the first 5 rows you most likely would not have been able to see it. I think it would have been great and intense to see the cypher live instead of on the screen. But the whole idea of the cypher was dope and hopefully they will release it to the public for those who were not able to actually see it at the show. I enjoyed watching the live performances until some of the artists treated this event as if it was a concert instead of an award show by performing way to many songs. A lot of people were upset (including me) that they were not able to see the people who they came for perform. And since the event started so late we were not able to see majority of the show.
Now it may seem as if I’m being very critical of this event but everything above are FACTS. With that being said, I am still glad I attended the event. I am aware on how difficult it is to run an event for the first time. Although a lot of people disagree with me, I still think that the Jackson Hip Hop Awards is a great idea. I see the potential of how excellent it can be. I benefited from the event by coming across more artists that I’ve never met before, which gives me more interesting people to blog about. Also the creators of the show knew that this event was not perfect and made a public apology on their instagram page @Jackson_hiphopscene. I felt that it was a great heart felt apology and with better planning things will progress next year. I was always taught don’t complain unless you are willing to change things. I am willing to help improve the Jackson Hip Hop Awards so I will be volunteering my services to the people. Feel free to comment any suggestions that can improve this event for next year. What are the things that you did and did not like about the Jackson Hip Hop Awards? To see who all won awards go on the instagram page @Jackson_hiphopscene
