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EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J., June 3 — Every summer the radio station Hot 97 organizes Summer Jam, New York’s foremost hip-hop concert. (Though it’s held across the river.) Titans clash, stars show up unannounced, fans render their ruthless judgment. It seems that every year Summer Jam proves a point.
The rapper and actor Ludacris (also known as Chris Bridges) performed Sunday at Hot 97’s Summer Jam.
A point was proven this year too, though not by one of the headliners. Sometime around 6:30 the Washington Heights-raised rapper Mims — better known as the “This Is Why I’m Hot” guy — hit the stage to tell the crowd why he is hot. (It’s related somehow to his flyness.) Then came the reggae remix, with Junior Reid and Cham. Then he was gone, ceding the stage to a bunch of crooners and out-of-towners. At New York’s biggest hip-hop show, the one-hit-wonder Mims was the only local rapper on the bill.
Some would count Diddy (formerly Puff Daddy), whose typically entertaining set was one of the concert’s main events. But he’s primarily a dealmaker, not a rapper. And although Swizz Beatz now raps, he’s best known as a producer — the “best producer,” as he emphatically claimed on Sunday night.
That boast was a cue: Kanye West strolled onstage, and for a while the two engaged in friendly competition, trading song snippets to determine who was the better producer. The exchange said something about the current hip-hop climate: The genre is in a cheerful mood, and it seems clear that hot beats sell better than tough rhymes.
This crowd was in a cheerful mood too, especially considering the arrival of the night’s most unwelcome guest star: Tropical Storm Barry, or remnants thereof. (And no, that’s not a rapper.) The rain got heavier as the night wore on, but a surprising number of fans were determined to stick it out, eager for the chance to sing along with Ne-Yo. The Red Cross probably won’t be interested, but it seems possible that the rain ruined more than $1 million worth of hairdos.
New York’s famously parochial hip-hop fans are learning (slowly) how to appreciate Southern rappers, and the lineup included three of the best-known. Ludacris, from Atlanta, delivered an entertaining but too-short set. Young Jeezy, another Atlantan, reeled off his street-centric hits. And Lil Wayne, from New Orleans, proved for the umpteenth time that he’s the wittiest rapper around. Accompanied by his mentor, Birdman, he delivered a series of pun-filled rhymes — “Hit him with a Glock, put him in a coma/Now what that boy got? Uh, glaucoma” — then stalked offstage.
All night screens flashed the radio station’s slogan: “Hot 97: Where hip-hop lives!” But anyone who actually listens to the station knows that these days, Hot 97 is where R&B lives. To survive New York’s hip-hop slump, the station has increased its reliance on singers; right now all of the station’s 10 most played songs feature R&B singers, with or without rapper collaborators.
On Sunday night this state of affairs was summed up with one image: the sight of the teenage-friendly singer Chris Brown, in white socks (because the rain-soaked stage was too slippery for shoes), doing his best Michael Jackson imitation, complete with glove and hat. Ciara did a dance-heavy routine, T-Pain sang almost nothing but song snippets, and Ne-Yo did a smooth set that peaked when the Brooklyn rapper Fabolous emerged for their current collaboration, “Make Me Better.”
There’s nothing wrong with the gentle songs that now fill Hot 97’s airwaves, but taken together they make the station much less exciting, and much less important. Hot 97 was once the definitive hip-hop radio station; it’s hard to imagine the station wielding the same influence on R&B.
Despite these changes Summer Jam headliners still feel obliged to outdo themselves. Diddy is a master of this: If the fans want fireworks, they’ll get fireworks. He lit up the rainy sky with a pyrotechnic display. He also brought tons of guests, including Keyshia Cole (for their hip-house collaboration, “Last Night”), the dancehall reggae star Elephant Man (who convinced Diddy to bump and grind with a woman from the crowd; the routine looked a bit like the one that recently got Akon in trouble) and T.I. (who did a surprise mini-set of his own).
The crowd roared when Lil’ Kim and the LOX emerged for a 10th-anniversary performance of Diddy’s era-defining hit, “It’s All About the Benjamins.” He also demanded, five times, that people defy the rain by removing their ponchos. He was widely ignored, but still, you have to admire his nerve.
After Diddy, lots of fans did something sensible: They left. But those who stayed saw a strong set from the hitmaker Akon, who did “I Tried” with Bone Thugs-n-Harmony. Even better, Akon brought out D.J. Khaled for a thrilling run through “We Takin’ Over”: T. I., Rick Ross, Fat Joe and Lil Wayne all appeared to deliver verses. But few people were around to see it, and by the time Rich Boy hit the stage, sometime after 11 p.m., joined by Jim Jones (the night’s last surprise guest), there was almost no one left.
In any case the most telling moment had come hours earlier. There must have been a mix-up, because for a few strange moments, the screens onstage flashed an unfamiliar slogan: “Jam’n 94.5: Official #1 for Hip-hop & R&B.” That’s a radio station in Boston, which organized its own Summer Jam on Saturday night; the lineup reportedly included Ne-Yo, Young Jeezy, Ludacris, Jim Jones and, as a surprise, 50 Cent. What, you thought New York was special? Not in hip-hop. Not these days.
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