It seems that the Yasiin Bey (Mos Def) and Common gig on Wednesday, October 22 didn’t come off well with the Perth hip hop community. According to our (wo)man on the ground, of the six strong local support acts, only one was able to perform for a pitiful five minutes due to sound issues – and that’s after they’d brought their own microphones. Common only got onstage at 1am (NB: on a weeknight), but plenty of punters who’d forked out $100 for the concert left early in protest. Says our whistleblower: “Support acts aren’t free promoters, and in the local rap scene are known for going above and beyond to rep the show and even drive tickets around to ensure maximum coverage. When you’ve driven countless hours and spent weeks promoting an event only to get cut at the last second, money is hardly the issue… Will this large popular inner city venue care given they still got their money? Or will they clean up their act, hire dedicated sound/technical crew, and show the local rap scene and their large fanbase a little respect to retain punters?”
