Having worked security and stage management for a number of mid-level (high 500-capacity) hip hop shows over the past year and a half, these shows tend to be something to dread due to the crowds the artists draw (at least in the greater Boston area). The performers are usually cool, but the crowd... after a couple of bad ones, I ALWAYS go to work seriously wondering if I am going to make it home alive. Lest I be interpreted as racist, I should state upfront that a) I am white and b) so are the VAST majority of the genuine thugs and suburban wannabes who buy tickets for these shows. I enjoy real hip hop from a record, but the pervasive ugliness in a live context -- a bunch of dudes bragging about all the caine they've slang, women they've disrespected, guns they've shot, people they've maimed/killed, and, if it's a rap battle, how much of a homosexual their opponent is -- has ruined any appreciation I had of live renditions of the genre. It makes me sad in the same way hardcore did in the mid- to late-1990s when idiot, violence prone, gang-oriented fans (again, most of them white) couldn't control themselves and rendered a legitimate entertainment form illigitimate by leaving a bunch of forced-out-of-business live entertainment venues in their stupid fucking wake. It's only going to be a matter of months before something really bad happens and hip hop gets shut out of the legitimate live entertainment business for good. From what I have seen, it deserves nothing less. RIP, you fucks. You earned it.