Black Thought from The Roots, Zumbi from Zion-I, and Jay-Z were a few that I remember that were actually performing and just weren't screaming at the top of their lungs with 5,800 goons on stage.
But again, I'd much rather hear a band live...especially if they're playing reggae! *Blows reggae horn*
Roots give the greatest live show of any performers I've ever seen. That's why I've seen them soooooo many times. Zion I is coo, I saw them live a few times at La Pena back in the day. But Jay-Z was boring as hell. he wasn't screaming, but he had the entire Roc-a-fella crew and their familia on stage with him. it was absurd. he came out on a lowrider bike with pyrotechnics, that shit was corny.
RAPPERS IVE SEEN THAT WERE DOPE LIVE:
jurassic 5
krs 1
the screwed up click (lil keke,pokey, hawk r.i.p., esg... etc)
wu tang
immortal technique
tech n9ne
slick rick
erykah badu
devin the dude
ice cube
eminem
t-pain (seriously)
beastie boys with mixmaster mike
also someone said oakland rappers are wack live.. f.a.b. is dope as fuck live, and so is too short. and i bet the livewire show is gonna be crackin next month out here
I saw the bolded ones, they were all pretty good, I'm sure eminem is better now than when I saw him, it was at a lyricist lounge event where he opened for black eyed peas with de la soul hosting. this was when BEP's first album had just came out and they didn't have the bitch in there, they were pretty good as well. Eminem's "debut" album hadn't come out yet, but "My Name Is" was just released.
This is my list as best I can remember. I've seen some really good acts and some real bad ones:
GREAT
Snoop Dogg
Tech N9ne
Brotha Ali
Tribe Called Quest
Jurassic 5
Chali 2Na
Rakim
Big Boi
The Roots
People Under The Stairs
Dilated Peoples
Potluck (never heard of them till I saw them live)
NEUTRAL
Atmosphere
Murs
Nas
AZ
Living Legends
NERD
Jedi Mind Tricks
Public Enemy
Lil Wayne
BAD
Bone Thugs
E40
Wu Tang Clan
Pharcyde
Dead Prez
Busta Rhymes
Slaughterhouse
Lauryn Hill
Lil Kim
DMX
Chingy
Young Money
Aesop Rock
Clipse
There's only been three times a concert was so bad that I LOL'd at the act and wanted my money back: Bone, Busta, Lauryn Hill
I saw busta when "put your hands where my eyes can see" had just came out, I think EPMD opened, busta was alright, but he performed that song 3 times in a row. He started and the whole crowd went crazy, stopped after the second verse and said "fuck that, y'all ain't loud enough" then started it over.....twice. Lauren Hill I saw twice. First time was when her album had came out, it was dope, Outkast opened and killed it with 2 front halves of Cadillacs on stage, a DJ & half a band....then L-Boogie came onstage with like a 20 piece orchestra and later brought out Carlos Santana. That show was dope as fuck. Next time I saw her she was in her acoustic phase and she just played by herself with her guitar. that was pretty boring.
Who I saw that was memorable:
The Roots
Outkast
Radiohead
Redman
KRS-1
Wu-Tang (also saw Ghostface individually, but he brought up Rae, Rza & Cappadonna)
Rage Against The Machine
Moby (was actually pretty dope)
PPP (Platinum Pied Pipers - dope as fuck!)
I've seen hella people live tho, I love concerts.