Eminem

I loved his show. I got into the pit and was about 20 feet from the stage. The songs he performed were my favorite. I'm glad he did 'Without Me'. The concert had a little rock feel to it as well, especially with all the lighters held up and his lead guitarists doing some quick solos. He came out like a fighter and put on a great show.

His show wasn't too bad. A little underwhelming for a headline set, but at least it was fun and a good show, unlike Wayne. I couldn't tell if he was lip syncing or not, so I don't really care.

I wish he wouldn't have promoted his album so much. I wanted to hear all his stuff, not Recovery which was his worst album, imo. Oh well, still a decent to good show.

I hope Bonnaroo is done with the big rap name acts from now on. Wayne was the worst set I saw all weekend, Kanye was late (and mediocre), Jay-Z rocked and Eminem was decent to good. Not a great batting average.

What about Beastie Boys, Snoop Dogg, and Public Enemy in '09? That's 3 for 3 great shows right there. I'm not a big hip-hop fan, but ignoring the genre would be a mistake. I'd be down with Jay-Z or Snoop headlining, and I would not have said that a few years ago

I haven't been to a lot of hip hop shows so please forgive me if this is a common occurrence/practice for hip hop artists.

I liked the show, stage set up was nice. What bothered me is that Em only rapped into his mic I would argue less than half of the time. Now the lyrics/sound/Em's vocals were the same throughout each song, when you could see the mic near his mouth and the sound/voice/lyrics sounded the EXACT same when the mic was no where near Em's mouth!!!!

Now there was this other guy on stage with Em whose job seemed to be to put his mic to his mouth and scream some lyrics as soon as Em's mic left his own mouth. It was caught on the What stage screens ALOT!

So yeah.......great stage set up..........but WTF Bonnaroo?!? Top paid/billed artist on this year's lineup lip-synched more than half of his 90 minute set??

Is this common/accepted at hip hop shows???

The term you are looking for is "hype man". Proof used to be Eminem's hype man. It's extremely difficult to rap like Em does (high speeds with power behind it) for 90 straight minutes. Hype men are there to back up the main act (and the old school rappers all use them, from Jay-Z to Busta Rhymes - who used his Flip Mo' Squad; ODB and Flava Flav are the most famous ever, probably).

I had this discussion with someone I camped with who was adamant that Em was lip syncing. If he did it, it was one song (Toy Solider).

Aside from his hype man there was someone else on the stage backup up Em's vocals. It was pretty obvious Em was had a sore throat to some degree, as he sounded very hoarse early on. He didn't lip sync an entire show, maybe a song or two to give his vocal chords a rest, but for the most part it was him. And that's how rap concerts work.

Really? Did we see the same show? Wayne was the one of the best sets I saw all weekend. To each their own.

Im not sure what everyone expected from Eminem. I thought it was decent. Didnt blow me away but by no means the worst headliner ever. Were you there for the Police set?

Kanye in 12.

Oh and for the record I had a blast at Em!!! Not putting him down in the slightest. His house band......AMAZING!!!!

And flanzonyc thank you very much for the elaboration, I truly appreciate it!! I can understand that creating the vocals/rhymes that Em does in the studio is damn near impossible live. It makes alot more sense for an entertainer like Em to have the hype man and then also someone for backing vocals/rhymes.

Either way, good show, I rescind my WTF Bonnaroo comment about Em lip synching.

I will say too that I really liked how he had a live band there...with musicians that seemed talented.

And his entrance and build up was by far the best at Bonnaroo.

It was bugging me out that the video in the back was on a continuous loop, and it was chopped up bits and pieces of music videos that were not syncing up with what he was singing. I felt that threw things off for me.

My favorite part of the Eminem show was the fireworks.

I thought he was lip synching too but then realized that Mr. Porter (his hype man) was finishing his lines. Em would do one, drop the mic and Porter would finish/answer. I thought it was a really great show and was a little disappointed I had to leave to go get a great spot for Dr. John.

But I did get Royce da 5'9" as a guest.....that made me so happy. I think I was the only person who yelled out "YES!" when they announced him.

I didn't see the show, just the fireworks while I was waiting for dr. john, but from the video it just looks like he has a backing tracking of his own voice for the choruses and isn't lip synching, but I could be wrong. My morning jacket does the same thing, for certain parts Bo (the keyboardist) triggers parts of vocals supplied by Jim.

some songs included a backing track for the entire song, namely "Won't Back Down." I heard "Won't Back Down" being soundchecked Thursday afternoon from afar near the arch, including even the ad libs like "no!" during the chorus and his opening salvo of "BONNNAROOOOO!!!" I know for an absolute fact that whole song was lipsynced.

"So Bad" is another that they were soundchecking."

He was definitely using a backing track for the verses for some of the songs. Some he did without, but he definitely used one for his first song and a couple others throughout.