MANNIE FRESH at SXSW Music Festival. March 14, 2012. Rating: NN
Mannie Fresh is old and overweight. That’s not my observation, it’s the point-of-view he announced to the crowd at SXSW.
It got me thinking, though. Would the Mannie Fresh of 1993 DJ songs like House Of Pain’s Jump Around or Adele’s Rolling In The Deep before his concerts? I doubt it.
I’m not sure if it’s an age thing, or just that Fresh, who is only 42 by the way, no longer has his finger on the pulse. His iPad DJ set was stock top 40 wedding reception music.
Not that he should be playing cooler music. He should just stick to what he’s good at. Most of the crowd at the ramshackle patio of Austin’s Hotel Vegas, including the people peering in from the porches of the abandoned houses across street, just wanted to hear the New Orleans legend rap.
Of course, that’s not his forte either. Mannie Fresh is, in my mind, one of the greatest rap producers of all time. His pioneering work with Lil Wayne, Juvenile and Cash Money Records, where he was the in-house producer for more than a decade, shaped most of the beats we are hearing today.
Along the way, he also had his share of hits, rapping on five Big Tymers albums, two solo efforts and guesting on basically every other Cash Money release.
When he finally got around performing them, it was those songs that really ignited the audience – well, those of us who didn’t leave when the Commodores’ Brick House was blaring.
Fresh was effusive on stage the whole time, and his performance was lively and engaging. But he burned a bit of goodwill by performing for less than half of his 40 minute set. After he was spinning a Journey song, you got the feeling Mannie was using this gig to promote his new artist, Dee-1.
But with Fresh’s stature in southern hip hop, it’s hard to hold this show against him for long.
