Few things are more frustrating than when you show up to do a job and you don't have all of the supplies necessary to get that job done. Sometimes those supplies can be something as simple as one's own memory bank, as was the case when rapper Rich Homie Quan took the stage at last night's 8th VH1 Hip Hop Honors to perform the Notorious B.I.G. verse from the Junior M.A.F.I.A. track "Get Money," and...well, let's just say falling off the stage might have saved him some face. Check out his very limited performance below.
I mean, dammit, Rich Homie Quan. If even Earl Sinclair from The Dinosaurs can flip a Biggie rhyme without missing a step, this should have been your time to shine.
As a Southern rapper, Rich Homie was already tempting the rap gods by stepping up to represent Brooklyn with a Notorious B.I.G. verse, and it would have been bad enough had this happened at an Applebee's during a late-night karaoke sesh. But this was with Lil Kim, who was also a part of the original "Get Money" track, and who was also getting honored that night. On national television. In front of everyone. I suppose it could have only gone worse had his pants fallen down and revealed he was wearing Vanilla Ice boxers.
You can see in the video that Lil Kim tries to save things once Rich Homie Quan's lyrical skills dry up a scant couple of lines into things and he requests for hands to go up. To his credit, though, he stays up there and has a stage presence, although the room is thick with Rich Homie Quan's unspoken wishes that the bill of his cap covered his entire body.
As you can imagine, Rich Homie Quan found himself a Twitter punchline immediately after the cat caught his tongue, and it wasn't just your everyday rap fans taking shots. Big names like Ed Lover, 9th Wonder, Charlamagne Tha God and Joey Bada$$ all called him out as well. For what it's worth, Rich Homie went public with an apology for his failings.
You won't see me passing any cold judgment on anyone for being too nervous to deal with "technical difficulties" on a stage like that, as my own brain has been known to completely forget words when they were needed most. There's more than enough judgment out there anyway.
And now, because it would be musical blasphemy to only show that bumbled live performance, let's bring the man himself back to the mic for the original track.
That's better. While not the biggest musical embarrassment that has hit pop culture in recent weeks, this is still one to bookmark for days when you feel like no one could possibly understand how crappy your day went. Maybe it can also make it into the outtakes of a new Notorious B.I.G. biopic, if somebody ever decides to make one.
