Here's a tale of two showcases at SXSW.

Both of them featured the full lineup of a well-regarded hip hop label.

Both of them had a special guest in the form of an additional rapper who's working on an album full of duets with the label's standard-bearer.

Both of them took over a venue for an entire evening's worth of performances, and at both shows, the die-hards in the crowd kept their hands in the air, waving like they just don't care, for hours on end. The fans rapped along with every word, shouted the choruses along with the emcee on the stage, hopped up and down in a frenzy of excitement when their favorite songs were played.

One of those showcases was the closing night G.O.O.D. Music event at Austin's long-decommissioned Seaholm Power Plant, which featured the biggest names in the game – Kanye West, Jay-Z, Kid Cudi, Pusha T, Mos Def, John Legend, and more.

The other was the opening night Doomtree showcase at Flamingo Cantina on Sixth Street, which offered fans six straight hours of music from the Minneapolis, Minnesota-based underground rap label. The names on that bill – P.O.S., Dessa, Sims, Cecil Otter, Mike Michtlan, and friend-to-the-label Astronautilus – aren't as famous as the ones who played at Seaholm, but to the packed room at Flamingo Cantina, they were just as meaningful.

And in that, perhaps, lies the dynamic that keeps SXSW relevant and exciting, even as it grows exponentially every year, with more and more money and major power brokers flooding Texas for one hectic week in Austin.

The line for the Kanye-headlined show at Seaholm started around midnight on Friday. The doors weren't scheduled to open for another 24 hours at that point, but how many other chances does a person get to see all of the world's most famous rappers for free?

Tens of thousands of fans texted a number to request an RSVP – the capacity for the venue was less than 2,000. Jilted fans who didn't get in engaged in a virtual Twitter-riot against the music video-hosting website Vevo, which hosted the event and filmed it for a forthcoming streaming video release.

At Flamingo Cantina on Wednesday, the crowd – which was close to the venue's capacity of 299 – was every bit as passionate. It was lighter on rock journalists, VIPs, and celebrity guests. Vince Young and Diddy weren't there sharing a private box, as they did on Saturday at the G.O.O.D. event.

But as the questions about the future of SXSW come into focus – namely, if it still means anything if most of the marquee performances are insider-only events that threaten to alienate local fans who haven't a prayer of getting in – the answers were probably at least as likely to be found at Flamingo Cantina as at the power plant.

P.O.S. is the flag-bearer for Doomtree, the label's biggest star. They're independent and underground, but not unknown – he's been on MTV, was nominated for one of the network's “Woodie” awards for his last album – but he's aware that he's lucky to have the opportunity to pack a room at SXSW.

“We do this a couple times a year in Minnesota, but when it's here, it's really impressive that so many people come out,” he tells CultureMap. And while he scoffs at any comparison to Kanye West and Jay-Z – “Yeah, because we're such famous rap stars,” he laughs – the fact that SXSW provides rooms that all different kinds of artists can fill to capacity is one of the festival's greatest strengths.

The people who care about G.O.O.D. Music can battle for spots at their event; the masses who wanted to see the Foo Fighters play their secret show on Tuesday night at Stubb's, or Queens Of The Stone Age at La Zona Rosa on Wednesday, had the chance to do so. But those big rooms aren't the only ones drawing passionate fans.

As long as SXSW continues to provide venues for artists like those on Doomtree – or folk singer Dan Bern, who packed 60 wildly enthusiastic fans into Stephen F.'s Bar on 7th Street on Friday night, or French indie rockers Herman Dune, who brought a couple hundred devotees to St. David's Historic Sanctuary on Wednesday – then it'll withstand the expansion to include artists on the Jay-Z and Kanye-scale.

Ultimately, the festival has always been about providing a diverse array of musicians with an audience. If that means “incredibly famous and way less famous” instead of “country and punk rock,” that may just be evolution at work.