What’s good?

So last night I hit Giants Stadium in New Jerz to checkout Summer Jam 08, by Hot 97 in NY. This is usually a hot event (no pun intended) with the festival beforehand and the actual show to follow. This was a last-minute flex for me, so I missed the festival this year. I’m upset too, because I missed Buckshot and Kardinal Ofishal performances. Two hot underrated artists, but I heard they tore the place down!!

I park up and immediately remember why I love/hate this event so much: THE HOOD! The hood comes out in all shapes and sizes, and this year was no different. We had the grills, the pimped out Vs, the mini parties in the parking lot and the MASSIVE parking lot pimpin poppin off, lol. I fux with all that. You got the hustlers selling summer jam tees, drinks, and what not. Side note: I’d never buy liquor off the next man, especially a mixed drink! You got dudes talkin bout “Ayo! I got dat Green Goblin!! $10!! Aite my dude… I’m GOOOOOOOOOOOOD! (In my best synthesized T. Pain voice), but I digress…

I rolled out there to meet up with a few cats. I didn’t get to actually meet up with dudes till 2/3rds of the show through due to reception issues ON THEIR END! Got me hoppin different sections in the Stadium lookin for them and shyt (yeah my hood/hustle side comes out at this event too…lol) My people, its time to WRAP T-Mobile as yall providers… I mean, if my life depended on dudes getting a text or call and you have T-Mobile, I’m as good as DEAD! LOL! I mean come on now… Onto the show!

Ray-J and Young Berg set off the show doing their hits… Ray J did one wish off the keyboard… pretty cool. Good warm-up. Next was The Dream. I saw him at Stony Brook during their concert, so it wasn’t anything too new. He had the Chicago Bulls intro and dropped a few joints… cool for what it was.

A-Keys was next! I saw her in her first performance in 04 and she did her thing, not to mention that she’s BAD! I’d drink her bath water with a straw, lol. She even got prettier from when I saw her on set of Teenage Love Affair. I had an idea what to expect and she delivered. She drops her current hits, did some piano work, all cool. She even worked through about 10 minutes of CRAZY mic feedback!! Like it was ridiculous, but she acted as if it wasn’t even there. EXCELLENT PERFORMER, a pro! The beauty of her performances is how she KNOWS the Summer Jam crowd. They traditionally boo female RnB acts (Even Aaliyah got booed once) just because they want to hear hip hop and the hood don’t like all that singing at times, lol. She brings out a lot of surprise artists. She first brought Maino out to do his single, Hi Hater. Its funny when a new artist comes out to the SJ Stage and people don’t know who he is until the song drops. He did his thing. The highlight of the night to that point was when she brought out Raekwon the Chef, Method Man, and Tony Starks(Ghostface Killah to the uncool)to perform “CREAM”, “Ice Cream” and “Method Man”. That rang OFF! Great job as always by Alicia.

D-Block came through next and the hood was able to exhale, as 2 of their own were puttin it down. They did a lot of D-Block hits, and as you knew, Kiss came out and brought Fat Joe, and Red Cafe to perform the “paper Chasin” remix. Next Swizz was there and he did “Where the Cash At” and “Money in the Bank”. People weren’t up on the newer single, but he did his thing. They brought Nature and NORE out to do “Banned from TV” off the NORE album that dropped in ’98(Damn that was 10 YEARS ago!! NORE needs a personal trainer. Dude gets bigger and bigger every time I see him, and you can tell his buzz has drastically dropped with people. Queens still stands up though… and did we ever with the first BIG surprise of the night: LL came though to do Headsprung and had a message for all who sleepin on him… that this year its about to be on. When I tell you the crowd went NUTS (esp. the females)… shout to Kid Capri also on the 1s and 2s. Cool performance.

T-PAIN was next, and to me he had performance of the night. I know, I know – Jeff T-PAIN?!! Let me tell you… from overall crowd reaction to whom he brought out… With him it aint about the songs when he does the concert… he’s going to just break out all the joints he’s done and GO IN! He set it off with the Walk it out REMIX, then the KISS KISS joint with Chris Brown… from there he just goes IN.
1) Shawty LO came thru to do “They know”(BIG UPs… to ALL my HATERZ!!)
2) DJ Khaled came thru to do I’m so Hood and We Takin Ova… Rick Ross accompanied and came thru SHRITS OFF, lmao!! I’m not mad playa… this is when the hood expressed their affection with dollar bills raining from the rafters and FITTED CAPS! Son, it was like a Hat trick in hockey… FITTEDS?! Nikkas is MAKING IT RAIN with FITTED CAPS?!! $30+ FITTED CAPS!! Wow… even IF I was ballin like that… IDK duke, lolol (Fat Joe was on this too)
3) Akon came thru to perform “Bartender” and he closed with “Buy you a drink”

All in all – hype performance. Gave the crowd what they wanted and tore it down! Definitely trumped last years performance

Then Weezy was up. He got the biggest pop of the night from the crowd. Definitely the most anticipated artist. He set it OFF by just having smoke onstage and droppin “A Mille”. WOW. This man is def top 2 in the game RIGHT NOW! Off the strength that, say what you want about whether you believe in his lyrical quality, people in there knew EVERY LINE! A Mille was a problem in there!! More fitted, shirts, books, and dollars rained from the rafters! He did some hits(Fireman, etc) and his collabos(His part in the “They Know” remix with Shawty Lo, and “Duffle Bag Boy” feat Titty Boi . Yo 4 real, are ALL the hot aliases taken?! Come on son, you could’ve did a LOT better than TiTTY Boi…smh)

What bugged me out about Wayne’s performance was the randomness of it. He gets on the guitar soundin like Ozzy Ozborne (LMAO), and then proceeds to do a whole song about a certain female body part… WOW. It was crazy and the ladies loved it. I am convinced though, that Wayne is on something…. like PAST weed. That man was BUGGIN, lol… its wild. He closed the show with Lollipop, and shut it down by bringin out KanYe West (with a briefcase blinged out and fitted, lookin like he just got there, lol this dude…) He then leaves to Whitney Houston’s (Ill Always Love You) as his fan tribute…hilarious!! All in all cool performance but I liked his joint last year better. Seemed more live and more oriented to everything he had out at the time (because we know Wayne is on 50-11 songs).

Kanye came through. This man is the epitome of extra, lmao! His set was straight from the “Glow in the Dark” tour… Its one of the hottest setups I’ve ever seen. Live band, lights dictated the mood and song. I actually think this performance was too futuristic for the hood, lol. He performed “Get em High” and his mic had his voice sounding chop n screwed… I got it halfway into the verse…crazy!! He performed a lot of hits, brought out his artist Consequence (no real crowd pop) and then as always, he spoke to us about his struggles, and how he sees the crowd wasn’t goin super crazy and would take this like a man…lol. He THEN proceeds to go into this acapella freestyle. It was TIGHT (if I get the video ill post it)! He did “Flashing Lights” and had Rita G come thro struttin ALL her stuff onstage. OMG…lmao. WOW. I’m still speechless…. His mic went out during the first verse and when it came back in he was freestylin about what happened to the beat… his improv game is serious! He then brings T-PAIN onstage to do Good Life and closes the show with a million fireworks! Definitely the most thought out performance, biggest production, and most creative.

Public Enemy came through and repped for the old school. They did all their hits(Fight the power, etc) and had a 9yr old girl set off their show with an eloquent speech about Sean Bell and the injustices. Hopefully she keeps the activism up. Their message was real positive and they rocked out…even had their DJ scratchin something serious, and something NOT seen in the age of the Serrato (sp?)Flava Flav… LMAO! I forgot about all his stage antics… I must say he is one of the most entertaining people out today, hahahahaha! His facial expressions, comments, etc… That dude, lmao!

DJ Enuff then announces a “special guest performance not announced”. So I’m hyped because usually this is the time where everyone bounces. It don’t matter whose performing (with the exception of a Hov or Nas). They’ve bounced early on R.Kelly, Eminem, and others, during their performances. So then it’s announced that our special guest performer is Jim Jones (My dude Morris is HYPED right now, lol). So you know Harlem, the Dipset, the Birdgang, and the Goons were there. I PROMPTLY tucked my jewelry and kept my head on a swivel, lmao jk. He did his hits, but once the ‘Walk it out Remix” dropped and his boys began Blood Walkin onstage, it was def time to go, lmao… not before I heard him do the first verse of “We Fly Hi’(BALLLLINNNNN!!) I got in a few jump shots, and went to find my car.

All in all, I’m glad I went. It was cool, but last year was better to me. I give it a 3.5 overall

One last thing. Ladies, rock with me for one second. I’m not in 100% super physical shape, but like, is it cute to be wearing shirts that show your belly IF YOU HAVE ONE?!! Like is it out of confidence, sheer “Idontgiveafuckness”, or is it ignorance? Like do your friends say ish is cute? If so, those aren’t good friends, lol. Like I’m lookin at all these chicks comin out their house like this, and just smh vigorously. Shit aint sexy to me, sorry. Ladies PLEASE tell me if I’m wildin out…

Lookin forward to next years show. Just glad it didn’t rain like the last 3!!

Up next: Bermudagate pt 2 – How I Almost got deported, I don’t make this up, lol.

Peace!

UPDATE!!

So I forgot a few things…

1) Rihanna was supposed to be at SJ!!! I completely forgot… yet I heard she was booed up with Chris Brown at the MTV Movie Awards..wow..lmao

2) Weezy was supposed to be with Gym Class Heroes and they aitn even do they joint onstage… that stuff man, lmao!