Um, yeah!

One would think that after the concert I attended last night, I'd be flying high off the performances, the excitement and surprises of the night, but I'm not. I don't know, maybe it's my lack of carbs these past couple of days or my constant overdosing on diet coke (yes, it is like crack and I'm HOOKED), but I left the concert in a pretty blah mood. I mean, I had a great time and all, but I can't explain why I don't feel as hyped today as I usually feel the day after a concert; and there are definitely a number of reasons to be excited.

In one night, I got to see Rahzel, the Godfather of Noize, formerly of The Legendary Roots Crew beatbox!
He opened up the night with a brief stroll through hip hop history before De La Soul hit the stage!
I was most excited to see them because not only am I a fan, but it was my first time ever seeing them perform in concert. It was definitely well worth it! They performed their classic hits and got the crowd hyped. They reminded me of just why I love hip hop so much and will never turn my back on it, although it's slowly climbing further into a ditch.

De La was the reason why I stayed up until 4am, downloading classic shit that I'd almost forgotten about. I was a complete maniac, high on diet coke, finally rebuilding my itunes library, after the crash that took my second born!
In addition to their own stellar performance, they brought out Dres of Black Sheep. Can you believe it? I was so shocked, but I rocked out fa sho! Sad to say...I haven't thought about Black Sheep in a minute!

Back in the day, I had quite an impressive hip hop collection on tape, but with the advances in technology over the past two decades, I'll admit that I haven't been on top of replacing that collection with cds. Unfortunately, due to my current financial situations, replenishing my collection ain't happening no time soon.

But anyway, Dres held it down for Black Sheep. It's just too bad that quite a few wack ass Chitowners acted as if they had no clue about Black Sheep. But oh well, the entire landscape of hip hop has changed so drastically that, I'm just grateful for artists like Common and The Roots who continue to bring it, whether you think their albums are consistent or not!
As usual, Common's performance was hot, a bit cheesy with the skits, but I really can't complain! It's just a shame that he and De La were the opening acts for John Legend and only got an hour to cover their material.
After De La, Com and Dres, I could have left, but I stayed to see J Leg do his thing. I wasn't impressed. I prefer the album. That voice was howling all out of control. A few times, he hit notes that made me cringe with that feeling of fingernails screeching across the chalkboard.

The likely highlight of his performance was the surprise appearance of none other than the cock-jawed egomaniac himself…’Ye. Yes, you read correctly! Kanye West made a guest appearance. He hopped his ass onto the stage and performed Gold-digger and Diamonds, much to the crowd’s enjoyment! Com, Ye and John performed They Say, one of my favorites on Be. So, I'll let 'Ye's appearance slide for now!
Overall, John Legend just didn't seem as polished as I would have liked him to be, and that's ok to a certain extent. I mean, I realize that he's new to the game, but I still needed a little more sophistication in his style, less wild runs and more stage aggression...something! For example, when Kanye came out, the crowd completely lost it! Maybe that was a little bit intimidating for Legend, but he should have positioned himself better on stage. Kanye just stole the spotlight for the 15 minutes he was on. J Leg was like standing near the back of the stage nodding his head. I know Kanye was performing his two tracks, but that was John Legend's tour. He should have been standing up front, right next to 'Ye, singing the hook or some shit!

But anyway, it was definitely a night of excitement, but the feeling just hasn’t lingered on for me! I am however, still excited about spotting Queen Latifah in VIP having a damn good time hanging out with Com and De La. *sighs with jealousy*
So, I guess I'll just have to wait and see how I'm feeling after the Faith Evans concert at the HOB on Wednesday! Until then...