Recap...

SUMMER JAM '08
written by doesn't Matt R

"Dear summer, I know you gon' miss me, for we been together like Nike Airs and crisp tees." Say what you want about Memorial Day as the kickoff for everybody's favorite three months--I get it. Pools open, cookouts, and a three-day weekend. What's not to love? But for me, the true sign that Summer is finally ready to blast off, is a concert sponsored by Hot 97 (where Hip-Hop lives), at Giant's Stadium (where Hip-Hop goes for summer vacation). In the last eight years, I've been to Summer Jam seven times. The one I missed was Nas' faux-lynching of Jigga, in which he didn't even make it onto the stage to perform. Every other year I've been there to see some amazing things. I saw Hov put Prodigy up on the screen in his dance outfit. I witnessed Fat Joe take over the stage with one beat when Lean Back dropped. I saw the crowd go wild when DMX snuck out with a towel on his head during a Ruff Ryder set. I saw the crowd almost explode when Kanye brought out Jay-Z during the debut of the Diamonds are Forever Remix. I've seen NWA reunite, Eminem in his prime (before he became Hip-Hop's Weird Al), Game throw his G-Unit chain into the crowd, Fifty call out R Kelly as a child molester, etc. The list goes on. And so with an eagerness to see hip-hop history yet again, as well as finally getting my summer into full gear, I returned to the home of the New York football Giants for Summer Jam 2008. Here's a recap.

We stopped off at the Vince Lombardi rest stop for Burger King and inadvertently missed Ray J and Yung Berg. I was looking forward to hearing Sexy Can I and Sexy Lady. I guess I'll just have to settle for hearing them on the sexy radio.

We got there just in time to see Dream come on. I like Dream. No homo. He did a quick three song set of Shorty is the Sh*t, Falsetto, and Luv Ur Girl. I wished I was there with a girl and not my brother. Luv Ur Girl got cut off half way through and Dream just walked off stage without waiting for any applause. Bobby Konders and Jabba came on and spun some Reggae and Samba records. I would have rather heard the rest of Dream and at least been able to give him a round of applause.

Thankfully, the show proceeded on schedule. An artist would perform followed by a small DJ set and another HOT 97 personality would introduce the next act.

Surprisingly it was Alicia Keys. I thought they would have saved her for later in the show. She came out to Ghetto Story and went into Teenage Love Affair. Maino came out and did Hi Hater. Alicia then went into Like You'll Never See Me Again and Where Do We Go from Here. Out of nowhere she brought out Raekwon. He did a verse of something, I think it was Heart to Heart because he started off by chanting "Do that sh*t, do that sh*t" but he could have just been getting ready to flow. Method Man came running out and the crowd went nuts. The two of them performed CREAM. The beat for Ice Cream dropped and Ghostface Killah came out and did his verse. Alicia Keys asked for a favor and Meth performed Method Man, jumping off the stage and running around in normal Meth style. The three Wu-Tang-ers bounced and Alicia went into No One. She also got cut short. And she looked FLY.

D-Block came out next. First it was only Sheek and Style and a third, linebacker looking dude. It could have been Jay-Hood if I knew what he looked like, or maybe just a hype man. He didn't spit his own verses, so I'm guessing the latter. They were introduced to the Mighty D-Block beat. The intros to All About the Benjamins and Wild Out played but no verses followed. They went into Kiss Your A$$ Goodbye and Styles did a verse of I Get High and Gangster Gangster. Red Cafe came out and they went into the Paper Touchin' Remix. Fat Joe, Jadakiss, and Fabolous all followed for their verses. Jadakiss and Styles did We Gone Make It. They threatened to take it back to the old school. Nature came out for Banned From TV and NORE rushed the stage for his verse too. The party was in full swing so Swizz Beatz came out and did Blow Ya Mind, Where the Cash At, and Money in the Bank. Sheek finished up with Good Love. Kid Capri was DJ-ing and dropped the beat for Rock the Bells. LL Cool J came out and did that and Head Sprung. He also told everyone not to sleep on him this year. He also had very manicured eyebrows. But he's a legend, so I'm not saying nothing.

T-Pain came out to 2 Step and put on a dancing show with his two boys. He can move for a big dude. He went into his verse of Kiss Kiss. Shawty Lo came out and did They Know. DJ Khalid came out and they went into I'm So Hood. Rick Ross came strutting out on stage like the boss
he is, with no shirt on and a gold chain of his own head. Khalid introduced Ace and he did Bankroll. Rick Ross hung around and they did Boss. The crowd went crazy. Akon came out and did the remix hook of We Taking Over with Rick Ross and Fat Joe showing up. Akon and T-Pain finished up with Bartender. As he was walking off stage, T-Pain told the crowd, "In the words of George Bush, f*@# y'all n****s, I'm out." That got a big laugh.

One of the acts I was most excited to see came next. Weezy F. Baby. He came out to A Milli. Told the audience there was three things he had to get off his chest. "One. I believe in God, do you? Two. I ain't sh*t without you. Three. I ain't sh*t without you." Shawty Lo came out again and Weezy did the his verse from They Know Remix. Playaz Circle came out for Duffle Bag Boy. Wayne did Cash Money Millionaire, Fireman, and Leather So Soft. Then it got weird. Weezy sat down with his guitar and started strumming for a while. He stopped and said if he wasn't your favorite rapper, he was going to do something your favorite rapper couldn't do. Then he launched into what I thought was a freestyle because I didn't recognize it as any song I've heard before, about the joys of...how do I put this, the original free lunch? "When I lick my top lip, I still taste you." Clear enough? I actually think it was an unreleased track called Pu$$y Monster. He did it over a pretty whack beat box from his boy. It also involved him taking his jewelry off and humping the ground. The girls liked it. I would have rather heard something new off the Carter 3. When that ended he finally went into Lollipop, the original and then Kanye came out for his verse on the remix. Kanye was dressed like he was ready for the beach and he was holding a suitcase. Weezy ended with the chorus of Whitney Houston's And I Will Always Love You. Gym Class Heroes never showed up as advertised. The whole set was strange and disappointing for me.

After Weezy, there was an announcement that there will be a special surprise performance after Public Enemy, so stick around. Angie Martinez was supposed to introduce the next act but she never showed up. We didn't know who was next until the stage rotated and a person dressed as a robot walked across to a spaced out version of the Diamonds Are Forever beat. I was surprised that Kanye was going on now, because he was billed as the headliner.

Kanye set was a lot like the one he did for the Glow-in-the Dark tour. He had a full band, with an orchestra. While he ditched the story-line aspect, everything was very dramatic and most of the beats were slightly altered. After Diamonds Are Forever, 'Ye went into Champion, Get Em High (in a strange, soundboard-altered deep voice), and Jesus Walks. He stopped to give a patented Kanye speech about being thankful but also that he was the number one artist in the world and that he was going to do his show the way he wanted even if people looked at him like he was crazy for doing Jesus Walks. I didn't see anybody who matched that description. I don't think it's as controversial anymore as he likes to believe. Homecoming came on next. Kanye brought out Consequence and they did The Good The Bad and The Ugly. Can't Tell Me Nothing came on and then Jeezy came out for Put On. He was wearing a F*@# Bush shirt. The beat for Flashing Lights dropped and Kanye did a little freestyle to it, about being at Summer Jam and then went into the song. A girl onstage reenacted the scene from the video by stripping off her jacket into lingerie, grabbing a shovel and walking off stage. Kanye did Stronger and then revealed that he was going back into the studio to work on some new music. He spit a new verse that was fire. I wish I could have caught some more of the punch lines but it had a lot to do with the numbers 1 and 11 in the beginning of it. T-Pain came back out and they did Good Life. Fireworks went off. It could have been due to just seeing him a few weeks ago, but I was expecting less theatrics and more hip-hop from the headliner. But I got nothing but love for Yeezy.

During the DJ set, they played Apache and had everyone did the dance from the Fresh Prince. I got my Raphael de la Ghetto on, yessir. Also during the intro they shouted out that it was time to make a change against things like 9/11, Katrina, and the Sean Bell case. It was clear Public Enemy was next.

A nine-year-old girl came out and asked how everyone felt about the Sean Bell verdict. The crowd booed. Not her, the verdict. She said you didn't really expect a guilty verdict, did you? She called out the cops behind it and the Diallo case. She said we gotta fight the power ourselves and Obama's not gonna change a thing. It was interesting to hear from such a young girl. Everyone was chanting Fight the Power. Flav came out and the crowd went bananas. They went right into the classics: Bring the Noise, Shut 'Em Down, 911's A Joke, Can't Truss It. Chuck D's still got it. He had the DJ cut a record old school style. Flav did a verse of Can't Do Nuttin For Ya Man. He gave a message of unity and warned against the Prison-Industrial Complex. Don't Believe the Hype came on. Chuck D said the truth will set us free and called out all radio stations that "with power comes responsibility." Fight the Power came on. Flav dedicated the show to those who passed away and people locked up. He was wearing boots he stole from Rikers Island. Chuck D reminded us that nobody owns hip-hop. R.I.P. Sean Bell and Amadou Diallo. They finished with Welcome to the Terrordome and a call for PEACE. Good to see some consciousness on the scene.

The special guest turned out to be Jim Jones. Since Rihanna was billed but never performed, it seemed like he was a last minute replacement. I'm not sure what track he came out to, but he brought out Juelz Santana to perform Dipset. Jim went into Baby Girl and Luv Me No More. He finished up with his verse from the Walk It Out Remix and We Fly High.

And that was Summer Jam '08. Not the best I've ever seen, but definitely worth the trip. Especially after I got that fresh new promo poster for the Carter 3 on my way out. Plus I got to kick summer off correct. As Jigga put it in Dear Summer, "Listen here baby, I just believe it's the right thing to do."

-doesn't Matt R

Kanye West performing

Akeys

Weezy