I have been waiting too long and too hard for tonight. I think I did a pretty good job of not thinking about April 19th too much for the last several weeks- otherwise, it'd have driven me crazy. Kanye plus Lupe plus N.E.R.D. (full squad in effect) plus a concert dubbed "Glow in the Dark"? AND I was to go backstage? AND I was to sit 4th row, dead center?
Hype kills.
My backstage "tour" consisted of a walk around the storage rooms backstage that lasted two minutes and thirty seven seconds. I did get to see N.E.R.D.'s dressing room and Rihanna messing around with her girls backstage- that was kinda cool. But for the rest of the two minutes, all I saw were crates and janitor closets (as shown in the photos below). But the waiting room did have popcorn chicken. Popcorn chicken is like the pope: you just can't do 'em wrong.
The first 10,000 people that walked in the door got Kanye's new book, Thank You and You're Welcome. Co-written by he and J. Sakiya Sandifer, this short book of "Kanye-isms" is nothing more than his take on proverbs and euphemisms. It's actually pretty good as a "just add water" solution for motivational literature. Cool that he gave it out for free. Not cool that I bought this in October and it still hasn't shipped to me.
Lupe the Punctual came out at 7PM sharp- which was awesome because this was a 5-hr concert. He did about 6 songs- all really good. Matt Santos came out Nikkie Jean (made famous by THIS YouTube video) who sings the hook on "Hip Hop Saved My Life" to do a few songs which was great. Lupe sounded great live, and he knew his stuff. Did I mention he's got the best CD of 2008 so far???
N.E.R.D. came out 20 minutes later, AND STRAIGHT TORE DOWN THE HOUSE. Definitely one of the best live performers I've seen in a while. Played only the greats- Backseat Love, She Wants to Move, Brain, Rock Star- as well as this one song I *think* is called "You're So Anti You Don't Matter" off their upcoming album, Seeing Sounds. I can already imagine that phrase being abused. But let me abuse it first. James Levy- you're so anti you don't even matter. Check it out down below.
Rihanna was next. She was boring.
Then BD comes and sits right behind us! It was awesome! At 6'1", I was glad he was behind and not in front. Check out his pic in the photos link.
James wrote this e-mail to Kanye after (not me, I wouldn't do that shit):
Dear Kanye,
You've been branded as an "over the top-er", settling for "nothing but the best" and always having to be "number 1". Knowing that and what a masterpiece Graduation was, I dropped $300 on this, and I'm disappointed.
Shit was just unorganized, man. Don't be telling into your mic for your production manager to turn up the beat when you can't hear it- not especially dearing "Hey Mama"- then pretend to get emotional when all you were doing was trying to catch the hook. You looked really unprofessional when you're all looking to the side about what to do. I heard last night you called Sacramento "Seattle" three times. Your "state of the art" visuals were terrible- the images were stock photos, right? Pixelated and unoriginal. Not ONE costume change? Especially when you looked like you were in the 4th quarter after 3 songs? I can tell you were getting pretty mad toward the end of the concert, but cutting out the encore was really shitty, man. Rehearse more.
Thanks,
James
More videos HERE
More pictures HERE
