School's Out!

Students have more than the end of the school year to celebrate. On Friday June 16, 2006, at the Gibson Amphitheater, Ray J kicked off his “School’s Out Tour”. Joined by Trey Songz and friends, the concert was sure to be a hit. As fans milled through the Universal Studios lot, beautiful girls and hot guys weren’t the only distractions. Local radio stations got concertgoers hyped before they even entered the arena.

Power 106 D.J., Sour Milk represented on the one’s and two’s. KISS FM was in the building as well as Latin 96.3. The U.S. Army pitched a tent at the entrance where they took names for a raffle. The prize was for a trip to any place in the world.

As I took my seat in the orchestra section, I was surprised that the theater was less than half full. The crowd was still filing in, and the NB Ridaz were on stage performing their heavily rotated single, “Something About these Pretty Girls,” complete with the Roger Troutman voice synthesizer. NB Ridaz call their sound, "Latino Hip Hop Ballads". But the ballads sound more to me like Reggaeton on a respirator. Nevertheless, they had some effect on the crowd, especially when they brought out their ace-in-the-hole, singer Angelina. She gracefully carried the group through their last few songs. She possessed a powerful voice and brought the crowd to life with songs like, “I Wanna Run Away With You.”

Next up was somewhat of a surprise to me. The self proclaimed King of Virginia, Trey Songz, a young up and coming R&B artist stole the show. His whiny rhythmic vocals were reminiscent of a young R-Kelly. The range and content of his songs made the girls squirm. The major surprise was that I’d been listening to a lot of his work and did not realize the extreme amount of star quality he possesses. Thank god I was there, because it was all I needed to see. That night I was on the web trying to download the shit out of his album. When he preformed he did it with confidence. He rocked some of his hit songs like, “"Girl Tonite," and “I Don’t Wanna Leave.” He ended his set by taking off his shirt (revealing a less than manly body), tearing it into four pieces, and throwing it into four sections of the crowd. Talk about confidence.

Finally the headliner took the stage. Ray J had a semi-hard act to follow. He brought his new artist, Shorty Mac on stage to be his hype man. He kicked off his performance with a single from his first album, minus one Lil Kim, “Wait A Minute.” He then took the time out to shout out his sister, Brandy, who was front and center. His set was energized, but it was littered with way too many throwback hits from the West Coast rappers like Snoop and Tupac. I guess this was his ploy to engage the LA crowd with some familiar songs–since many people, such as myself, would enjoy much more singing along with a song we know instead of dancing to one we don’t. He gave us a few cuts off of his latest CD, Raydation, but overall his set wasn’t that long. He closed it out asking his fans for their prayers. Apparently his grandmother was recently diagnosed with cancer. He saved his hit song, “One Wish,” to follow up that bit of bad news. With lighters flickering throughout the arena, the entire crowd sang along.

At this point I thought the show was over, but boy was I wrong. Dirty South’s T-Pain took the stage with two of his label mates. He serenaded the crowd by playing piano and singing a nice ballad. After the spotlight was removed, the lights went up and they cut to hits like, “I’m Sprung,” I’m In Luv (With a Stripper)”. As if that wasn't enough, the entire crowd went nuts when he hit them with that latest banger, “U and Dat,” less E-40 and Kandi.

Just when I thought the night couldn’t get any better, they unleashed the Kings of ‘finga poppin, Dem Franchize Boys. The whole arena, which by this time had gained a few more heads, leaned with it and rocked with it. Their performance was super charged and packed with party energy. The group was hype and the dancing was wild, just like in the videos. Unfortunately, they were short one member. Word on the streets is the forth member, Maurice "Parlae" Gleaton, was arrested during a drug raid in Atlanta a few days prior. Well, he sure missed one hell-of-a show. Keep ya head up homie.