3rd Degree consists of some pretty sexually frustrated guys who didn't get selected to be in the already overly-sexual group Pretty Ricky. Little singing was involved in their set, but a lot of grinding on the stage and slithering to the ladies in the crowd with their tongues. Then they violated the hell out of this girl in a "bedroom only" lap dance on stage. I literally LOL’d! I put my headphones back on after that, hoping I could hear anything else over their performance. I was really hoping I did NOT pay 15 bucks for this crap.
Once Corey Bapes came on the stage, a vast majority of Cleveland area folks hopped out of their seats and started bouncing around the aisles. You could tell from the performance that he is highly loved in Cleveland. But he and his hypemen should’ve stayed in Cleveland, because they were not worth my money. Maybe like a dollar out of the total 15. He earned a buck because it was nice to see the crowd get hype to “Bitch, It's the Corey B!” Plus his delivery was nothing less than crunk. Many seats were still empty, yet the air was filled with the scent of sweaty and stinky pits after his performance.
After a great opening from his DJ/MC Jasmine Solano, the highly anticipated Wiz Khalifa came out singing “So Long” with the crowd. Small glitches and a miscommunication between he and the DJ began killing Wiz’s high and the crowd’s drunkenness. When he performed “Say Yeah,” I couldn't even hear him rap his own lyrics over the sweaty crowd emulating them. Neither could he. So he said fuck it, and started dancing on stage. His delivery was on-point once the crowd got to actually hear him from there on out. Most of the stuff he performed was off his mix tapes, and it ended up that the crowd unable to sing with him. Overall, it was worth 6 of my fifteen.
J-Cole stepped out to a very hesitant crowd. After his opening song -- with its crazy lyrical delivery and charm -- the crowd crept closer. A couple of blends later (Kanye’s “Cheers to the Roc” and Jay-Z’s “Dead Presidents”), he had the crowd, especially the hip-hop crowd, rocking with him. His next song “Losing your Balance” lost the hype of the crowd, with the intense conscious rap song killing the buzz of the crowd that was ready to party. It was actually a pretty good set, but the crowd grew restless and began yelling “Where's Mario?” At this point you couldn't blame them with the rest of the misleading opening acts for Mario. Out of the 15 bucks for this concert, he was worth 6 bucks because he didn’t back down to the audience’s request for sex-craved, booty-shaking music and held his own as a real hip-hop emcee.
The intermissions were the best part of the show! Random appearances by 3rd Degree, who humped the stage more than Shakira humps everything else. I really hope the TBAMA staff sterilized the stage after this concert, or else whoever steps on the stage will endure a sticky situation. It was a joy to see the drunken dance battles in the audience as well.
Once Mario got on stage, almost every female began screaming until her esophagus fell out. OK, maybe not all that, but it was definitely loud. His claim to “Re-do Valentine’s Day” definitely happened. His singing was great, the song selection was spot-on and the near-sex scene was baniddles! Sorry LL, the ladies love Mario now. He managed to address mishaps throughout his career, including his videos that have been filled with lighter skinned Black women, so he sang his new song w/ Lil’ Jon and R. Kelly called “Chocolate Girls.” He also sang happy birthday to someone, too! To continue itemizing my receipt for this performance, he was worth the rest of the bill.
Overall though, I could’ve kept my tail home. There was no real line-up to this concert, instead it was a random group of musicians put together by an organization that I’m pretty confident made this line-up just to make some money. There was no theme in this concert whatsoever, and the atmosphere of each artist was thrown off by the different crowds that was there for a certain artist.
-Star Watson, Staff Writer
haha I love the method of breakdown for this review. Your attentiveness to honest details made me feel like I was there... and part of me wish I made the effort to go to this.
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