“Who wants to see the shirt come off? Ladies?” Photos by .
name has been on the tip of a lot of hip-hop tongues lately. The latest 50 Cent release, “Get Money,” implies that ..’s lack of jail time for his 2007 illegal gun possession charge was a little light considering the offense. Curtis (50) raps that all signs point to Clifford’s (T.I.) buy-out of his own jail time. And this beef, among other rumors of ..’s life and whereabouts, was the focal point of Thursday’s show at the
and posse in tow, T.I. arrived on stage to a greatly undersold venue but a gracious crowd awaiting his appearance. Jumping quickly through less-than-a-minute-long renditions of “Top Laid Back,” “Rubberband Man,” and the ATL soundtrack hit “Ride Wit Me,” ..’s interest was in preaching the truth about his life as of late, rather than actually spitting any good rhymes.
In between snippets, T.I. addressed rumors that he was sentenced to jail for 30 years (again, a reference to the gun possession incident at the BET awards), that he had committed suicide and that he had been snitchin’ (another rumor related to his miniscule one-year sentence.) While these were all viable topics, I was disappointed by how much show time was spent listening to him talk.
T.I. mimed his way through “Da Dopeman” and “You Don’t Know Me” with his signature smirk, leaning back with his driving arm in the air, cruising the stage and winking at his adoring crowd. Acknowledging the obvious female admiration, T.I. stated that his shirt would be removed for the duration of the show. He followed through with the shirt removal promise, and by then asked the female audience, “If your bra and panties are the same color, make some noise!” Apparently, there were many matching sets of undergarments in the house for the evening.
Now shirtless and gleaming, T.I. laid out half-full versions of “Letap Get Away,” the Crystal Waters’-sampled “Why You Wanna,” and dropped some verses over Usher’s latest Top 20 jam, “Love in This Club,” beckoning the women in the audience with his shameless smile and irresistibly thuggish manner. At this point in the show, I noticed I was standing in the spontaneously designated grinding section of the crowd, as couples freaking to the beats suddenly surrounded me. Thankfully, the dry-hump vibe was broken up by ..’s explosive and best performance of the night, the Jay-Z duet “Bring Em’ Out.”
Even though he continued to litter the show with exhausting banter about eminent beef, T.I. managed to hold it down, highlighted by full performances of “No Matter What” and “Big Things Poppin’.”
He played a few seconds of a UGK track and showed love to the recently deceased Pimp C, also playing parts of the Tupac’s “All Eyez on Me” and the B.I.G. classic “Juicy.” I found it odd that he didn’t rap on any of the tracks, instead just having Drama play them while he paced the stage.
The finale was the biggest disappointment, with T.I. playing a new track off of his upcoming release, “Paper Trail,” tossing his arms up and down and lip-synching, instead of actually performing song. Needless to say, I was content just to stare at T.I. for the hour-long performance. Who needs a live rap show when you’ve got a hot shirtless man whose pants are already halfway off standing in front of you instead?
is a Denver-based writer and regular Reverb contributor. Check out her and .
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