Thug Life Army

Rap artist Eminem and his third installment of the Anger Management tour touched down in NYC Monday night for the first of two concerts. This year’s tour had a much different feel than the ones before it. Anger Management 3 was the first tour to be a fully Hip-Hop event that had the whole Shady/G-Unit in the house at Madison Square Garden.

That is with the exception of Lil Jon and that Eastside Boyz who opened the show up with guest appearances by Lil Scrappy and Pitbull. The set was real good and kept what there was of a crowd on there feet. Of course you got the many signature “What’s!” & “OK’s!” from Lil Jon while they performed songs like “Get Low” and “Aww Skeet Skeet. The highlight of the set judging from crowd reaction had to be when Pitbull performed “Gasolina”.

The intermission before the next set got the crowd uneasy and even booing at times. There was about a 20 minute intermission followed by about 15 minutes of stage problems before 50 Cent and the G-Unit crew hit the stage. 50 came in flying from above the stage and right into the Song “What up Blood”. Young Buck came out and the two performed “Shorty Wanna Ride”. The group continued to come out in solo fashion until all of G-Unit was on stage supporting each other, even Olivia.

Olivia’s set was interesting for those that have said that “Magic Stick” and “Candy Shop” sound the same. When you get to see it performed live there is no doubt how alike the two are. When performed back to back they almost flowed into each other interrupted. The set continued with more of a 50 Cent show that put his ego on blast more than anything.

One of the highlights of the show for me and one of the biggest reactions from the crowd came when Mobb Deep took the stage to perform a few of their hits like “Hell on Earth”. It was great to see Mobb in NYC performing like we all know they can. But, it was disappointing to see that the G-Unit lifestyle has already gotten the best of them. It’s not a good look for the Mobb Deep we all remember form mid 90’s. When I think of the old Mobb Deep I think ‘Street’ and ‘Keeping It Real’ type of cats. So I surprised to see them flossing Glittery T-shirts with big glittery G’s on the back and it got worse when they came back out for the second track wearing bullet proof vests of the same fashion. The disappointing feeling really hit home when they did that played out G-G-G-G-Unit chant.

What 50 performance would be finished without a little trash talking? 50 asked the crowd “if you f*ck with 50 Cent let me hear you scream G-Unit”, and some did. Then he asked the crowd “if you don’t f*ck with 50 Cent let me hear you scream G-Unot”, and some did. 50 was definitely surprised by the response which was a shot at his big over inflated head. He told all those that screamed G-Unot that it was OK, “just go buy Games album and make me richer.” Not surprising seeing how every free minute of time between acts the big screens on either side of the stage was flooded with commercials for all of his projects whether it was his shoes, watches, video game, movie or even vitamin water.

The set finished up with appearances by Spider Loc of G-Unit West, Busta Rhymes, Mase and the whole G-Unit crew performing with MOP. A blunt session while performing the track “Ante Up” that got the Garden rocking.

The best part of the show no doubt had to be Eminems performance. In keeping with the theme of Encore the whole show involved the story of Em killing himself and taking the crowd with him. He performed many of his hit songs from all of his albums. His set was nothing but a wall of doors that stood three stories tall and at times looked like a distorted fun house.

During his performance of “Mosh” there was George Bush hanging out on stage and the whole crowd joined in the lyrics of “F*CK BUSH” real loud. Eminem then addressed all the tabloids and the garbage that they publish especially the topic of Eminem retiring. It didn’t sound like that would be happening anytime soon. He also took that opportunity to take shots a Britney Spears and as he said Kevin Faggotline. Moving onto Mariah Carey and that rumor and leading into “Puke” while vomiting into a toilet bowl on stage.

The whole crowd was very into the performance of “Toy Soldiers” and them Eminem tested the crowd with a game of finish this verse taking it back to some old Hip-Hop. Playing with tracks like Slick Ricks “La Di Da Di”, Biz Markies “Just a Friend” and rapping it up with a real crowd pleaser “Nothin’ But a ‘G’ Thang”.

D12 took the stage performing all their singles from “40 oz.” to “My Band” and more. Bizzare got solo shot to perform his new single “Rockstar” after kicking the whole crew off the stage. Obie trice came on afterwards to perform a few of his tracks the most notable his single “Got some teeth” He was then joined on the stage by the newest artist on the roster Stat Quo. Stat Quo was some what of a crowd killer in this spot because not many fans really know what he is about.

Em finished his set off by giving a shout out to his DJ Alchemist, Stat Quo and all the others that survived the bus crash a few weeks ago. When Eminem told the crowd that he wanted to get serious it was hard to take him seriously and rightfully so. He wanted to publicly apologize to Michael Jackson. Oh boy, here we go! Em continued by saying that he wanted to say sorry and that he did not mean to offend Jackson in any way. When some of the crowd cheered for Jackson that is when Eminem reminded them that Jackson had gotten his video removed from BET. The whole time he was talking Eminem worked his way to the highest balcony on the set, turned around wearing a surgeon’s mask and dangling a baby over the balcony before dropping it. He then proceeded to drop about 10 babies over the balcony and toss them into the crowd one by one. A good souvenir for some because it appeared that each baby was well tagged up with autographs.

All in all the show was very good. At points there was definitely too much down time but that is to be expected with such a big line up. The show seemed to have extra effort put into all angles because it was being taped for a Showtime special. It was my first time seeing Lil Jon live so that was a highlight and he definitely gives a good performance, Pitbull as well. G-Unit well that was just another G-Unit show and if you seen one you have seen them all. Eminem will never get boring when it comes to a live audience because he knows how to keep you hooked. There is always the right amount of Music, Comedy and fun when Eminem hits the stage and you won’t walk away disappointed. I hope that he was serious about the retirement rumor because I look forward to more concerts and Anger Management tours.