What will go down in music history as 2008: a Hip-Hop Oddesy, Kanye West's traveling road show known as "Glow in the Dark Tour," featuring Lupe Fiasco, NERD, and Rihanna hit New York City last night for a jaw dropping event. Most hip-hop concerts usually have the same formula to them, the rapper or MC gets in front of his or her DJ and just rhymes over beats spinning in the back. It is how everyone from Atmosphere to Jay-Z has done it and made a career out of it. For most its similar to watching a slam poetry reading rather than a concert. Yet, not since Outkast were touring together, has someone stepped in and decided to change the face and game of a hip-hop concert. Kanye West and Co. took the bar and raised it higher than anyone has ever done before with "Glow in the Dark."Jumping on stage first was Kaye protegee Lupe Fiasco. His mix of skate-rap and rock worked perfect and the young man was able to show off how intense and talented he really is with his fierce live set. Playing songs mainly off his latest The Cool, Lupe created a fiasco when he went back and did track off his debut breakthrough Food and Liquor. While many arrived early to see him perform "Superstar," his die hard fans had their arms up waving the whole time for is deeper cuts. Lupe brought on Matthew Santos to do three songs with him, including "Superstar," and as most thought his set was done, he closed with "Daydream" from Food and Liquor and set the energy and tone for the night. Lupe would later join his road mates NERD and Kanye in special guest appearances durring their sets.
After a 15 minute intermission NERD were up to say hello again to a live New York audience. It has been nearly four years since we last heard of Pharell Williams and Chad Hugo (aka The Neptune's) side project; yet they proved they are back and better. NERD sounds like The Roots on acid, combining space sounds mixed with soul, funk, jazz and hard rock, they shook Madison Square Garden like Korn did back in 2002. Playing a majority of songs from their first record In Search of.., the only track they broke out from 2004's Fly or Die was "She Wants to Move." With their untitled forthcoming release in June, NERD debuted new songs to New York. As the songs were very well received, it was the bands latest single "Everybody Nose," that had MSG really going for it, but it was their show closer a cover of The White Stripes "Seven Nation Army," that had the crowd not only surprised but invigorated. As their set ended and equipment was being carried off stage, Pharell jumped into the audience to embrace his fans and say "Thank You." Something many musician's today do not care to do very often today.
Next up was 2007's favorite artist and the only female on this tour, Rihanna. As she got off to a rocky start as far as sound goes, her stage show had everyone curious and entertained. Coming out in a black wedding gown and backed by dominatrix dancers that resembled The Gimp from Pulp Fiction, the Barbados's beauty was able to find herself comfortable three songs into her set. The comfort came when she did a medly between her song "Pon-de-replay," and crossed it with MIA's "Paper Planes," and Lauren Hill's "Doo-Wop (That Thing)." As she performed hit after hit, her show stopper was her swan song, "Umbrella; halfway through her "Umbrella," her beau Chris Brown took the stage to surprise the audience to do a duet to the Cinderella-Umbrella remix.
After great openers and performances, as if the night could not get any better- it did! Kanye took concert going to new heights performing a concept concert of a man who has flown into outer space and his ship has crash landed on an unknown planet. With his stage looking like the surface of Mars, he was joined by HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey and dressed as Luke Skywalker, Kanye proved to be hip-hop's greatest and most creative visionary. Each song was not just played, but was the storyline as if it were a Broadway musical to progress the idea of a man lost in space. Playing a majority of songs from Graduation, he was able to incorporate his biggest hits into this storyline of a man searching for his way home. Playing a fair amount of songs from both College Dropout and Late Registration, West showed how to really put on a concert. Equipt with a pit orchestra, pyro, smoke machines and even a floating alien, Kanye shined as he Glowed in the Dark. Eventually his ship would find its way back home, in concert terms we call this the encore. Opening his second set with "Homecoming," and then dedicating a special portion of the show to his mother Dr Donda West, who unexpectedly passed away last fall. His mother would be proud to have seen her son play a sold out Madison Square Garden for the first time in his career. It is safe to say Kanye's ship has landed and his reign will not be ending on our planet any time soon.