Ludacris joined Janet Jackson as a special guest for her Live Nation produced 33-city Together Again tour across North American arenas and amphitheaters.
A sold-out show touched down at Enterprise Center on Sunday, April 30.
She kept it simple and minimal for a diva, but her simplicity underscored her elegance and beauty.
23 years ago, Ludacris burst onto the rap scene with his studio debut album “Incognegro,” which spun the explicit steamy single, “What’s Your Fantasy,” going in depth about sexual desires and needs with Shawna assisting as a featured artist.
The Champaign, Illinois-born, Atlanta-raised former DJ turned rapper has achieved a lot of success since his musical introduction to the world. He’s now a record label executive, the founder and CEO of Disturbing Tha Peace (DT) where St. Louis’ own Chingy was once signed. He’s also an actor, entrepreneur and philanthropist.
Ludacris may be this multifaceted multi-hyphenate mogul today, but that hasn’t stopped him from continuing to pour into his first love—music.
When the tour was first announced last December several people questioned why Ludacris was the chosen opening act for the tour. Sunday he showed that he was the right fit.
Dressed in all black, looking very chiseled and cut, he wore a tank top, leather shorts and tights, and donned a more tamed version of the afro displayed on his sophomore album, “Word of Mouf.”
Original DTP member and rapper Lil Fate joined Ludacris on stage as his hypeman and right hand man during a pumped up and very lit set of Luda’s classic southern hits and pop chart singles.
“All my ladies if you feel sexy tonight, if you came here tonight and you know damn well you gon sweat yo weave out I need y’all to sing this [expletive] quickly,” Luda demanded while transitioning to “Splash Waterfalls.” Surprisingly, he didn’t incorporate the Raaphel Saadiq remix into the song.
He tapped into the crunk era with “Lovers and Friends,” which Lil Jon also performed at his recent show in St. Louis on Thursday, April 27, at The Armory. He showed the ladies lots of love with “Pimpin All Over The World,” shouted out all the independent women in the building with his feature on Fergie’s “Glamorous,” and praised all the bad chicks in Da Lou with “My Chick Bad.”
Of course it wouldn’t be a Ludacris set without twerk favorites “How Low,” and “Moneymaker.”
He reminded us of the days when fights broke out during the early ‘00s with his aggressively direct anthem “Move [Expletive],” featuring I-20 and Mystikal.
When his DJ felt the crowd was lacking energy he jokingly shaded there weren’t any real Luda fans in the house but Luda assured him there were. To prove they were there he dug out “What’s Your Fantasy,” and everyone in the arena went crazy.
But the real golden moments of his set were when he walked around in the ridiculously huge Nike Air Force 1s he wore in the “Stand Up,” video and snapped on his enormous fake bicep from the “Get Back,” video. It was cool to see Luda snap into that era when he was not only playful with his wordplay and metaphors, but he was animated and larger than life in his music videos. Something he, Missy Elliot, and Busta Rhymes have each mastered.
Jackson’s performance included moving parts. The first change was a large black platform planted in the center of the stage for Jackson and her four male background dancers.
She walked on stage in a purple floor-length hooded cape and then tossed it off and strutted her stuff in a gold shoulder-padded jumpsuit with a purple waistband belt, and gold thigh-high Christian Louboutin boots.
Her long weave ponytail flowed effortlessly as she danced her heart out in the crispest, cleanest, dance numbers for movement-driven classics spanning from the 80s to today.
She may be 56, but “Ms. Jackson If You Nasty,” has surely still got it with the moves and her notable sex appeal.
Known for her more delicate, softer vocals compared to her fellow counterparts of the same era, she displayed that sometimes less is more and singing doesn’t always mean yelling.
She sounded just as great, if not better and more controlled, than she did 30 years ago when she debuted her game changing album, “Control.”
This show included a lot of lesser known Janet songs. It was more of a tour for the true ride-or-die Janet fans who’ve been there in every chapter of her career.
There were other dynamic stage rearrangements including the platform being removed and replaced with four blocks each on the side of the stage and one where a large sphere was added on center stage to keep the visuals interesting.
Janet had three costume changes, much fewer than past shows. One of the outfits she changed into was a black and white stripe top with black slacks and the last change was into a crop top with her song “Rhythm Nation” printed across the chest. She kept it simple and minimal for a diva, but her simplicity underscored her elegance and beauty.
She performed 40 hits including “Pleasure Principle,” “Control,” “All for You” “Anytime, Any Place,” “I Get So Lonely,” and more.
As the title of the tour suggests, she closed her St. Louis performance with “Together Again.”
