The unfortunate fact is that following up to Lil’ Wayne and T. Pain’s elaborate presentation for the I Am Music Tour at Chaifetz last month made the T.I. and Ludacris’ offering to fans by way of the “Swagger Like Us Tour” seem ordinary at best.
The concert was tied in to the 100.3 The Beat’s 10-year anniversary and featured local acts like Yung Ro, UnLadyLike, Lil’ Shorty and Vic Damone featuring Bradd Young. Overall, the show in itself was not necessarily anything worth celebrating. After the locals did their thing, ‘The Swagger Like Us Tour’ was a scaled down presentation that kicked off with opening acts Murphy Lee and Jim Jones. The crowd was scaled down as well on Thursday night, probably between 3,000-5,000 compared to Wayne’s nearly sold-out show.
Between Murph’s technical difficulties and Jones’ stage presence difficulties the show got off to a bad start. But, even amidst the hot mics and buzz from the speakers, Murphy Lee showed why he’s one of the hottest locals among St. Louis’ currently lukewarm national rap scene status with his freestyle.
Jim Jones might as well have been on his front porch or at a backyard barbecue. He did little more than stand around on stage and talk with his crew, while performing a few snippets from his limited catalog of music in between. He popped bottles and attempted to get the crowd hype, but Jones wasn’t working with much. His exit was probably more of a relief to fans eagerly waiting to see the main attractions.
Ludacris, who seems to be best as a guest on other artists’ tracks than his own music, was first at bat.
The scenery was basic – a DJ and a few lights with a hype man. But during his set he managed to showcase the potential that often comprehensively absent from his CDs. But the star of Luda’s show was his lady sidekick Shawna. As a surprise guest, she rhymed with meticulous precision and speed – resembling her fellow Chicago native Twista.
T.I. took the stage shortly afterwards and again there were absolutely no frills, but his stage presence made up for the lack of special effects. His show was noticeably longer than Ludacris’ stage time, which allowed for him to deliver favorites from his debut all the way through is current release Paper Trail.
He worked up a sweat while performing hits such as “Beats Down Low” and “What You Know About That” and flipped the script to show his softer side to the ladies with “Why You Wanna Go and Do That” and show closer “Whatever You Like.”
T.I.’s performance continued well into midnight – which would have been dramatically reduced had he passed on the interludes, narration and rambling about his haters.
As one of the last performances before he heads to prison, it wasn’t the most memorable for T.I. But fans were probably still grateful considering that he is still grinding despite his personal drama and St. Louis will be among the last audiences before serving his sentence.
