The last time there was a major tour across the US that featured a west coast bill was back in 2001 with the Up In Smoke tour. That tour was at the time, the greatest show that I ever attended. So since I heard that Tha Doggfather would be back in town, I made sure that I would get my hands on some tickets.
Driving to the show on a Thursday night in the middle of the rush hour started to put a damper on the night. I was running late for the show and I thought I was going to miss half of the opening act; The Game.
The Game's set seemed short and sweet. Performing his usual hits from "Westside Story" and "Higher" to "Dreams". The set went along smoothly, but not everyone in the crowd was into it, which annoyed The Game. So, he managed get the crowd going with a now typical 2Pac and Biggie dedication before the beat to "Hate It Or Love It" began soon after the DJ cut it right off to allow The Game to talk about G-Unit and that he couldn't perform his two big hits. The crowd seemed upset, but the way to turn it around, would be crowd participation to do the 50 Cent verses of his two singles. While he was performing the two singles The Game went on to run his mouth as he started screaming out "F*ck G-Unit", "F*ck Ja Rule, Irv Gotti, and all of Murder Inc", and he also mentioned two other names that actually caught me off guard because The Game finished off his set screaming "F*ck Joe Budden, and f*ck Memph Bleek." Although the set seemed short, he was actually on stage for around 45 minutes.
Next up of course was Snoop Dogg and by the end of the night I thought I was back in 1992. Snoop put on a beautiful show performing his classics "Nuthin But A Thang", "Tha Shiznit", "Who Am I", having opened with "Murder Was A Case". Tha Doggfather was in control of the stage. Even though he had me hooked, the same couldn't be said for the crowd, who stood around with their mouths shut.
During over an hour long set, there were a few intermissions to view the video screens; an appearance by DJ EZ Dick from WBALLZ. That helped transition the show because not only was Snoop the only one on stage for the set, we were treated to a Dogg Pound reunion! The DPG reunion wasn't the only performance by Snoop's posse as the Lady Of Rage came out to perform "Afro Puffs". She was hyped up, but the crowd wasn't because they couldn't even hear her. Her mic wasn't even on! And the last one out of the camp to perform was Oowee who received a poor reception.
Snoop then was back on stage to continue into his bag of old school classics, "Aint No Fun", "Xxplosive" (Kurupt solo), "Beautiful", and "Deep Cover". Towards the end of the set, Snoop only performed two songs from his latest release and those were the songs that he closed out the show with. "Let's Get Blown" over the "Wait" beat from the Ying Yang Twinz and finished it up with "Drop It Like It's Hot."
Overall, it was a good show as The Game and Snoop did their best to bring out energy from the crowd, but the crowd responded poorly. Everyone was just standing there like they didn't want to be there, and if you're not going to rap along why go to the show?
