November 07, 2007 @ 4:41 pm

Ghostface, Rakim, Brother Ali: All the Way Live

Peter Relic

VIBE's LA correspondent Peter Relic reviews the Hip Hop Live tour; Ghostface administers some life advice.

It's an hour before the Hip Hop Live tour kicks off, and Ghostface Killah is making no move towards acknowledging that he's due on stage soon. Seated in a dim room upstairs at the Hollywood House of Blues, Ghost responds to a query about the exemplary crimson-and-green custom wallabees he's rocking to match his leather jacket: "No one has more style than me! Kanye? No. Slick Rick is the only one, I give it up for Slick Rick." Asked if the title of his forthcoming album The Big Doe Rehab is a sign that he still has Amy Winehouse on the brain, and Ghost says: "Nah. Most my album titles derive from a concept, but this one just came to me so I figured I'd go with it." And then, in inimitable Ghostface fashion, he launches into a utterly unprompted non sequitur: "You know if you a single mother out there, you probably go out to the club once a month and bring home a man. Well that's twelve different men a year. What is that? You wake up in the morning, you should be cooking for your children but you give them sugar cereal and they become diabetics. Women, cook for your kids. And men, stop beating your womens. They're a reflection of you."

Later in the evening, Ghost will deliver a hit-packed set, ranging from the Cuban Linx classic "Ice Cream" to "Back Like That" (with a girl pulled from the crowd singing Neyo's part) and a version of "Shimmy Shimmy Ya" that Ghost prefaces by saying, "I kiss Dirty's photograph every day and cry." Starting off the night however, is Brother Ali, riding the heatwave from his breakout album The Undisputed Truth, and a significant percentage of the people in the building seem to be Ali fans ("Ali Boom-ba-yay!" shouts one). In his garish yellow track suit, the Minnesotan is a formidable presence, but what makes him endearing is his self-effacement (not sure he had to flash his gut to make a point about being overweight, though). "Yo, these stage lights don't be good for an albino," he shouts, before launching into the Bush-bashing smash "Uncle Sam Goddamn." The house band for the night, the Rhythm Roots All-Stars, is a ten-piece funk band whose competent delivery is more Paul Schaeffer than JB's, and by the time Ali closed with his overlong sing-a-long "Forest Whitiker" it was tempting to take him up on that song's refrain: "You don't have to love me."

Ghostface came next, and as anyone who's ever witnessed a Wu affiliate show knows, the stage was immediately swamped with clowns. White boy from Theodore Unit seemed to log as much mic time as Ghost, although he actually came kinda nice on More Fish's less-than-magnanimous standout track "Greedy Bitches." But the contrast between Ghost's overpopulated stage show and the night's closer was stark. While the crowd seemed to thin somewhat before Rakim came on, the faithful were not disappointed. Before the show Rakim had responded to a question about his aborted album with Dr. Dre, saying: "We didn't know how far apart our approaches was until we actually tried to put them together." Pressed about exactly what that meant, Ra admitted: "Dre wanted me to talk about shooting guns and I didn't want to do that. And I know people wouldn't want me to do that." Looking fit and in fine voice, Ra went straight into his classics, bookending "Don't Sweat The Technique" with "Lyrics of Fury" and "Follow The Leader." Although Ra seemed unable to come up with a fresh between-song adlib ("Nahmean, we gone keep it poppin'" he said every friggin' time) it remained refreshing to witness an MC who's still never had to raise his voice in order to retain his tone of authority.

Hip Hop Live Tour Dates:

November 7 - Park City, UT - Harry O's
November 8 - Denver, CO - Ogden Theatre
November 9 - Aspen, CO - Belly Up
November 10 - Kansas City, MO - The Beaumont Theatre
November 11 - Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue
November 12 - Chicago, IL - House of Blues
November 13 - Bloomington, IN - Bluebird Theater
November 15 - New Haven, CT - Toad's Place
November 16 - New York, NY - Nokia Theatre
November 17 - Baltimore, MD - Sonar
November 18 - Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
November 21 - Philadelphia, PA - Trocadero
For more info on the Hip Hop Live Tour click on their site here. Exclusive concert footage av­ailable free at Flow TV. ­

Article tags: Brother Ali, Ghostface Killah, Rakim 

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