MC Breed goes to jail...the show must go on with Weezy Baby!!!!

Show goes on without M C Breed; Lil Wayne: hardcore rap for the thinking man at Flint concert

Stuart Bauer The Flint JournalLil Wayne performs Thursday night at Perani Arena in Flint. The rap star had the crowd on its feet and dancing through much of his hour-long set. Flint -- It's telling that promoters for Thursday's Lil Wayne concert at Flint's Perani Arena took to the stage just after the start of nearly a dozen opening acts, assuring the crowd that the New Orleans rapper was in the building (he wasn't, yet) and would be taking the stage later on.
It was a necessary move for a town that's been severely snakebit in the past by big-name hip-hop artists who either no show or cancel at the last minute.
So even after the reassurance -- to say nothing of the no-show by MC Breed, who was jailed hours before the show -- there was a note of uncertainty when the audience began chanting for "Weezy!", Lil Wayne's secondary moniker, around 9:30 p.m.
All that tension made for an explosive reception when the dreadlocked and heavily tattooed rapper bounded on stage just after 10 p.m.
From the beginning Weezy and his full stage entourage tore right into the bass-heavy raps of hits like "Get That Money" and "Duffle Bag Boy" that gave fans lots of chances to chant along and even rap entire bars of lyrics when the DJ cut the music out.
Seeing Wayne live gave an interesting view into what's made him one of the most popular rappers of the last decade, beginning as a member of Hot Boys and the Cash Money Records cadre.
While he's undeniably a rapper in the skittering bass dirty south tradition, his lack of drawl lets him move into other areas seamlessly. In stretches Thursday he transitioned from the R&B groove of "You" to the poignant tragedy of "Leather So Soft" to a startlingly clever but profane ode to the female anatomy.
While Gloria Steinem is probably no fan, Wayne manages the challenging trick of appreciating women, often objectifying them, but staying just shy of outright misogyny. All the while, it's something both sexes can't help but dance to.
The mixed race crowd -- split almost evenly between white and black with ages mostly in the 20s -- also spoke to the duality of Wayne's material.
It's heavy on glorification of the drug trade and its material results but mixes inventive scenes and wordplay -- "I can mingle with the stars & throw a party on Mars/ I am a prisoner locked up behind Xanax bars" on "I Feel Like Dying" -- into those tales. Calling him the thinking man's hardcore rapper is probably too easy, but it's also right on the money.
Of course in analyzing the lyrics of a party rapper it's easy to miss the point, which is keeping butts moving and arms waving; something Wayne managed with aplomb for his whole hour-long set save for a three-song R&B-heavy passage toward the middle that dragged just a bit.
Throughout the night Wayne prodded the crowd into self-congratulation -- "Y'all are who made me what I am, give yourselves a hand!" -- and put an exclamation point on that sentiment by following show closers "We Takin' Over" and "Championship Pop Bottles" with a sample of Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" played over the PA system.
It was his final way of saying thank you to the roughly half-full arena, who were just as glad to have a big-name rapper not only make good on his booking, but leave the stage a sweaty, dirty mess by show's end.
YB