After the success of Supafest earlier this year it was quite suprising walking into a half empty Rod Laver Arena with only 20 minutes to go before the first big act. Although the arena was not full, it did not lack interesting characters. Waiting for Mario to come on those in the general admission area were mesmerised by a guy in a suit getting jiggy with it, that people only started to realise about halfway through the first song that Mario had hit the stage.
You can’t blame us though, as at this point the volume was not cranked up enough and Mario did not appear to actually be singing. However this did not stop the girls from swooning over the fine piece of man candy. Highlights of the set were ‘Break Up’ and ‘Crying Out For Me’; this is when he took his shirt off, which could explain the sudden excitement of the crowd. He ended the short set with the song everyone was waiting for, the song off his second album that shot him to fame in 2004, ‘Let Me Love You’.
Running perfectly on time, the crowds turned their attention back to the guy in the suit getting down to DJ Nova and DJ Nino Brown for half an hour as they prepared themselves for the legendary Lil’Kim to grace the stage. The lights dimmed, and a video began to play on the big screens giving the crowd a brief history of the woman that was so close to the one and only Notorious B.I.G.; as four dancers made their way onto the stage.Then with a bang, Lil’ Kim appeared on stage, ripped her mask off and jumped straight into her Nicki Minaj diss, ‘Black Friday’.
She started off strong with ‘The Jump Off’, followed by only one verse of the provocative ‘How Many Licks?’ She then performed a Michael Jackson tribute, followed by her dancing around to ‘Look at Me Now’ by Chris Brown and ‘Party Rock Anthem’ by LMFAO. Thus began a set with a few too many covers, although you got the feeling this was a decision made by promoters due to the graphic nature of her songs that may not have gone down so well in an all ages crowd unfortunately.
However Lil’ Kim marked her status as the Queen Bee singing what she revealed to be Notorious B.I.G’s favourite, ‘Queen Bitch’. For someone approaching 40, Lil’Kim was full of energy the whole way, and despite fans left wanting to see her sing more of her own material she ended on a high with ‘Lighters Up’.
By this stage the arena had packed out a little more and the crowd was definitely more energetic, just in time for twice platinum rapper Fabolous. With a 10 year career Fabolous had plenty of hits to reel off keeping the crowds arms bouncing. ‘Can’t Deny’ his first ever single from his Ghetto Fabolous album released in 2001, featured Nate Dogg which was the perfect lead up to an ‘Xplosive’ dedication to the beloved hip hop icon.
The phat beatz of Neptunes produced track ‘Young’n’, followed by the smooth slow jams ‘Into You’ and ‘Can’t Let You Go’ were highlights of this talented rapper. Fabolous ended his set with hits off his more recent albums From Nothin’ to Somethin’ and Loso’s Way which both debuted at #1 on the Billboard charts; stand outs included ‘Make Me Better’ (Ft. Ne-Yo) and ‘Throw It In The Bag’.
After losing his voice at his 2003 show at Rod Laver Arena 50 Cent was booed of stage as fans got tired of hearing him mumble through ‘G-G-G-G-G-G UNIT’ chants instead of songs; so he had a lot to prove to those fans who had only just forgiven him after 8 years and 2 other visits to our fair land.
From the beginning with a dramatic introduction video involving burning money flying around New York City and the tank of a man that is Curtis James Jackson III aka 50 Cent. He opened the set with a song of his soon to be released album Before I Self Destruct, called ‘The Invitation’. His set continued with a mixture of songs new and old, without countless stand outs.
More recent 50 Cent fans went wild for the single ‘Down On Me’ which he features on with Jeremih. However it was undeniable that the best moment of the whole night was when 50 Cent sung all of his and G-Units most well known songs in a row, ‘Disco Inferno’, ‘Little Bit’, ‘Candy Shop’, ‘21 Questions’, and the list goes on.
Song after song, the crowd lost their shit, quite literally! Bras, panties, shirts and caps were getting thrown onto the stage. Then the one person we all expected to lose her clothing returned to the stage; Lil’Kim joined 50 Cent for their song ‘Magic Stick’ where there was some somewhat awkward feeling around of the Queen Bee’s behind before 50 Cent found the right spot to give her a nice booty smack.
After ending the set with ‘In Da Club’, 50 Cent returned shortly after for what is probably the longest encore in the history. Perhaps he was just trying to make up for all those fans who felt jibbed the last time they saw him, but it got a bit much and after about 10 songs; including hits ‘Window Shopper’ and ‘Whip Yo Head Boy’; he got the nod from promoters to end the set.
In true rapper style, he said “fuck that” and brought some random guy from his crew on stage and sung some song that nobody in the crowd seemed to know. The encore drained on for a little too long – it would have been better to leave the crowd buzzing after the G-Unit hit ‘Lay You Down’.
Overall the vibe seemed to lack some of the vibe you would have expected from a festival with such veterans in the hip hop world, but 50 Cent definitely pulled it all together and seemed to leave the crowds satisfied as they streamed out the venue.
– Stefanie Miltiadou
