Glow in The Dark Tour

Good thing I brought my umbrella-ella-ella, eh, eh...

because Mother Nature brought torrential downpour to Hartford. No worries though, Chicago's finest was in town - Kanye West.

Glow in the Dark lineup: Lupe Fiasco, N.E.R.D, Rihanna and Kanye West

Lupe and N.E.R.D was awesome
Well, that's what my friend Paula text me as I arrived at the concert. I was a little fashionably late. Ok, so I was an hour late..but I had to get diva-fied. It's a process that can never be rushed.

Ri-Ri's pants were painted on
The good girl gone bad put on a great show. It was like a shot of Espresso. She started with a little reggae, took it back with her rendition of Lauryn Hill's "That Thing," and the crowd sang along as she belted out the crowd favorite - "Umbrella." A few cornballs actually opened there umbrella's during the song. Don't tell anyone, but I kinda wanted to open mine too. Oh yeah, and midway through her set, Rihanna tore off her rip-away skirt to reveal some pants so tight, they looked like they were painted on. [Um, does yo mama know about those pants?]

Kanye was a one man show
All respect is due to the Louis Vuitton Don. Kanye West's stage show was somewhere between a sci-fi flick and a one-man Broadway production set to hip-hop. A rough idea of the story line is: West sets out into space in search of inspiration. He then crash-lands on an unknown planet, and has to find his way back to Earth. It's through this journey where West takes you from "Good Morning," where he wakes up on the unknown planet….to "Touch the Sky," where he finally makes it back to Earth. His spaceship named Jane talks him through the journey. A touching moment came when 'Ye performed "Hey Mama" as the crowd waved their cell phones to the beat. The only time Kanye actually sat down was during a surprising portion of Journey's "Don't Stop Believing." From there 'Ye "repairs" his spaceship and rallied the crowd with his hit, "Stronger."

In the Dark
So I bet you're wondering what I didn't like about the concert. Honestly, Kanye's performance was flawless, however there were a few audio issues where his mic was super low and the band was over modulated. Now, if you ask the people who sat on the grass during the show, I’m sure they'd say they didn't like being soaked during a 4-hour concert. A poncho can only do so much.

Glowing in the Dark
Kanye deserves a standing ovation for creativity. The set and storyline was creative. This has never been done in hip-hop people. Truly one of the most fascinating concerts I've ever seen. At the end of the concert 'Ye gave a special shoutout to all the columnists out there who write about his shows. He said, "this is real music…it isn't something that you can grade." I agree. Kanye is one of the Hottest Mc's in the game.

The Afterparty
Ok, why did The Emperor [a club in Hartford] think it was okay to charge $50 for the Glow in the Dark Tour afterparty? I wanna know who actually paid that much money to get in a club where you will sweat out your hair and outfit just by stepping in the place. This is not New York! Needless to say, I didn't go. High level, not eye level people.

Just another page of the Classifieds. Stay Classy.