It’s only a few minutes til showtime, but backstage is relatively calm. To kill some time, we just wander around and check things out.

You don’t have to worry about anybody getting lost around here…

Or forgetting their set times!

You can’t do a show in the N.O. without showing some love so Baby Boy da Prince warmed the crowd up!

The view from backstage as Young Lloyd does his thing. He breezed through hits such as “Southside,” “Get It Shawty” and “You.”

After watching Lloyd do his thing, we wandered around backstage and look who we ran into:

Da Brat

Young Dro

and “106 & Park” host Rocsi gets her face touched up before hitting the stage (she was the MC for the night)

Next up, Yung Joc hit the stage and showed the audience how it’s going down with the motorcycle dance he made famous…

he then decided to show a lucky audience member the results of hardwork and a good bowflex!

…and no performance is good unless somebody makes it rain at least once!

 Meanwhile, this dude made it rain in the audience, but it wasn’t clear if he was in Joc’s crew or if he just felt generous that night (he’s flashing some big bills in the pic, but all we the audience picked up were a bunch of singles)

T-Pain took the stage next and boy, he has a ton of energy! He had the audience on its feet as he sang his hit songs like “I’m Sprung,” “Buy U A Drank” and “Bartender.” He even hit the crowd off with his verse from R. Kelly’s “I’m A Flirt.”

He does a mean snap too!

After a short break, the first of the tour’s headliners came out–Ciara. Needless to say, the crowd went nuts when she launched into hits such as “Promise” and “Crush.”

Though the sound went out while she performed her breakout hit, “Goodies,” Ciara reacted like a pro, never missing a beat.

Around 10:15 p.m., T.I. takes to the stage (or was it T.I.P.?) and the audience goes absolutely bananas, especially when he breezes through songs such as “Top Back,” “Why You Wanna” and “Bring ‘Em Out.”

Around 10:40 p.m., Ciara takes to the stage again but unfortunately, her performance was marred yet again by sound issues, with the music going out on “Get Up” and “Oh.” Though she was visibly annoyed, Ciara didn’t disappoint fans, instead launching into an acapella version of “Oh.”

 She then brought Tiffany Evans onstage, who performed her song, “Promise Ring.” Ciara told the crowd, “As soon as I saw this girl, I just knew the world was gonna love her” and judging by the audiences reaction, she was right.

Ciara reemerged after another costume change and attempted to perform her hit, “Like A Boy” but once again, the sound went out and CiCi left the stage.

T.I. came on again to close things out, breaking the crowd off with his current single, “You Know What It Is.”

He then brought out his adorable son, King, who seemed right at home onstage.

He was later joined onstage by Young Dro, who worked the crowd up with his song, “Shoulder Lean.” New Orleans native B.G. also came out to show his hometown some love. Unfortunately, we didn’t get any shots of this because we were busy backstage gushing over T.I.’s other kids, who were hanging out with his on-again-off-again fiancee, Tiny.

We did make it back out for the night’s finale–T.I. and Ciara performing T.I.P.’s song, “Big Sh*t Poppin.” Though CiCi changed clothes again, T.I. kept it gully with his outfit of choice: no shirt, some boxers and jeans.

What’s that blur? Oh, it’s just T.I. rushing offstage!

Whew! what a show! Our ears are throbbing from the screams and our feet are hurting from running back and forth, but boy was it worth it! As T.I. said, this year’s Screamfest is definitely for the grown & sexy.