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It’s the concert heard around world, well at least East Rutherford, NJ on the night of June 2, 2008. NYC’s HOT 97 officially took over Giants Stadium last night with its 15th Annual, Summer Jam. Unlike last year, the weather for the night’s festivities was crystal clear and the entire Tri-State was ready to go. Seeing how I walked in about 20 minutes into the show, I missed Ray-J and Yung Berg perform their smash single “Sexy Can I” (I didn’t mind one bit). Judging by the luke warm response, the crowd wouldn’t have mind missing it either.

ATL’s own, The Dream hit the stage next. And like his Madison Square Garden set, The Dream took care of business in a timely fashion. To be honest, his backup dancers held my attention for the entire time….I’m not even gonna front like I was paying attention to him. His material (”I Luv Your Girl”, “Falsetto”, “Shawty Is A Ten”) was performed exceptionally well, but them dancers…boooooy I tell ya.

Alicia Keys, who was decked out in a wife beater and some NICE fitting denim’s, pranced out on stage and literally toyed with EVERY male figure in attendance. I mean to be honest, there’s NO reason why she looks that good and quite frankly, I’m fine with that lol. Alicia had no problem running through her slew of hits since (”N.Y. State of Mind”, “Like I’ll Never See You Again”, “No One, and “Teenage Love Affair”) the crowd recited each song line for line. Though her set was amazing, it was her bevy of surprise guests that won the fans over. First, she brings out Brooklyn rapper, Main-O (I’m just as surprised) to do a quick verse from his current single, “Hi Hater”. Next, Raekwon runs out for a quick verse from the classic tune “Incarcerated Scarfaces” which sent the the crowd into a tizzy. Method Man emerged next and shut things down with a verse from “C.R.E.A.M”. Shortly after, Ghostface appeared to add his portion to the song as well. Method Man continued for about 10 more minutes and felt the need to jump into the crowd, which actually won him cool points with the entire Tri-State Area

Hometown favorites, The Lox, hit the stage and they too brought some of their famous friends along. After performing a couple of underground hits (”Wild Out”, “F*ck You”, “2 Gunz Up” and “The Benjamin’s”) Nature and Nore came out for a quick trip down memory lane with a energetic performance of “Banned From TV”. Surprisingly, Red Cafe, Fat Joe, and Fabolous came out to perform the remix to Red Cafe’s “Paper Touchin”. Awesome! Styles P then brings out Swizz Beatz to perform “Blow My Mind” and we all know what that means. Let’s just say the contact I caught was a WONDERFUL experience! Swizz then breaks into his own semi set performing “Money In The Bank” and his new single “Where Da Cash At”. And to close things out, legendary DJ, Kid Capri, brings out Mr. Todd Smith (LL Cool J) for a “wheredidyoucomefrom” type performance which included “Rock Your Bells” and “HeadSprung”. So far, Summer Jam 2008 was shaping up to be a pretty damn good experience.

Mr. Teddy P and his colorful cohorts were next up to bat and boy did they hit a homerun. Quickly running through a couple of his remix verses from “2 Step” and “Walk It Out”, T-Peezy then decides it would be appropriate to add a little dance number to Chris Brown’s “Kiss Kiss”. Not for nothing, it was pretty entertaining. He then decides to bring the first of his monsoon of guest appearances out. Shawty Lo aka Mr. T.I. Aint From Bankhead, trots out to do a quick 16 from the heavy horned anthem, “Dey Know”, which I must admit was pretty friggin superb. If I wasn’t standing on a frail folding chair, I would have been running in place as well *begins to do so now*. Since T-Pain is on EVERY song ever conceived, I refuse to run down any additional information in regards to his perfomance (quit crying). Instead, I’ll just list who he brought out with him. DJ Khaled, Ricky Ross, Ace Hood, Fat Joe and Akon. Right after a brief “Bartender” performance with Akon, T-Pain proudly blurted out “In the words of George Bush, F*ck ya’ll n*ggaz, IM OUT”. CLASSIC!

The Martian, Lil Wayne took to the stage and, well…..did what he does, which I have yet to figure out. Performing his second single from his ALREADY leaked album, The Carter 3, “A Milli” blarred through Giants Stadium while everyone attempted to keep up with Dwayne’s machine gun flow. While spitting his verse from the infamous “Dey Know” remix, Shawty Lo emerges for a quick photo opp and disappears once Wayne finishes the song. Titty Boy appears next, Duffle Bag and all, to spill out the infamous sounds of “Duffle Bag Boy”. To keep it funky, Wayne could have done that tune alone, but Titty still held his own. After sharing the limelight, Wayne reintroduces himself to the audience and gets down to business. He rips through “Cash Money Millionare” and “Leather So Soft” (guitar and ALL…UGH!). Following the horridness of his guitar strings, he proceeds with the full acapella version of “P*ssy Monster” (Yikes!). I’m assuming he was was either on something (like he’s ever sober) or he just got real creative, but during the song, he proceeded to molest the floor in which I turned to my homey Jamal and said “He’s still going to sell 500,000 copies just because of ish like this”. After retiring the random explicit stage acts, he brings out Kanye West to perform the remix to “Lollipop”. DOPE!

Kanye’s performance was confusing, but still entertaining. He performed “Diamonds”, “Champion” “Homecoming”, “Get Em High” (screwed, so awesome), and “Jesus Walks” with so much energy it reminded us why he’s the #1 artist in Hip Hop. After bringing out Good Music artist, Consequence, for a quick verse from “The Good Bad & The Ugly” he jumps into a dope performance of “Can’t Tell Me Nothing” following up with a special but brief appearance from ATL’s #1 trapper, Young Jeezy. “Put On” which features Kanye West, sounded CRAZY on the sound system, but I don’t think to many people were that familiar with the song just yet. After Jeezy’s exit, Kanye starts up “Flashing Lights”, but forgets his first verse (same thing happened at The Garden a couple weeks ago). After fumbling a couple more words, he gets things back on track and finishes up strong. He disappears for a couple minutes and returns for a passionate performance of “Stronger”. After spitting one of the sickest acapella freestyles I’ve heard in a minute (”She watching the draft, she got your jersey already/she bout to pick out a crib in Jersey ALREADY”!), T-Pain comes back out to finish things off with an excellent performance of “Good Life”. SPECTACULAR!

Public Enemy (Flavor Flav and all) hit the stage for a militant, but yet informative performance. Running through their classic catalogue which included “Bring The Noise”, “Shut Em Down”, “911″, “Can’t Do Nuttin For Ya Man”, and “Fight The Power”. During the performance both Chuck D and Flavor Flas gave respective speeches about not believing the hype (their hype was probably different from the audience’s, but most of us understood). Regardless, it was a moving performance and I’m glad HOT 97 incorporated them into the mix, even if that meant half of the audience leaving.

Jim Jones brought out Juelz Santana and the rest of the Byrd Gang flock, but it wasn’t anything special or worth capturing on my camera (it was dead anyway). NYC still welcomed Jimmy and Juelz with open arms as they ran through a couple of their Harlem hits which included, “Santana’s Town”, “Ballin” “Baby Girl” and Jimmy’s remix verses from DJ Unk’s “Walk It Out” and “Two Step”.

Overall the show was freaking awesome, and right now my eyes are 30 seconds from shutting. Attended this year’s Summer Jam, well let me know your favorite part to the show and what part you hated the most. If you’re more attracted to visuals, scroll down and check out some of the photos I snagged during the show.

Sincerely

Low “Summer Jam never disappoints! Well, at least the last 2 years I attended lol” Key

Alicia even looks splendid on the jumbo screen…

I’m telling you, Dream dancers…….SIGHS!

Sheek Louch from The Lox was VERY excited to be on stage…

Swizzy tore it down with his new single “Where Da Cash At”

You can tell T-Pain and his buddies were having a blast……

Weezy was there too……

Rick Ross, Shawty Lo, Fat Joe and DJ Khaled getting busy!

Jadakiss came out to play as well…..

Akon took over with T-Pain, DJ Khaled, Fat Joe and Ace Hood.

Lil Weezy felt it was necessary to have guitar practice during his set……

Really Rick Ross….REALLY?!?!!

Who knew hip hop journalists get followed around like A-List movie stars? Well, according to these pics you’re about to view, that urban legend may be more than just legend. It’s funny because, as I was walking throughout the beach, I felt another set of eyes following me around, but I figured it was just the honey dips taking a glimpse at the kid. But as I maneuvered through the crowd, I could tell this one particular photographer was taking aim at yours truly.

And though the visual publicity isn’t a bad thing, I really came down to Spring Bling to do my job, catch a quick tan, enjoy the water and head back North….not duck the Hip Hop Paparazzi. I swear LowKey’s life is never boring! Khaled and Ross checked in with BET.com, Day 26 and The Pop Off Boyz shared their first Spring Bling experiences and from the look of it, Soulja Boy isn’t tooooo fond of The Pop Off Boyz, but we’ll find out what that’s about tomorrow. Enjoy these photos and check out what JackPot is up to on his side of town.

LowKey TRYING to enjoy The Pop It Off Boyz, but that damn camera came outta nowhere! Yeah, that’s Soulja Boy in the background!

Shawty Lo chops it up with Shawty LowKey. Again, the Hip Hop Paparazzi wasted no time in snapping the pic!

Day 26, who were dressed in allll BLACK clothing in 80 degree weather, took some time out to let me know how they were enjoying their first Spring Bling. And of course, you know who was right there just flashing away!

Fun times with Day 26! Unfortunately, all smiles ceased once I got done with my interview…

The Black Boys and I began to plot on the evening festivities and how to take out that sneaky photographer!

-LowKey