It was a night made for New York this past Wednesday night at the Blender Theater (4/30). Scheduled to hit the stage was none other than the F-A-B-O-L-O-U-S along with some special guests as well as opening act the Metermaids.
In the moderately spacious Blender Theater, which is reminiscent to a college classroom with its elevated seats and wide floor area, a crowd mostly made up of ladies along with some thugged out, cap-wearing constituents and a couple of button-ups sprinkled around gathered to show their hometown boy some love.
The Metermaids, consisting of New York emcees Swell and Sentence who resemble the Beastie Boys, opened up the show to get the crowd warmed up, and so they did. However, it wasn’t the type of warmed up that an artist hopes for when they’re performing. It was easy to see how the audience felt about the group as “boos” were heard being yelled out followed by “get off the stage.”
As their performance seemed to come to an end, the Metermaids announced that they would do one more track. The audience was not having it as a wave of “Nooo” ripped through the room. Although some of the tracks were okay, the crowd’s reaction was definitely not a good look.
Ryan Leslie came through for a surprise guest appearance. Leslie went on to perform his hit single “Diamond Girl” wooing the ladies as he strutted from one end of the stage to the other.
After a brief intermission Fabolous jumped on-stage sporting a Houston Astros baseball cap with matching jacket, some aviator shades and his blinding, iced-out “Street Fam” medallion.
Fabolous along with a live band in the background went through tracks from his collection pleasing both the ladies as well as the fellas. He hit the crowd with joints like “Can’t Deny It” from his debut album, Ghetto Fabolous.
Fab did it up for the ladies as he performed tracks such as “Into You,” “Can’t Leave You Alone,” and his verse on Lil Mo’s#### single “Superwoman.” The guys in the room seemed to enjoy the songs as much as the ladies as they all rapped along to the verses.
After giving the ladies a good amount of attention, Fab switched it up for the fellas when he brought out Red Café to help him with “I’m the Man.”
One of the most memorable moments was when Fabolous took the time to show love to all of the boroughs as he asked, “Where the BX at? Where’s Harlem at? Where’s Queens at? Where’s Staten Island at?” Finally, he got to the borough that everyone expected him to when he asked, “Where Brooklyn at,” and he went straight into his hit “Brooklyn.” The crowd went wild as they chanted “Broooklyyynnn!”
The performance was an entertaining one filled with hit songs, bright lights and a live band. This was New York Hip-Hop at its finest.