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While last year's Monster Jam was headlined by veteran rappers like Fabolous, Fat Joe, Juvenile, and Jadakiss, this year's annual Jam'n 94.5 Halloween concert featured mostly up-and-coming reggae and R&B stars with little more than one major radio hit under their belts.
The teenybopper crowd was nevertheless entertained, shrieking throughout a flashy succession of brief performances by Rihanna, Tony Yayo, Pretty Ricky, TOK, Damian Marley, Ludacris, and others.
The night started early with performances by R&B singers Teairra Mari and 19-year-old Barbados beauty Rihanna. People were still wandering in while Mari performed her first single "Make Her Feel Good," but the crowd really started jumping for her cheeky tune "No Daddy," despite the fact that most of the girls in the crowd probably did have daddies waiting at home for their return.
The international flavor of many of the performers also differed from last year's all-American line-up. Dancehall reggae artist Damian Marley, the youngest son of Bob Marley, was joined by fellow Jamaicans TOK and Puerto Rican reggaeton singer Don Omar. Marley's performance of "Move!" and "Road to Zion" was largely ignored by the crowd in anticipation of his smash cross-over hit "Welcome to Jamrock," which conjured greater crowd participation than any other part of the night: "Out in the street they call it murder."
In contrast to Marley politicized dancehall, the sultry R&B reggae flavor of TOK. seemed to fit the crowd more appropriately. Nevertheless, Don Omar proved that political rhymes could still have commercial success.
In an interview with The Heights backstage following his performance, Omar said, "Reggaeton represents all Latino culture. I put Castro and Che and Pinochet in my video because the music is about our history, and I have the chance to share it with people here, even if Americans think they're bad people."
The first rapper onstage was Jermaine Dupri, who brought Dem Franchize Boyz up to perform last year's Hanes ghetto anthem "White Tee." Dupri has been most successful as a producer for Kris Kross, Lil Bow Wow, and Janet Jackson, not necessarily as an independent artist. His performance of the 1998 classic "Money Ain't A Thing" conspicuously lacked Jay-Z's verse, reminding the crowd that the big name rappers stayed home for this year's Monster Jam.
While recent Monster Jams included 50 Cent and The Game, this year only Tony Yayo was on the line-up. The buzz behind Yayo has never focused on his music, but instead on his lifelong friendship with 50 Cent and incarceration during the 2004 G-Unit explosion. While he was wearing his oranges in prison, Eminem appeared on the Grammy Awards wearing a "Free Yayo" shirt. Once he was released, reincarcerated, and released again, he finally got to record his debut album Thoughts of a Predicate Felon, featuring the required club banger "So Seductive" with a guest appearance from 50 Cent. Fortunately Lloyd Banks made a surprise appearance, outshining his less talented partner in crime as he burned through "On Fire" and "Ain't No Click" for the excited crowd.
R&B singer Bobby Valentino earned the highest pitched screams from adoring fans. Famous for his hook on Ludacris' "Pimpin All Over the World" and his solo slow-jam "Slow Down," Valentino is the first R&B singer in Ludacris' DTP (Disturbing tha Peace) crew. When asked what distinguished him from the rest of the R&B pack, Valentino told The Heights, "I didn't want my album to have too many guest appearances because I wanted the album to be about me as a person, to introduce myself." He also said that too many R&B singers are just "male-bashers" and enjoys listening to singers like Jodeci and R.Kelly as well Anita Baker.
You can always count on Ludacris as a crowd favorite at Monster Jam. He blazed through popular hits like "Ho," "Move Bitch," and "Get Back" before ending the night around 11 p.m. It was a school night, and it looked like most of the kids in the crowd had homeroom early the next morning.
Needless to say, it was probably a good idea that no one invited R. Kelly.
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