Normally, I always write from the 3rd person perspective, but nevermind what I normally would or would not do - this story is too personal to be told objectively. You see, this concert sparked a fucked up situation. I told a couple of my friends how excited I was that I would be going to this show - and their reactions were downright depressing. "Holy shit dude, you better wear a vest." "You're psycho man, you know what they do to white people at those kinds of shows?" "You're gonna get shot!" "Uhhhh.... That shit's pretty sketchy, dude." "I wouldn't go down there if I was you."

What the fuck? How do you think these artists became millionaires? How do you think they sold out an arena that's big enough to host a professional hockey team? If their fan base was limited to AK-wielding gangstas in bandanas and Air Jordans, they would only sell a couple hundred albums, and half the concert audiences would go home in body bags. Yeah, I should be afraid to go see my favorite artists because a lot of their fans are black or Mexican. Bullshit. Even if the crowd was a bunch of angry black males wearing colors, I would still go to the show. As it turns out, I've seen more racial tension in an episode of The Cosby Show than I saw at this concert. We're talking about a concert here, not a political rally. Music is for everyone. The crowd at this show came out to party, and the only hint of violence I saw was the horn-honking road rage in the huge traffic jam after the show, but that's just typical California. Far from tense, this audience (of mostly screaming teenage girls) was dancing and partying, with huge smiles on their faces. And a crowd gathered around to cheer on a cute little kid who started breakdancing. You know where people get hurt? Guns N' Roses concerts. That's where the (predominantly white) fans riot and tear up the stadium. I'm sure my friends that tried to warn me of the dangers of rap concerts were just concerned about my skinny cracker ass, but I still say that's fucked up. They OUGHTTA be tellin me to watch out for the pigs every time I step out of the house. That's who I'm gonna be afraid of, if anyone, not a huge crowd of kids that are all in my age group and like the same music that I like.

So back to the music that we all came out to see : Most of the artists brought very accomplished live bands to back them up, which provided the entire show with a deep, full sound. Ginuwine came out and kicked off a long night of pants falling off. This shit was soft porn for teenage girls. Now I understand how male sex symbols are created. They just strip to their chones and dry hump the audience long distance. Then they throw in the " ooohhh baby "s and they're done. 3 million sold. That's not to say that the musicianship wasn't tight, because it was. So Anxious was a little slower and sexier than the radio version, and the girls were eating it up.

Of course Wyclef Jean had to sing Guantanemara, being that it was Cinco de Mayo. He also paid tribute to House of Pain, with a barely-changed version of Jump Around, and ran through a smattering of current radio hooks ("Y'all gonna make me act the fool, up in here, up in here" DMX) before previewing a new song called It Doesn't Matter, referring to all the bling bling style bragging, which keeps with the same theme as Low Income, his contribution to the Next Friday soundtrack.

Montell Jordan came out crooning in his ultra-smooth way, and then got the party jumpin by calling up the house lights a couple times, doing his best Stevie Wonder impersonation, and rapping a verse from Busta Rhymes' Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See.

Timabaland and Magoo brought the stadium to their feet, and after two long songs full of anticipation, finally introduced Aaliyah, who eventually won a boys vs. girls shouting contest with Timabaland. It took a while for the fellas to catch their collective breath, though. It turns out they don't need to use any special effects in her videos - she really is naturally beautiful. Her voice sailed flawlessly through the auditorium, and her flirtatious grin perfectly complimented her casually sexy dance moves. There is no substitute for seeing this lady perform live before your very eyes.

Like his character Craig from the Friday movies, Ice Cube captured the attention of everyone around him. But he plays a very different character on stage than he does on the silver screen. This is the 1988 - Straight Outta Compton - crazy muthafucka named Ice Cube, the one that wears the Raiders beanie and the pissed off facial expression, the one that when he's "in your neigborhood, you better duck, cuz Ice Cube is crazy as fuck." This is the bad-ass Ice Cube that helped bring the power of social unrest to rap music, along with Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, and the rest of NWA. Speaking of NWA, Ice Cube was accompanied by MC Ren, and he was just as bad-ass as Ice Cube, especially on the new NWA track from the Next Friday soundtrack, Chin Check.

The highlight of this amazing night was while Cube was scowling and yelling out "I had to say it was a good day." I looked over, and the most beautiful girl I've seen in years was right next to me, waving her fist in the air and screaming, "Yeah!" I think she said her name was Lohanna - it was kind of hard to hear. She seemed really sweet, but I felt so overpowered by her presence, that I couldn't collect myself enough to ask for her phone number. But I told her I'd be writing this article in Sonicpress, and I gave her my card, so maybe she'll read this and realize that I'm totally smitten, and call me up or email me at esp@Sonicpress.com. (But I can't promise I'll be any less nervous if you do call me.) Or maybe I'll see her at the next Wild 94.9 concert, the Summer Bash, with Eminem, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, Mack 10, MC Ren, Xzibit, and Kurupt.