“The “”Smokin’ Grooves”” concert in July, with The Fugees, Cypress Hill and Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers, was one of the hottest concerts around.
Sponsored by the House of Blues, the show also featured A Tribe Called Quest, Nas, Spearhead and Busta Rhymes. The lineup may seem to have been rather awkward with groups ranging from arguably hard-core rappers (Cypress Hill) to the smoothest of hip-hoppers (A Tribe Called Quest) and reggae (Ziggy Marley), yet all of the performances blended well together, creating a truly tight show.
Not to say, however, that each act tore it up; maybe it was the beaming strobe lights that seemed to be directed straight and deliberately into my weary eyes, or the ghastly sight of a mosh pit at a rap concert that biased me against Cypress Hill.
It might have been the fact that Wyclef of Fugees came onstage alone and messed around on the guitar seemingly for hours before the rest of the group joined him that caused The Fugees to not look so dope in my eyes, even though I’m a fan of their music. I was angered by the fact that they took up so much time that Nas was only able to perform “If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)” and not any of his other songs from the new album. But I’m not going to dwell on the negative; let’s talk about the highlight:
Tribe blew up the house by busting just about all their hits in a medley that had Ali Shahid (possibly of the best mixers around) of the group tearin’ up the turntables. As I looked around the 6,251-seat Universal Amphitheatre, it was hard to see one face that wasn’t groovin’, one body that wasn’t movin’ to “Electric Relaxation” or singing along to “Award Tour.” The crowd response while they were onstage and even several acts afterward were mad for the Questers. Even those few who were in line buying nachos while Tribe was performing said that they were, as one girl put it, “phattest up in there.”
The height of Tribe’s performance was when Tip grabbed Bobby Brown up from the audience and Brown of the newly reunited New edition got into “Check the Rhime” with them. Apparently, all of New Edition was in the house.
Unfortunately, though, there were a few aspects of ‘Smokin’ Grooves’ that were not so perfect. I can understand that the promoters wanted to give the main headliners (Ziggy Marley, Cypress and The Fugees) more time, but it was done to a ridiculous degree. Spearhead got 15 minutes, Busta Rhymes was given 25, Tribe only about 30, The Fugees got an hour and Cypress somewhere close to 500 years. Ziggy, finally, got about an hour to perform. The time could have certainly been more evenly distributed. The first couple of acts only rapped about five joints each, while the latter ones performed about every track from every album ever produced. For example, ol’ Wyclef played “Get Money”, “The Choice Is Yours” and a couple more non-Fugee tunes that had no place.
All in all, however, ‘Smokin’ Grooves’ was a sweet show. Hopefully, L.A. will see more of such excellent tours. The guy sitting next to me said it best: “That? Sh— …it was smokin’, man.” It was, even though some might say that for a ticket price of nearly 45 greenbacks, it should have been.”
