images courtesy of the houston chronicle.

yes, you’re reading this right. i did in fact go to the lil wayne show last night in houston. before you get all hip-hop righteous on me, i was merely taking my girl out on a date to go see wayne since she’s a fan. regardless, i do enjoy a handful of the carter III and “hustler musik,” so i went with the hopes that i’d hear all of that.

hit the jump for a recap.

-america’s most grizzly

we missed soulja boy…

we were running late, but we figured it would be ok as long as we don't miss young jeezy. turns out, we're walking up to the venue around 7:45, only to find that jeezy is nearly done with his set. i'm pretty pissed because i actually wanted to see him play live, with his live band ensemble and all. this was a serious case of the jeromes. we did however, get there in time to catch him play a bit of "my president is black," "i luv it" and "soul survivor," which was pretty cool. the live band really added a nice element to his overall raspy persona, putting just enough class to attract the not-so-hood audience that was in attendance.

during wayne’s set later on, i was thinking about how bun b hadn’t shown up yet. in houston, it’s pretty much 100% guaranteed that bun will show up at any hip-hop show on any date. sure enough, i’d find out that jeezy brought him out during his set, where he performed “that’s gangsta,” which you can see here.

at around 8:20, in a completely unorthodox fashion, the headliner came out. i’ve never been to a showwhere the headliner came out while there was still a trace of daylight. pretty weird, to say the least. in any case, wayne got the place goin’ nuts. i’ve always had my grievances about wayne, but he did a pretty good job as a performer. anytime i’ve seen him on tv, he’s too fucked out of his mind to form any sort of coherent performance, so i’m glad to say that he took this tour seriously.

he did a bunch of songs from the carter III and a bunch of his old singles which i’ve heard and hated throughout the course of my high school life (see: fireman, go dj, stuntin’ like my daddy), as well as random joints like his hook from “my life” and his verse from “swagga like us,” so he put in effort to provide some variety for old and new fans alike.

[ed note: panda and i have had a running joke that lil wayne looks like gizmo, so i found it hilarious to the point of tears that he had a giant LCD screen displaying gizmo for an entire song. easily the best moment of the show. see what i’m talking about? but in reality, it’s more like this.]

next up was the “young money portion” of the show. i’ll just take this time to say that not a single artist on lil wayne’s label has a future of being the least bit important to the overall music movement. save for tyga (take this, haters) and drake, there isn’t an ounce of talent. for starters, they all sounded the same. also worth mentioning is that one of them is thirteen and goes by the name of lil chuckee. funny kid, horrible rapper. come to think of it, he looks like lil wayne probably did at the age of 13.

anyway, the lights dimmed and wayne announced that “there’s no way he was gonna miss this show. this is his first show back.” and out came drake, which pretty much set the crowd on fire after that horribly uninspired young money set. he performed from a stool, much like the BET awards (sans little girls) and did “successful,” “november 18th” and “best i ever had.” if dude can get 17k people screaming, i’d say it’s a safe bet to call him the next big thing.

wayne would then come out and finish the night off with what he deemed “the carter III” segment of the show, which was by far the most entertaining portion of his set. to close out the night, he brought the entire crew out for “every girl” and did a tribute to MJ, just like any other artist has done since june 25th.

i forgot to mention he brought out birdman for three songs and it was some of the worst live torture i’ve ever endured. he might be one of the worst artists in the history of the planet’s existence. other than that, i wasn’t expecting much going into this show, but i ended up having a pretty good time despite missing jeezy and what not. i have a lot more respect for wayne for actually doin’ SOMETHING to deserve that hypetrain he’s been riding since 2007. i’m still not convinced on his emceeing skills, but he fared well during his live set.

remember, all images courtesy of the houston chronicle, my former place of employment. the company who oh so graciously let me go and allowed me to go into a 6-month unemployment binge. and yes, i’m a little bitter.

and for those of you wondering, i stole this setlist from a site:

Cannon
A Milli
Got Money
Sky Is The Limit
Phone Home
Swagga Like Us (Verse)
Mr. Carter
Go DJ
Fireman
Money On My Mind
Get Money Fuck Bitches (Biggie Tribute)
I’m a D-Boy
Best Rapper Alive
Walk This Way (Aerosmith Cover)
Prom Queen (with Shanell)
A Song by Shanell
I’m Me
Turnin’ Me On
Kush
You Ain’t Know
Pop Bottles
We Takin Over (With Birdman)
I Run This (With Birdman)
Always Strapped (With Birdman)

Young Money Portion:

Nicki Minaj
Lil Twist
Lil Chuckee
T-Streetz
Jae Millz
Gudda Gudda
Tyga
Drake – Successful, November 18th, Best I Ever Had

Carter III Portion:

3 Peat
Let The Beat Build
Comfortable
Mrs. Officer
Lollipop
Tie My Hands
Shoot Me Down
Every Girl (featuring all of Young Money)
MJ Tribute

-grizzly