WARNING: THIS REVIEW WILL INCLUDE FULL DETAIL OF THE CONCERT, IF YOU PLAN ON SEEING THIS SHOW AND DON'T WISH TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS, DELETE THIS EMAIL NOW FOR IT CONTAINS SPOILERS.

WHAT: BEST OF BOTH WORLDS CONCERT TOUR
WHO: R KELLY AND JAY Z
WHEN: OCT. 19TH 8:00 PM
WHERE: TARGET CENTER, MINNEAPOLIS MINNESOTA

Last night, my wife and I attended the BOBW show in downtown Mpls. This show was suited for both the Hip Hop and R & B fan, and that is what you had in my wife and I. She, a R Kelly fan, and myself a Jay Z fan(but still like "R ra") was not disappointed from the spectacle we witnessed last night.

From our vantage point(Sec 132 Row G Seat 1, 2) we saw every inch of the stage and runways. We got there a little past 7 to beat the late comers that grace every show, plus I didn't want to have to kick someone out of my seats(See Cedric's routine in Kings of Comedy about that). Normally when you arrive early at concerts, there's really nothing to do except talk and people watch to see what Hoochie will take first place in the unofficial Hoochie-lympics. Let's just say there were plenty of contestants in the building. In the rear middle of the stage sat a huge video monitor and two smaller one elevated over the stage on each side. Before the show, it flashed advertisements for the next CD from the two headliners(Unfinished Business, Due out next Tuesday). It also showed what appeared to be a chat room where random messages scrolled up the screen. Come to find out, you can actually use your cell phone to text messages to the video screen. One of the ads provided the number to send the text to. Sure enough I pulled out my cell to try it out, and it actually worked. We answered Trivia questions and gave shout outs to love ones for all to see. Pretty good feature.

THE SET UP

Right next to the center monitor sat a huge brick wall on both sides as to make the rear of the stage appear as the facade of a building. Elevated were your standard set of speakers and lights. In the center, there were 7 rectangle shaped video monitors that later actually moved up and down from the stage floor, to the top of the rafter. On each side of the stage, there were "L" shaped runways that the artists could go out into the crowd beyond the first row. Two crescent shaped ramps highlighted the sides on the stage and stairs to get to the platforms above the fake wall(only the Dancers used those stairs).

THE INTRO

At 8:10, the music that was playing before the show started to fade and on the Video monitor, a countdown started from "999". My wife and I quickly assessed that 999 seconds will elapse in a little more that 15 minutes(yeah, we're pretty sharp LOL). As the countdown got to it's last ten ticks, the house lights went out and at "0" and mock news broadcast appeared. The anchorman have a special report about a Tour Bus that was being chased by the authorities. From a helicopter view, you see a Black Tour Bus being chased ala OJ Simpson style. They have reporters appearing "live" on the scene as the bus flies by. Then they get word about another Bus that's headed in the direction of the first bus. They show the buses from all kinds of angles, like from bridges, and the view from inside a police officer's car. They used that footage to zoom in on the license plates of the two speeding buses. One carried an Illinois plate and the other had a New York plate respectively.

The buses each left the highway and before long, they were right next to each other racing down the city streets. One reporter mentions that the buses are headed right into a concert venue and if they don't slow down, there will be a bad accident on their hands. All of a sudden the scene goes black and the crowd don't know what's about to happen. Then blue and red light(like cops car lights) light up and sirens blare, then in a blaze of glory and sparks and bangs, the two buses(well 1/4 of a bus) crashes through the brick walls and come to a halt as if those buses actually crashed into the side of the building. Smoke appears from under both buses. Jay Z exits one bus and R emerge from the other. Both are dress in all white Tux style suits, they stand next to their own bus and the single "Best of Both World" blare out the speakers. Without taking a step, each artist slowly move to the front of the stage(the stage had a conveyor type device that moved them). R Kelly was first to speak as they dug right into 3 cuts from their first CD together. The crowd was amped as dancers appeared and ran up the stairs. 8 female dancers sporting jumpsuits. 4 with "NYC" on the back, with the other 4 having "CHI" on theirs. After those opening songs, each artist left the stage. An unknown hype man came out to warm up the crowd a little more by playing "Nolia Clap" and then finally making way for the party to start....

THE SHOW

Being a Prince fan, I'm use to real music and live bands, in this case, I forgot I was at a Hip Hop/R & B show as there were no band at all, nor a DJ. Just some guy on the side running the DAT machine. Jay Z came out and didn't waste any time letting the people know who he was by jumping right into "HOV"(let me introduce myself), "Jigga"(my nigga), and just after that, he called for one of his ROC comrades to exit the bus and join him and it was no other than Memphis Bleek. His intro was lack luster because the Dat machine stopped and all the power to the stage appeared to be off. Jay Z wanted to make sure the tech was ok while they fixed the problem. In show business, an event like that can make a 30 second delay seem like an hour. I almost thought that was going to be it, but it all came back to life. Jay commented by saying, "man, we so hot, we almost blew this mafucka up"! They finished the set and it was time for R ra.

EACH ARTIST DID 3-4 SONGS EACH THEN THE NEXT ARTIST DID THE SAME, THIS WAS THE HOW THE SHOW WENT. IN THEMED SEGMENTS.

"My minds telling me no, but my body, my body keeps telling me YES" was the call of the wild as the R in R & B strutted to the stage crooning this classic line heading into the rest of "Bump and Grind" Then singing the Old School Remix of the same song(Rodeo Show) Wearing a purple leather outfit complete with leather holsters on his shoulders. He asked the Minnesota crowd "Is it ok that I do whatever the fuck I want to tonight"? Naturally the ladies let him know that it was ok for him to do whatever he wanted to do. Because tours tend to change the set list all the time, I won't dwell into each song, but I will offer some highlights of the segments.

R seemed to theme his segments around each of his albums as each cover form his CD's graced the 7 monitors above the stage as he came out for his solo segment. I particularly like the way he came out for his "12 Play" segment. on the video screen in the middle of the stage stood 5 dark silhouettes of R Kelly in the pose that's on his 12 Play album cover. As the music began, the middle figure started to move and that figure was actually Kelly who in my surprise, actually wore the same outfit that's on the CD cover(Black Jeans, Vest with all the letters on it, and a cane) After singing the title track from the Album, he went into a few more cuts from that CD. In another routine, he sang "Down Low". He delighted the ladies with a song about making love in his kitchen that was pretty comical. I got the biggest laugh as he sung in his "Feeling On Your Booty" as he sung the chorus, I could not help singing Dave Chappelle's version of that same melody(Piss on you). If you thought the funny ending of "Booty" was funny on the CD, he really but major emphasis on the booty part in this live version.

From TP-2000 he got into "Greatest Sex" and "Strip for you" as he had his dancers hold a red silk sheet around him as he appear to be changing clothes. I, nor my wife didn't buy it because as each article of clothing were so-called removed, a dancer showed the crowd what was removed. When the first dancer appeared with his black jeans holding them in the air, those pants were big enough for my big azz to get in them, so that as all props. However, he did rise from the sheet wearing a black trenchcoat and nothing at all on his feet. He began "Strip for you" and by song's end appeared to that the coat off as the lights went dark. He also wanted to read a poem he wrote, and proceeded to get the paper it was on from inside his pants in his crotch. Yeah, ok R ra. He said the paper was all wet, the girl next us said "yeah, cuz you peed on it"! Good call sistah.

He ended his solo segment with his Steppers set. Coming out in an all white suit, with a white hat with red trim, red gators and a red tie with a white overlay. His dancers had a white and red suit to compliment his outfit. He did "Step in the name of love" along with the remix version and a long extended "Happy People" He really ended his set on a very strong positive note.

Jigga man's segments were also semi themed as he just pretty much blazed all his classic hits. On of his later segments, he actually went old school rocking the fake Gucci coat and Gazal frames made famous by DMC. During his hit song "Song Cry" he asked who knew that song and spotted a young girl in front and pulled her onstage and she actually knew the lyrics and Jigga was impressed.

SIDENOTE: A lot of the show was crowd participation and both artist was shocked at the lyric knowledge of the Minnesota crowd. Because of the big screens, you could see their reaction, especially during "Jigga what, Jigga who" when he pitted one side of the crowd against the other.

One real bright spot was the all inclusive ROC segment as a parade of ROC members ran off the bus to the into to State Property's "Roc the Mic" Philly's own Freeway and the Young Gunnaz were on hand to give Freeway some backup on "Roc the Mic" and the Gunnaz(Chris and Neef) themselves performed "Can't Stop, Won't Stop". Both Jay Z and Kelly performed the lines from they appear in with other artist. R sung his hook from "We Thuggin"(Fat Joe) and "Wonderful"(Ja Rule). Jay did his spots from "Crazy in Love"(Beyonce') and "Frontin'"(Pharell). At the end of "99 Problems" he gave a slight reference to his better half by saying "I know the difference between a Bitch and a "B"(Beyonce')

TRIBUTE

This was a nice part of the show as the artist paid homage to the fallen soldiers. Jay Z came out in a Biggie Shirt while giving props to Biggie, Big Pun, Left Eye, Jam Master Jay, Aliya, Eazy E, and Tupac. He gave special attention to Biggie, Pac, and Aliya. He had the crowd sing along to Big Poppas lyrics to "Mo Money, Mo Problems", for Pac he played "Hail Mary" and this was maybe the biggest response of the night. After that, he played the instrumental of Aliya's "Missing You" as he spitted a song in her memory. Very Nice touch.

R's tribute was one to his fans for sticking by him in his time of strife. He then went into his smash TP-2000 hit "I wish".


FINALE

They both came out and did the Fiesta remix and said their Good-byes.

In conclusion I was entertained as Jay Z did most of my favorites including "Encore" from the Black Album. I thought R Kelly was going to go into his new spiritual/stepping self of late, but he was all of the Coochie stealin', pelvic thrusting, nasty bastid he was back then. LOL I'm sure the ladies was happy.
[Edited 10/20/04 14:28pm]

Thank you so much for this review. I could not afford tickets. I tried for a week to win them from the radio and still no luck. I was so depressed last night thinking about how I was missing the show. "Who know when R.Kelly will return to the twin cities. Thanks again