Rick Ross, Flo Rida, Brisco, Jazmine Sullivan, Busta Rhymes, and more.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Cafe Iguana
Better Than: Watching BET's 106 & Park
Power 96
does not like to be showed up. Last weekend, much attention was paid to
Y-100's annual Jingle Ball concert, and their star studded line-up of
pop acts like Chris Brown, Fall Out Boy, Rihanna, Katy Perry, etc. Just
three days later, South Florida's favorite pop station for the people,
Power 96, held their own impressive holiday jam titled, The World's
Largest Office Party, at Cafe Iguana last night and proved that they've
got plenty of star power on their team as well.
Featuring six hours of continuous live music, DJ Laz
and crew kept the packed club thoroughly entertained with local and
national music celebs all night. Artists like JT Money, Grind Mode,
Pleasure P, and Casely all warmed up the crowd with their litany of
hits. Casely's "Emotional" is still getting good response as is Grind
Mode's "I'm So High." Out of the bunch, Pleasure P
probably got the best reaction from the ladies while singing old Pretty
Ricky songs like, "Grind on Me," and his newest radio-friendly jam,
"Boyfriend Number 2."
In the midst of all these performance, a
hip-hop entourage that was nearly100 strong made their way inside of
Cafe Iguana at once and stunted from the front door all the way to VIP.
Among them was Ace Hood, Rick Ross, Flo Rida, and the whole Poe Boy Records family plus a legion of girls that looked like they were straight out of a music video.
Poe
Boy definitely made their presence felt, as artists like Billy Blue
(pictured above) and Brisco continue to make the argument that they are the hottest rap label in South Florida, and not Slip-N-Slide.
Just as it seemed that hip-hop would be the lone genre of the night, Laz called out special guest Keri Hilson
to the stage and she did a couple of numbers like her Timbaland
produced hit, "The Way I Are," that brought a well-needed shift in
energy to the party. It had pretty much been all guys up to that point
so seeing her as a surprise was good. As soon as Hilson finished, Jazmine Sullivan
came out and jumped right into her mega hit, "Bust Your Windows," as
all the ladies started singing along with her word for word.
The
song got such a good response, the DJ had to pull up Sullivan's
omnipresent radio jam and she started to sing it again. Naturally, she
followed it up with "Need U Bad" and thanked South Florida for having
her. If you're a Sullivan fan, be sure to head to Cafe Iguana on
December 21st as she's performing there again this Sunday.
After Sullivan left the stage, DJ Laz came back up with Sito Oner Rock
who performed a track and then soca/R&B star Kevin Lyttle (pictured
above) came out and sang his amazingly still popular, "Turn Me On,"
which got a crazy response from the ladies. The song is like 5 years
old at least, but people still love it.
Next up, Brisco took
the stage and performed his hit song "Just Know Dat," without Flo Rida
for some reason, even though he was clearly less than 30 feet away, and
also spit, "Bitch I'm Me." Billy Blue joined Brisco on stage and
represented for all of Haitians in the building. By the time Flo Rida
came out, everyone was hype, but for some reason, he performed his
underwhelming tune, "Elevator," which nobody really knew the words to.
He caught on quick and switched to "Low," the lone actual hit in his
repertoire that everyone wanted to hear.
Ross came up with the Triple Cs
and jumped into his verse from "I'm So Hood" and then rapped
"Speedin,'" "Hustlin,'" and "Here I Am" among other tunes. Ace Hood
jumped on stage and did his verse from "Out Here Grindin,'" and just as
it seemed the show was done, Busta Rhymes popped up out of nowhere, and when DJ Sam Sneak
dropped "Arab Money," the whole club went nuts. It was a great party
and Power 96 definitely threw an event that folks should remember for a
long time.
Critics Notebook:
Personal Bias: I've been a Busta Rhymes fan for well over a decade and lyrically, the man can do no wrong in my eyes.
Random Detail:
After the show was over, most of the rappers on stage headed to Take
One Lounge in Lil Haiti, one of the grimiest, and best strip clubs in
Miami.
By the Way: Ross mentioned to me that his upcoming album, Deeper Than Rap, should be dropping in March or April of next year for those who take note of these types of things.
--Jonathan Cunningham
