A Fiasco can be a good thing...

This was it, my chance to see Lupe Fiasco in concert. I had been dreaming about this since my brother played The Cool for me a few summers ago and now, not only was I seeing him in concert, I was beneath the St. Louis Arch and the show was absolutely free.

I arrived downtown with my brother and Brittany to sunshiny happiness and a cool breeze. Since we arrived early, Brit and I decided to explore our Fair St. Louis food options. During our stroll down the boardwalk, we came upon this lovely woman dressed in a pink tutu with a video camera and a box full of props. I am fairly positive she has some issues, but she definitely caught our eye and the eyes of nearly every person in the audience.

After Brittany used her charm to convince a man at one of the food booths to grill her up some peppers for her brat (they were intended to be added to the Philly cheese steak) we headed back to the stage and awaited the start of the show.

At last, a group of DJs headed onto the stage to get things moving. Now while these DJs were fantastic, they were not nearly as incredible as the two signers who were translating every word, spoken or rapped, to the audience with a good deal of urban zeal. Just as we grew tired of watching the signers, a civilian break dance circle formed and put on an impromptu show to a mix of hip-hop and some Michael Jackson mix tapes.



We were already thrilled with our experience at the arch that night, but it was only the beginning. Black Spade then took the stage. He and his crew along with his brother Tef Poe and Made Monarchs filled the stage, some wearing giant card board shells with painted alien faces on them. While Black Spade was good, Made Monarchs stole the show when their lead man Rockwell Knuckles removed the alien shell covering him and dove into some awesome rhymes. The most astounding part was that we all thought he was intoxicated out of his mind while he was just kickin' it on stage two minutes earlier. Never judge a book by its cover folks, he came outta nowhere!



Just as the sun was setting, Lupe took the stage along with a fellow rapper, a DJ, and the most incredible drummer I have seen to date. The guy was a giant wearing a black T-shirt featuring Barack Obama with a ballin' ball cap photo shopped into the picture. His drum set was a gorgeous 33 red pieces and he played every piece splendidly.

Lupe had a fantastic set, and I was inspired to see how into each song he was, even after performing them a zillion times. He even featured one of the signers by performing part of a song right next to her. Great, I'm telling you, just great stuff. Young guys everywhere were dressed to impress, Lupe style and even some toddlers speckled the audience on their parents' shoulders. We were lucky enough to hear his new single from LASERS, Shining Down featuring Matthew Santos (whom I enjoy very much). The single leaked a few weeks ago, and every true Lupe lover knew each word already.


The night ended on a high note with a group of people dancing in circle to the late great Michael Jackson under fireworks shooting off over the river. There were no crazy people to disrupt the show and everyone was there to fully appreciate the hip-hop culture. Concerts do not get any more enjoyable than this people. If you couldn't be there, I hope this will give you some small idea of how truly incredible the whole night was.