KEY POINTS:
REVIEW
What: Roc tha Block
Where: Vector Arena
Reviewer: Rebecca Barry
It was billed as the ultimate urban experience. It almost became the ultimate urban disaster. First the gig was postponed because Akon had visa issues, forcing the replacement of the two support acts. Then one of the three headliners "pulled a Christina" 24 hours before the show.
Whether or not the Game's absence played a part, Vector was only half full. But the remaining acts made sure punters got what they paid for: more than three hours of music from multi-cultural urbanites.
Including a few too many filler DJ sets.
Sisqo - best known for giving praise to the g-string - may not have been the toughest on the bill but he was entertaining. Flanked by a posse of dancers, the bleached-haired R&B singer performed like the black version of N'Sync, all choreographed moves, pop choruses and a stage aesthetic somewhere between Prince and Denis Rodman.
Then the DJ must have got geographically confused as he tried to rally the crowd for crunk rapper, Pitbull. "Where all my Latinos at?"
Um, probably back home in Miami. Pitbull, who's as stocky as his namesake, opened with impressive, syncopated tongue-twisters before his rap descended into the tribal nonsense crunk is known for - lyrics about dope and sex, delivered in that repetitive chanting style.
But his rootsy tracks were refreshing to hear on a NZ stage, particularly Culo and Toma; his rendition of Lil' Jon's What You Gon' Do felt as hot and sweaty as a party in South Beach.
He wasn't the only act trying to create a party atmosphere by playing other people's music. Naughty by Nature, those icons of'90s good-time hip-hop, were more interested in putting on a spectacle than playing cutting-edge tunes.
First they called for the bouncers to get rid of that ******** throwing things, (nothing like pack mentality to hype a crowd), before Treach ripped off his shirt and gave the ladies some eye candy. When they weren't pacing the stage, chatting liberally, their set veered between old-school Naughty tracks - Hip Hop Hooray, Jamboree - and tributes to Tupac, Run DMC and new-school rapper, Chamillionaire. Their careers may have peaked but they still know how to keep the party pumping.
Supposedly the Game would have been last on stage but Akon wasn't going to let his shot at the finale go to waste. The Senegalese singer lapped up every chance to have his naked torso - and ego - stroked, even if it meant performing much of his set on his bodyguard's shoulders at the base of the stage.
Fans got all the hits - Ghetto, Smack That, P-Money's Keep On Calling - and then some. He played for so long Pitbull wrenched him from the stage, before all the artists got up for the arm-waving finale.
Roc tha Block was too long, dishevelled and lacking in a certain headliner to call it the ultimate urban experience. But with so much variety and energy, the block got well and truly rocked.
