(AllHipHop News) You can argue who the greatest rapper of all time is and what the criteria for that prestigious title entails. You can also argue what the best watch is as well.
But after last night’s 30th Anniversary concert for G-Shock at the secret location, Basketball City, in New York City, you can not deny that Eminem and G-Shock know how to garner attention and put on a great show.
Casio began the show stating they had sold over 65 million watches in its 30 year history. They had their extensive line of watches on display from their first watch in 1983 to their latest watches that can resists intense fire, freezing and water conditions.
The theme of the night was “Shock The World” and the people at Casio made sure that permeated every facet of the night. For example, the Casio America CEO and co-founder of G-Shock, Shigenori Itoh arrived to the event on a motorcycle. Mr. Itoh, along with G-Shock creator/engineer Kikuo Ibe and Yuichi Masuda discussed the future of G-Shock before they were accompanied by celebrity guests guests James Marsden, Jessica Stam and Brooklyn Nets stars Brook Lopez and Paul Pierce:
After the formalities, a few hours of open bar access and impatient fan chatter, the show began with Yelawolf, donning American flag shades, running through a litany of fan favorites and deep album cuts from his debut Radioactive. His song “White Boy Sh*t” from his 2012 mixtape Heart of Dixie got the biggest crowd reaction with the racially mixed crowd yelling in unison “I’m on that white boy sh*t”.
The second Yelawolf exited the stage, chants for “Marshall”, “Slim Shady” and “Eminem” began blaring from the crowd and there were plenty of spectators explicitly demonstrating their standom fandom for Eminem:
The 80 million record selling lyrical titan arrived on the stage with a live band and Alchemist as his DJ as he went straight into the adrenaline inducing Recovery track “Wont Back Down”. From there it was a mix of classic Eminem songs (“I Just Dont Give A F*ck”, “Criminal”, “Business”) and newer bangers (“Airplanes”, “Forever”, “Not Afraid). Em even brought out his Bad Meets Evil partner Royce Da 5’9 to perform their Bruno Mars-assisted single “Lighters”.
While Eminem’s breath control and mesmerizing energy kept the enjoyment levels at high, there were problems with the performance that cheapened the event. The biggest problem was the mic volume which affected all the performers that night and even rendering a good portion of Eminem’s lyrics, speeches and interactions with the crowd inaudible, severely affecting the momentum. Numerous times the Detroit legend could be seen adjusting his earpiece and looking blankly at his band.
Even in the midst of that,, the dedicated Eminem fans rapped every fast paced, slowed down, murderous, revelatory and aggressive lyric that came out of that man’s mouth. It truly is a rare experience to witness hundreds of people rap “Stan” line for line with most of the audio barely being heard.
Then again it is rare you get to see the greatest rapper of all time perform.
