50 Cent, Jay-Z
Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, Selma, Texas, Aug. 1 Halfway through his set, hip-hop’s grand puba 50 Cent declared to an adoring crowd at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater on Friday night that the longer they kept him onstage, the less time headliner Jay-Z would have to perform. They eventually let the young MC go, but their reward was a disappointingly self-indulgent end to an otherwise explosive stop on the Roc the Mic tour. Boasting the most tantalizing hip-hop lineup since Eminem and Dre’s Up in Smoke trek, Roc the Mic has a rotating list of openers (Texas got Busta Rhymes, Fabolous, and Sean Paul), but it’s all about the headlining elder statesman also known as Shawn Carter passing his baton — and mic — to new commercial juggernaut 50 Cent. At Friday’s show, 50 and his G Unit crew didn’t just swipe the baton, they tore it from Jay-Z’s grip with drum-tight renditions of recent hits “In Da Club” and “P.I.M.P.” With a backdrop of the New York skyline, 50 also threw a few shots at rival MC Ja Rule. Once Jay-Z hit the stage, he got the weary audience back on its feet with solo takes on recent hit collaborations with Panjabi MC (“Beware of the Boys”) and Beyoncé (“Crazy in Love”). Soon enough, the Roc-a-Fella Records chieftan decided to spend much of his set hyping his label’s acts, including rising star Freeway. The set was further delayed with a by-now played-out tribute to fallen hip-hop legends such as Biggie and Tupac. Once Hova got back to what he does best, much of the impatient audience were done giving it their all.This article appears in August 8 • 2003.