Phife Dawg Tickets

I bought 2 tickets for the Phife Dawg concert on February 23, 2012 at BB Kings for my boyfriend as a birthday present. A Tribe Called Quest is his favorite band of all time and he was ecstatic when he saw the tickets. He still hangs their original CD cover on the wall of our apartment. The show was at 8 pm and we arrived early at around 7:45. We sat down at a table and ordered drinks and waited for the show to begin. Anyone who goes to a concert knows that there are a few opening acts to get the crowd pumped and ready for the main performer. This concert started out just like the rest but unfortunately took a turn for the worse. I am writing this review a week later so I cannot remember every specific “opening act” but off the top of my head I can count EIGHT, yes EIGHT different opening acts none of whom were noteworthy. There was maybe one or two interesting “artists” in the mix but by the time they got the crowd pumoed and excited another let down got on stage and brought the excitement back down again. By 11:30 I would say that about 30% of the crowd left including two couples sitting close to us because by this point we all had been waiting for three and a half hours for Phife to get on stage. Keep in mind this was a Thursday night and many had work the next morning including myself. I was wiling to stay as long as it took because as I stated before, A Tribe Called Quest was (I say was because after this horrific experience this is no longer the case) my boyfriend’s favorite band so I was willing to stay to make him happy. By 11:45 even he had had enough and we got up from our chairs to leave. I convinced him that we had waited almost 4 hours already and the “last” opening act assured us that Phife Dawg was up next so we waited. The act finished their set and on came Ali Shaheed Muhammad to the stage. The crowd (or what was left of it) cheered as they believed they would finally be seeing Phife, but they were wrong. Ali Shaheed Muhammad instead introduces his protégé and says that he will be performing one song.  Three songs later he is still on stage. At this point there is a group of men standing next to us who are furious and go outside to speak to the manager. Convinced that this is the end and that Phife will be next we stay and let the protégé finish his set. Up next on stage is a hype man who introduces yet another rapper who is not Phife! The hype man is asking the crowd to chant the new comers name and the crowd shouts back “Phife Dawg, Phife Dawg.” It is now 12:15 am on a Thursday night and we have officially been waiting for 4 hours and 15 minutes that at this point we ourselves decide to exit the concert. This was by far the worst concert that either my boyfriend or I have ever been to in our entire lives. My boyfriend has lived in and been going to concerts in the city for 15 years including many concerts at BB Kings.  I am very saddened by this as now my boyfriend’s birthday was ruined but even more painful was the fact that his perception of Phife Dawg will forever be damaged. In the cab on the way home he said “I will never go to a Phife Dawg concert again.”

I had never been to a Hio Hop show and was greatly pleased by one act in particular the koyas. They were incredible, There was no negativity just thought provoking lyrics. I was very impressed by these young artist. They were worth my two hour journey to get there.