Posted on April 21, 2008
When students filed into the Convocation Center to see T-Pain perform, most were surprised at how much of T-Pain they saw. During one of his songs, the rapper, and his two sidekicks, J. Money and Tay Dizzle, dropped their pants to let the audience know the answer to boxers or briefs.
In response to all the guys turning away from the stage, T-Pain responded, “If you don’t see another man’s penis, then you won’t know how small yours is.”
That was just one of many highlights from the almost sold-out concert Friday night that had the crowd dancing and singing to some of his famous hits. Since T-Pain is featured on so many artists’ songs, he performed his part of the songs and each chorus.
DJ Khaled mixed and kept a constant beat going for most of the night. He warmed up the crowd for about half an hour, playing a different mix of popular rap songs and getting the crowd roaring.
There weren’t any backup dancers, but T-Pain and his entourage danced together, while some audience members breakdanced on the floor.
Although it was slightly disappointing to hear only a couple of minutes of some of his biggest hits, including “Low,” “Cyclone” and “Wall to Wall,” the crowd didn’t seem to mind. As soon as one of the songs came on, lights flashed onto the audience to reveal the Convo Center going crazy. T-Pain went silent during different points in songs so the audience could sing the lyrics.
During one point of the show, he addressed the ladies of the crowd saying that he had everything he needed except a Virginia girl, preferably a Richmond, Va. girl. Most girls screamed for T-Pain and others were less than satisfied with the comment.
Junior Nicole Cottone said, “I thought it was rude to say he wanted a girl but not to be his girlfriend. Maybe it’s because I have never been to a rap concert, but I expected him to sing more too. Diplo [the opening act] was so much better.”
Young Cash, the newest member to the Nappyboy label and a personal friend of T-Pain’s, debuted his single and made the crowd go crazy with a reference to a special place on campus.
“Let’s all go to D-hall after this,” he said.
T-Pain also took a moment to remember those lost in Sept. 11, Virginia Tech, Hurricane Katrina and those fighting in Iraq “for no f---in’ reason,” by having a moment of silence. However, there were some in the audience who could not respect those people, and some yelled his name just because they could. To that he responded, “God will take care of you.”
To close the show, T-Pain ended with his song “Bartender” and instead of playing the beat, he had everyone in the crowd snap their fingers. While everyone got involved for the few first verses, after awhile everyone wanted to dance to the beat, but T-Pain kept the crowd snapping for the whole song.
When the lights came on, people left with mixed reviews about the show.
“I had such a good time, and it was my first rap concert,” said junior Kristin Otte. “I didn’t sit down the entire time. My friends and I just kept dancing.”
Junior Paul Pflueger liked the concert, but expected it to be more music rather than talking.
“The concert was fun and the music was great,” he said. “The atmosphere was very hyped, but as for the performance, I thought he spent more time talking in between, so that was disappointing. His antics were entertaining and I appreciated the moment of silence. It was funny they kept shouting out D-hall too.”
