Chris Brown with New Boyz
November 29, 2009
Revolution Live, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Written by Tony Ozegovich
Starting things off with a thump from the bass, the opening act for the Fan Appreciation tour New Boyz, (famous for their hit single “You’re a Jerk”) got the crowd hyped up with new and old hits from their CD releases. If you haven’t heard of them, they’re part of the new breed Pharrel of N.E.R.D. brought about just a few years ago. The genre consists of a clash between skater like qualities, an old school hip hop flare, and catchy bass filled beats; not to mention the crazy dances that come with it. Other groups that you could probably put them with genre wise are Clipse and Cool Kids, as well as Pharrel himself. Prancing around in their skinny jeans, lumberjack button downs, and fitted caps somewhat brought about old flashbacks reminiscent of the Beastie Boys, and their effort to push the new bboy/hip hop culture forth. Most of the crowd that poured in were on the younger female side, so all of “bopping”, pant sagging, and shirts off were easily pleasing for all of them. Every time one of the New Boyz broke it down, the sound was deafening from the shrills and screams. They finished off their performance by “jerking” around stage and performing the hit single that sprung them to fame.
After the New Boyz had exited, the curtain closed for the set up of Chris Brown’s set. Now I’m not going to lie, when I was entering Revolution at the beginning of the night, I didn’t know what to expect from Chris Brown after all of the recent events that have been surrounding him. About 20 minutes later the curtains opened to reveal Daft Punk like dressed dancers. Chris Brown burst out from behind them and began the night with a choreographed version to his new single “I Can Transform Ya” with Lil Wayne. However, most people seemed a little worried after noticing him lipping the song as he danced. But all of that was laid to rest right after that when he started his vocal performance. Bringing back all of his classic hits from older CD’s, Brown “wooed” the girls in the crowd. All I saw were a sea of cameras and phones recording. About 15 minutes into the performance, the first surprise of the night occurred when Bow Wow ran onto the stage to perform the single “Shorty Like Mine” with Brown. Judging from the looks on people’s faces, this was a totally unexpected, yet pleasant surprise. After this, Chris started getting more recent with the tunes when low and behold T-Pain (the Tallahassee hero himself) popped out with his “BIG ASS CHAIN” to perform “Kiss, Kiss” with Chris. At this point, everyone in the crowd was blown away. Brown finished up the night with a couple more floor grinding and shirt tearing singles, and even a few from his new album set to release soon.
It’s funny to think at the beginning of the night I overheard some girl saying, “I didn’t even know this was going on today til’ my friend gave me the ticket.” While another girl replied with, “ yeah, they even sold out!”. After this performance and show he put together though, I feel Chris Brown will eventually regain his popularity and once again be the prince of pop for the generation at hand. I was actually a lot more pleased with this than I thought and I’m sure everyone else who attended would agree with that.
Photos by Christina Mendenhall
This was tight i went to this everbody should’ve went!! it was off the hook