The Hot 97 annual Summer Jam concert at Giants Stadium drew close to 60,000 fans to see an allstar line-up of Wiz Khalifa, Waka Flocka, Fabolous, Lloyd Banks, The Diplomats, featuring Cam’Ron, Juelz Santana and Jim Jones, Chris Brown, the entire Young Money camp including Lil Wayne, Birdman, Drake and closing the show this year “The Boss” Rick Ross.
Wiz Khalifa started the show off with a bang performing his hits “Roll Up”, Another Level” and “Black And Yellow” to a raucous crowd. The Pittsburgh native had the crowd in the palm of his hand as if he was a rock star. The only thing that was missing from Wiz’s show last night, especially after all of the celebrity guest appearances throughout the evening, was not seeing the ever-present Amber Rose who is usually seen attached to his hip more than an 80’s Skytel pager.
Then came Waka Flocka in full “energizer bunny mode” as he bounced across the stage tossing his dreads side to side getting the crowd hyped. Wale then joined Waka on stage to remind the ladies that using “No Hands” might not be a bad thing after all. Fabolous rocked out with a live band performing hits off of his soon to be classic “Soul Tape” capped off with “You Be Killing ‘Em.” Then to my surprise, G-Unit’s Lloyd Banks put on a pretty entertaining set by bringing out surprise guest after surprise guest that would include Ryan Leslie, Lloyd, Fabolous, Jeremih, Swizz Beatz and one of the highlights of the evening, Mobb Deep. When “Shook Ones” came on, the crowd went crazy. It made you reminisce and appreciate what real hip-hop is all about.
Chris Brown wowed the New York City crowd with his brilliant dancing and stage presence as he brought out some of his celebrity friends Busta Rhymes, Tyga and Kevin McCall. It was a great comeback story in New York for Chris Breezy after a rough two years before. But Chris showed you that he is indeed a superstar. The Black Eye Peas, Swizz Beatz, Jadakiss, super producer Rocwilder, Ed Lover and many more celebs enjoyed the incredible show backstage. But probably one of the most memorable performances was with Lil Wayne, Drake, DJ Khaled and Rick Ross all on one stage. It was a “southern” revival as each artist performed hit after hit with cameos by Lil Twist, Corey Gunz, Tyga, Wale, and Birdman. Rick Ross hit the stage with his Maybach Music family capped off by a surprise appearance by Diddy himself.
All in all, Summer Jam 2011 turned out to be a great night of Hip-Hop and R&B.
Story and photos by- Jerry “Mr. Live And Direct” Bagley (twitter- @mrliveanddirect)
