Fabolous' show not that great

The audience let out a sigh of relief as soon as the host appeared on stage and proclaimed in a deep, raspy voice that, "Fabolous has entered the building!" For over two hours, fans had sat through various opening acts to hear young rapper, Fabolous, also known as the "ghetto superstar," perform at the Orpheum Theater in Boston last week.

Before Fabolous appeared, the crowd was subjected to the cacophony of a few amateur rap groups. Certain opening groups, such as the "Justice League" and "Project," from NYC, were talented young artists in their late teens and early twenties, while other acts included three mediocre break-dancers and fifteen female dancers dressed in torn jeans, cotton T's and baseball caps.

The opening show seemed to catch the crowd's interest for a little while, but none of this was worth Fab's twenty-minute debut, where his background music accounted for more than half of his actual performance.

Nevertheless, the two hours of discordant gibberish enabled the crowd to become all the more excited to see Fabolous perform. According to a sophomore who preferred not to be identified, she thought that, "Fabolous was mad energetic and there were a lot of people on stage with him that enhanced his performance even more so."

Others disagreed, feeling the show was not worth the thirty dollar admission.

"The concert wasn't all that I expected. The opening acts were longer than the headliners actual performance, which was very disappointing," sophomore Vanessa Gabb said. "But I did hear he got his money in advance so that could be why."

Many thought that the venue was "lame" because the Orpheum had also kicked out the opening groups from backstage.

Some fans actually had back stage passes to meet Fabolous after the show, but he took off as soon as the music stopped. The only fans that made any contact with Fabolous at all were the ladies in the first row who reached out to grab his dangling arm.

Donned in a Celtics jersey, green sport jacket, baseball cap and a shiny watch probably worth more money than the actual concert produced, Fabolous hopped around the stage with two other backup singers. He animated his fans even though half of the back theater was not even filled up, and shouted out, "Boston, you are great." His suave voice, with a tinge of Brooklyn accent, echoed throughout the small theater and created a great sense of spirit amongst his fans.

Opening with "Can't Deny It" and "Keepin It Gangsta," Fabolous started the crowd off strong. He added in a "Superwoman" remix, "Young'n" and ended with his new single, "This is My Party." He did not sing his latest hit, "Trade It All" with Jagged Edge and P Diddy, but there were a couple of apparent beats played between his five song playlist from that song.

He made sure at the end of his twenty minute performance to let everyone know that his new CD was coming out in March, but Fabolous was likely aware that if he sang more of his new hits at the concert there would be less of a chance people would purchase his CD.

Even though the concert was only thirty dollars, Fab did not seem to realize that college students are poor and don't have that kind of money to spend on a show that is only halfway decent. Next time Fabolous decides to "roll up" into town, it should be interesting to see how many people actually, "Holla back... woo woo!"