So first the part that sucks. I went with my friend, who's Somalian and got me into K'Naan when his cd first dropped. They said the show started at 9, and we got in the door at 9:10 to find that K'naan had gone on at 8:30 (when the place was pretty much empty I'd think, given the lines outside) and Jean Grae was already a few songs into her set. So that really sucked, cause we were excited about seeing him.

Jean's set was really good, I actually never listened to her before much, and her spot on Where You Gonna Run from Right About Now was about all I heard of her before this. She was great, having fun with the audience, definitely a performer who enjoys what she's doing. Plus her flow is tight.

Pharoah Monch was incredible, you'd have thought he was the headliner, and he killed. He had the audience screaming easily as loud as Talib and Mos did. He played some classics and one fucking awesome new song. Had everyone jumping, swaying, shouting along. Then in the first of two kick-ass transitions, Talib came out on stage to do Guerilla Monsoon rap with Monch.

Talib did a great mix of classic RE stuff and new stuff, and everything in between. After Guerilla Monsoon Rap he went into his part of Old School from Dangerdoom, I Try, then killed with (this isn't everything and probably not in the right order) The Blast, Move Something, Fly that Knot, Where You Gonna Run (with Jean Grae coming back on, they hit this one perfect). I do have to say that I've seen Talib twice now, and I don't love his live voice. He shouts in a way he doesn't in the studio. Halfway through Get By, who do we hear coming on the mic but Mighty Mos, who does the rest of the song with Talib before the two launch into a much longer Black Star set than I ever expected.

The did Struggle Struggle, which everyone in the crowd already seemed to know, Definition, Astronomy. Seeing the two of them on stage together was incredible. Seeing Talib was great, and seeing Mos was great too, but this was what everyone was there to see. They tore it up, and the audience was going nuts.

Sadly, when Mos started his set (which was probably the longest of everyone in the show), it started off pretty bad. He did a lot of singing, a lot of stuff from The New Danger that wasn't great, a lot of dead time between songs. I think 20 minutes in or so he realized this, because we heard "bucka bucka bucka bucka bucka bucka" and the crowd went nuts. It was good to hear Mos play the stuff we wanted to hear. He definitely got the audience back, cause from here on he played a lot more BOBS shit and the good stuff from the New Danger, like Hip Hop, Ms. Fat Booty, Umi Says Ghetto Rock, the Boogie Man song. There was still some wack shit in there, but Mos is a great performer, and he was getting really into it. He did a new track about New Orleans that was really good, and he did that and a few other songs a capella before doing them with the beat, which was cool, but may have been better if he did it once instead of 3-4 times.

Towards the end, Talib came back on to do Brown Skin Lady with Mos, which was great. The weird part was this chick who rushed the stage and started grabbing Mos before getting jumped and dragged off by security. Mos just looked really confused about what the hell was happening.

Given what I read about the previous concerts on the tour, it seems like we got a lot of Black Star in comparison, which everyone loved. Other than missing K'naan and a little Jean Grae, and some of Mos Def's shit not being up to par, it was a great show that was well worth the money. About K'naan starting at 8:30 though, he's part of the tour, he's not a pre-show. If the tickets and the venue say it starts at 9, they should start at 9. Or just tell us that it's starting at 8:30 so we know to be there. I know K'naan is by far the smallest name on the tour, but he's a MC who I really wanted to see and I'm sure I'm not the only one.