If you take a look inside my iPod you’ll find more than 200 songs by rapper Lil’ Wayne. That’s a lot of music for an artist I really didn’t like just three years ago.
Back then all I listened to was Eminem and 50 Cent, but that changed when my friend talked me into seeing a Lil’ Wayne concert at Hara Arena on April 5, 2008.
At that point in time, Lil’ Wayne was arguably the biggest star in all of music and the $80 ticket, just for a bleacher seat, reflected that.
I was a little bit hesitant the day of show; you know all the stereotypes about gangster rap concerts. But once my friend assured me that I wouldn’t get shot, I got really excited about the performance.
We arrived at the concert an hour early – I surely wasn’t going to miss any part of a show I just paid $80 for – and took everything in. I distinctly remember that the DJ wouldn’t play anything besides Plies and that there were less people than I expected. The building was probably only half full.
The crowd began to grow impatient after an hour long delay, but I still could sense an incredible amount of anticipation for what was about to happen, so I turned to my friend and told him, “Once Lil’ Wayne comes out and the crowd goes crazy, we’re going to jump the rail and get on the floor. “
He agreed.
When Wayne finally came out, I hopped the rail and ran into crowd as fast as I could. When I turned back, I saw my friend was still in the bleachers. He later said a security guard stopped him and said if he jumped the rail he’d be thrown out. I pressed on without him and made it all the way to the eighth row where the guy next to me was smoking a very funny smelling cigar.
I was close enough to Wayne that he could have spit on me if he wanted and I just soaked it all in while he performed hits like “Go DJ”, “I Feel Like Dying” and “Prostitute.” He brought out Birdman near the end of his performance and I nearly lost all feeling in my hands because I was doing the birdcall hand gesture the entire time he performed.
It was an incredible show. To this day I still can’t believe Lil’ Wayne actually came to Dayton.