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T.I. and Friends

Dec. 10 at Municipal Auditorium

An unexpected endurance contest took place Sunday night at Municipal Auditorium.

By the time hip hop superstar T.I. took the stage at 11 p.m., most of the audience of approximately 2,000 had been cooling its heels for as long as 4 1/2 hours. By then they’d witnessed a combined 45 minutes of performances from the three supporting artists.

Radio advertisements had exhorted concert goers to arrive promptly at the scheduled 6:30 p.m. starting time. Most fans dutifully complied. Yet the doors to the venerable arena didn’t open until 7 p.m. and the first name act didn’t start until 9:30 p.m.

In addition to those interminable delays, the good-natured audience was subjected to other nuisances and slights. These included a woefully inadequate sound system made even worse by resonant echoes in the largely empty auditorium, incessant promotion for the concert’s after-party and pricey tickets that ranged from $32.50 to $105.50.

T.I.’s electrifying performance almost compensated for the indignities. He demonstrated why he’s “The King of the South” in his 40-minute set. Eager to catch the eye of the supremely confident star, his female fans immediately rushed toward the stage.

“Ladies, you know that the coolest n----- in the world is on stage,” he said. (The crusade to ban the controversial word suffered quite a setback Sunday night.)

This has been a great year for the self-proclaimed “King of the South.” T.I. received three Grammy nominations Dec. 7 for “King,” his third platinum album, and a fourth for “My Love,” his hit collaboration with Justin Timberlake. T.I. also received positive notices for his role in the feature film “ATL.”

The Atlanta rapper’s rise to prominence is a big factor in the “Dirty South” movement’s increasing dominance of the hip-hop world. Bouncy but menacing songs like “Why You Wanna,” “What You Know” and “Motivation” epitomize that sound.

T.I. ran through each of those hits, but the evening’s best moment was a reading of the contemplative “Live In the Sky,” a poignant tribute to victims of homicide and those currently under incarceration.

The three other acts on the official concert bill were bitter disappointments.

“I’m the strip club king,” T-Pain boasted during his 20-minute set. Instead, his dreadlocks and crude banter made him seem like a poor man’s version of crunk superstar Lil’ Jon. He left the stage after offering a grossly truncated version of his big hit, “I’m N Love (Wit a Stripper),” inciting howls of protest from beleaguered fans.

Young Buck spent most of his 16 minutes on stage threatening the sound crew, attempting to incite violence between members of the audience, extolling the use of marijuana and disparaging the police. If Young Buck’s bad attitude was an attempt to disguise an alarming lack of charisma and talent, it failed miserably.

Jim Jones was even more disappointing. The controversial New Yorker is a remarkable businessman and harrowing musical force. None of that was in evidence Sunday night.

“I didn’t come to do too much,” Jones confessed. “I just want to have a little bit of fun.” After leading the crowd through an a capella sing-along of his current hit “We Fly High,” he disappeared. He was on stage for a total of nine minutes.

Jones and his colleagues didn’t become successful by mistreating their fans. It’s a testament to the music’s power that most of the audience stuck with the show until its absurdly belated conclusion. They deserved better.

| Bill Brownlee, Special to The Star