Many revellers who attended last week’s Ja Rule concert at The Dome in Northgate, Johannesburg, believed that his performance was made weaker by the absence of the singers he made his famous duets with, but some still thought he rocked.
The American hip-hop star did not bring along even one singing partner from his popular duets with musicians such as Jennifer Lopez, Ashante and bad-boy rapper Bobby Brown.
The gravel-voiced rapper performed 12 songs taken mostly from his previous two best-selling albums. The latest album, The Last Temptation, has already gone double platinum in South Africa.
While performing these songs, the 26-year-old Ja Rule relied on the crowd to sing along to his famous tunes. And with this request the young crowd did not have a problem, responding by singing along in unison.
It was evident that the concert organisers struggled during the week before the concert to sell all the tickets. The 15 000-capacity venue was not as full as one would expect when a star of Ja Rule’s calibre visits our shores.
Performing while drinking his favourite champagne, the rapper, who was born in Hollis, Queens, kept on asking the crowd whether they wanted more, and they responded in unity with a big yes, but then he abruptly ended his performance. This was before midnight.
Most girls who attended said he rocked, but the boys were bored to bits and complained about his arrogance by rudely ending his performance. They called for more hit songs like Temptation, taken from his latest album, but he did not perform the song.
The local kwaito and hip-hop acts who supported Ja Rule did not disappoint, although they were allowed only to perform two songs each – those with popular tunes were allowed three. Acts such as Zola, Amu, Mzekezeke, Brown Dash and Kabelo outdid themselves on stage. These were the stars of the night and got the crowd dancing.
Disappointing in their performances were Afro-Z and TK. They urgently need to improve their live acts if they want to be taken seriously as performers of note. Some of the local acts complained of shabby backstage treatment they got from the concert organisers, who apparently regarded Ja Rule as some kind of a demigod.