Just before Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg hit the stage during the "Up In Smoke" tour at the E Center last night, the junior high and high school kids in the audience got eyefuls of bare-chested women and graphic violence.
During a pre-gig video, Dre and Snoop were seen gallivanting with semi-nude women and blowing away some thugs who tried to shoot them down in a liquor store robbery.
It was interesting to hear the sold-out audience at the E Center cheer Dre (Andre Young) and Snoop (Calvin Broadus) when they filled one guy full of lead.
That's how their set began. The two West Coast rappers walked onto the stage, through a liquor store door, and began to chant off some of their trademark huff-a-minute lyrics that glorified sex, violence, drug use and more sex.
Surrounded by four video screens, a couple of neon marijuana leaves and a huge stage-prop skull, the two masters of the mouth got the crowd jumping and bumping to the tracks "Still D.R.E." from "2001" and Snoop's "Who Am I (What's My Name?)" from his "Doggystyle" album were some of the hits that got the loudest responses. Then, of course, there was Snoop's "Gin and Juice."
Still, the sex and drug talk lasted throughout the set. And when the duo asked a young singer Devin to come out and sing "one for the ladies," he broke into the sexually explicit "(Bleep) You."
Also on the bill was multi-platinum-selling artist Eminem, also known as Slim Shady or Marshall Mathers.
It's understandable why this angry Caucasian rapper is a hit with the young kids. He's charismatic, clean-cut and a very talented poet. However, the topics he chooses to talk about have the conservative public on edge.
Eminem took on authority figures with "Just Don't Give a (Bleep)" and made sure all who were there knew who he was with "My Name Is." He set the tone for his set with the threatening "Kill You."
The audience erupted even more when Em brought out some inflatable dolls and posed them suggestively, saying the mannequins were his rivals in the other hard-core rap/metal duo Insane Clown Posse.
But the audience loved him. And when he and his sidekick, MC Proof, cut into "Criminal," "Marshall Mathers" and the No. 1 hit "The Real Slim Shady," the audience drowned out the concert's tight and balanced production mix.
And the audience members loved him. In fact, they loved everything. Even when he told them how drunk he was, they screamed. And when he told them he might get sick on stage, they cheered.
Opening the show were crooner TQ and G-Funk father Warren G. They, too, sang and rapped about sex and drugs. But unlike Eminem, Snoop and Dre, the other two "artists" lacked stage presence and charisma.
The host of the evening was comedian Alex Thomas of the "Jamie Foxx Show." Although his schtick drew laughter at times, the material wasn't for the young.
More explicit sex jokes, innuendo and profanity-laced monologues had the audience cheering for more. Thomas took aim at handicapped and homosexuals and even kidded around with racial stereotypes. He even went so far as to ask the women in the audience to lift up their shirts.
Some did. All were objectified and all screamed their approval.
E-mail: scott@desnews.com