Showing Out

Last night at New York City’s Santos Party House, Kelis was back with an 808 - but gone was the semblance of the feisty R&B Siren the world used to know. Her first full live set of new material, the show included cuts from her forthcoming fifth album Flesh Tone as well as club-spruced renditions of past hits including “Get Along with You,” “Trick Me” and a mashup between her smash “Milkshake” with Madonna’s “Holiday.” While the crowd could have benefitted from an energy boost, Kelis worked that stage harder than any working mom out there – full-length bodysuit included.

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With her new album on the way, eclectic singer-songwriter Macy Gray headlined the Origins Rocks Earth Month tonight at New York City’s Webster Hall, a free concert in celebration of Earth Month 2010 and Origins Earth Initiatives. Featuring opening sets from Ryan Star and Jon McLaughlin, the show featured Gray performing cuts off her forthcoming fifth album The Sellout, slated for release on June 22nd on Concord Music Group, as well as single and joints from her extensive oeuvre. Beginning around 8 P.M., the event included onlookers such as Sarah Jessica Parker and Scarlett Johansson, each of whom walked the green carpet as a line of people stretched down the block entered the venue in anticipation of the headliner’s act. With Juliette Lewis acting as master of ceremonies, the event clearly didn’t disappoint.

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Last night at New York City venue SOB’s, the Roc was definitely in the building. Performing to a sold-out crowd, Roc Nation’s own J. Cole ripped through cuts off his seminal mixtape The Warm Up and threw in a few surprises during his hourlong set, including guest appearances from Young Chris, Talib Kweli and Hi-Tek to help out on a few of their collaborations with the freshman emcee. With a crowd packed into the venue tighter than a shrunken pair of skinny jeans, the show was a taste of bigger things to come for the rapper, who’s readying his Roc Nation debut for release later this year. Hit the jump to see what you missed at the performance.

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The Monster Ball finally came home. New York City native Lady Gaga, who insisted throughout her homecoming performance at Radio City Music Hall tonight that she was a true-and-blue Manhattanite, performed tonight like a fire had been lit beneath her. Ignoring her recent bout with exhaustion (it forced her to cancel her meet-and-greet before her show, which didn’t stop the throngs of little monsters from swarming the venue), Gaga ripped through cuts from her sparkly debut The Fame and her recent follow-up addendum The Fame Monster, paying each track the respect she thought was due (as did her fans) with a parade of outfits, overly stimulating visuals and micro-choreographed numbers that failed to reveale any single flaw. The Monster Ball had finally invaded New York City, and the Facebook generation’s torchbearer for throbbing pop was prepared to take on the challenege of winning over her hometown.

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Braving the unseasonably cold New York City weather, hundreds lined up outside of Gotham Hall last night to attend the Big Apple tour date for this year’s Heineken Red Star Soul concert. One of nine tour dates, the NYC show featured hip-hop’s elite, with performances from Ludacris, Wale, Estelle, Biz Markie, D-Nice and surprise guest Nas entertaining the crowd. The second-to-last date on this year’s Heineken tour, the New York City show turned Gotham Hall into a celebration of the brand and its dedication to hip-hop, a relationship that was exploited in all the right ways as the night’s events unfolded.

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Fox’s new Family Guy spin-off The Cleveland Show is only on its third episode, and already it’s getting a full second season, a move that’s pretty unprecedented on television. According to THR, the new series has been given a full back nine order for its second season, extending the life of this show for a good year. This comes after execs recently gave the show a full first season order after it managed to pull in a hearty number of viewers, making it the highest-rated new scripted series on television this fall. Not only that, but it’s apparently helped boost ratings for Family Guy, which, in spite of the fact that it’s more watched regardless, it’s helped pull in even more viewers for the Griffin family-led comedy series. Basically, this means that The Cleveland Show isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. And if you haven’t watched an episode of the show yet, watch last week’s episode above and enjoy.

Last night, Jay-Z played an intimate show for 200 lucky New Yorkers at Blender Theater, and Showing Out happened to be one of the few hundred fans to score a bracelet to the MySpace event. Tickets for the show were released earlier that morning, with a line beginning as early as 5 P.M. for a concert that didn’t actually start until 10. But after being subjected to a demonstration of the new DJ Hero (it actually looked pretty sweet) and waiting for the backing band to take the stage, the lights finally dimmed and Hov emerged from the wings to the tune of the triumphant “Run This Town.”

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Last night, we had the pleasure of seeing Rakim at Highline Ballroom in New York City, where the God MC premiered tracks off his forthcoming album The 7th Seal. After a small electrical fire sent venue personnel to clear out the second balcony, the crowd crammed together on the floor of the venue as DJ Kid Capri spun classics on the 1’s and 2’s. And after an hour of doing his thing, Capri brought out not the God MC, but rather Rick Ross, who happened to be in town to perform at John Legend’s Madison Square Garden show earlier that night. Showing Out was there to capture two of Rick Ross’ songs on video and three of Rakim’s wowing performance. Hit the jump to see what you missed.

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Hip-hop heads from the Tri-State area made the pilgrimage to the Nikon at Jones Beach Theater this past Saturday to feast their eyes and ears on one of this year’s biggest tours, the Young Money Presents: America’s Most Wanted Music Festival. The show featured performances from Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj, Young Jeezy, Soulja Boy, Jeremih and more, with a sold-out crowd feasting their eyes and ears on the hottest rappers and performers in today’s hip-hop scene. The only downside? Drake, who took a nasty spill on stage the previous evening, was nowhere to be found, already on his way back to his native Canada to undergo surgery on his torn ACL. But that didn’t stop the rest of his Young Money family from stepping their game up and rocking the stage without him.

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This past Friday, Showing Out was invited to partake in some good old fashioned debauchery at New York City hot spot Prime. The club played host to a special Belvedere Vodka event held to celebrate the brand’s partnership with rapper Young Jeezy (watch his Belvie-focused video for “Circulate” here), who was rolling through town the night before performing at Nikon Theater at Jones Beach as one of the headlining acts (that includes Drake and Lil Wayne) on the Young Money Presents: America’s Most Wanted Music Festival tour. After the wall-to-wall crowd got their dance for a few hours, the Snowman made his way to the VIP section with a crew in tow, greeted with flame-shooting bottles of Moet and rows of Belvedere chilling on buckets of ice. Though the rapper was slated to perform two songs, security decided it was probably not a great idea for him to make his way through the massive sea of people to stand on a stage where he couldn’t be seen, so he remained behind the velvet rope and instead assumed host duties. The party raged until the wee hours of the morning, and Showing Out braved the swampy club to bring you exclusive pictures of the event. Hit the jump to see more of Jeezy and the Belvedere celebration.

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