Ashanti and Ja Rule on-stage at Fully Loaded. - Michael Sloley /Freelance Photographer WHEN ASHANTI was billed for 'Fully Loaded', there was a buzz of excitement. That excitement was justified at Fort Clarence Beach on Monday morning when the singer turned in a good performance for the packed venue. The singer, who recently arrived on the scene with her album Foolish and several popular singles, received a warm reception from the crowd during her 20-minute set.
She opened her set with Baby which had the women screaming and fires blazing. The R&B crooner also did Foolish and What's Luv - much to the delight of the crowd. The songbird, who was clad in a blue skirt and a white top, explained the reason she had written Foolish. She said the song was dedicated to women who were tired of being deceived by men.
In-between all this, she explained that it took her nine years to reach this stage in her career. She encouraged the audience to never give up on their dreams. She then performed Dreams.
To cap off a good performance, the singer called up Ja Rule and both teamed up to perform Always On Time, which had even more fires blazing, especially when Ja Rule rapped his part. They both performed one other song before they were joined by Charli Baltimore, who was also greeted with a good response.
The local big guns also fared well. Elephant Man, who was dressed in a New Jersey Mets baseball outfit with a bat to match, had the crowd in his corner. He did Elephant Message and several other current tunes. The singer was joined by Kip Rich, who also wore a baseball outfit.
Bounty Killer also did well while on-stage. He was followed by Beenie Man, who pleaded for peace between himself and Bounty Killer as well as pleading that the artistes come together on-stage in a show of unity.
Spragga Benz did well as host, doing several tunes in-between introducing the sound systems. He also managed to maintain some order on the stage when it seemed about to get out of control at times, especially when it seemed everyone was going to 'rush' the microphone.
Aside from that, the audience was treated to good performances from Lady Saw, who was at her best. Bling Dawg, Mr. Lex, Mr. Vegas, Danny English, Egg Nog, Determine, Vybz Cartel, Assassin and Zumjay also represented well. Lady Saw was in her element. She glorified girls who were able to take another woman's man for good reasons. She said that the reason was to give lessons in 'good bedroom performances'.
Several selectors also did well with Sky Juice, Black Chiney and DJ Khaled managing to get good crowd support for most of their set.
Upcoming selectors The Asylum deejays and Vendetta also did well in the earlier segment. While they did well, Concorde and Ecstasy Disco were not so lucky. The selector of Ecstasy was booed after he had insulted a woman in the audience. He was encouraged by Nuffy to apologise but his apology was rejected by the crowd. Concorde was booed because of poor word choices. The selector pointed out he was light-skinned but did not like women darker than him. His statement did not go down well with the crowd. The only drawback was a bottle throwing incident at the end of the show, when upset patrons hurled bottles on the stage after police insisted that the 2:00 a.m. cut off time be observed.
See related story in today's Star.
