Lil Wayne didn’t give us much different than we saw earlier this week on Saturday night – and that’s not a bad thing.
The rapper performed for the second time in his New Orleans hometown, this time at GQ’s Party and in a more intimate, celebrity-friendly setting.
Instead of a longer set, like the one he gave would be Super Bowlers at Thursday’s EA Madden Bowl event, this was a scaled down version that lasted a little over 20 minutes.
It was still high quality Lil Wayne, of course, and he performed many of the songs that were heard at the Thursday event. He opened with the hard-hitting “John,” a song that reads a bit different on a stage in the backyard of a mansion than it does on a concert-sized stage.
Wayne wasn’t able to skateboard his way across the stage like he did on Thursday (which may have been a good thing, considering that he played a game of flag football in a dayside DirecTV Beach Bowl event with others like Snoop Dogg, Eddie George and Jesse Williams), but he did repeatedly thank the crowd for sticking by him, and shouted out his forthcoming album.
Before his performance was complete, he executed tracks like “John,” “She Will” and “No Worries” like a champion.
And for those 23 minutes, he was a champ. He was the guy who was essentially giving out-of-towners (at least those lucky enough to see him do his thing live) a taste of what modern day musical masters such as himself have been able to contribute to the musical cannon.
Wayne came across almost humble at times – as humble as a guy can be in the braggadocious world of hip-hop, that is. If not humble, Wayne at least was appreciative of kudos being clapped his way, and graciously accepted them all the same.