“Anger Management 3” with Eminem, 50 Cent and Lil Jon- August 12, 2005 @ Comerica Park

For Detroit hip-hop fans, the combination of Eminem and 50 Cent tour was the equivalent of Christmas and your birthday on back to back days, with both artists delivering to a highly rowdy crowd of 40,000.

The crowd of mostly suburban kids (that broke into their folks’ liquor stash before the show) tried to flow with every lyric rhymed by the rappers. The tour seemed like a joint celebration of over promotion, and overindulgent lyrics.

For opener Lil Jon a commercial for his “Crunk Energy Drink” played before his set, before the Atlanta rapper screamed and grunted through his low-substance, high-entertainment 30 minute set. The kids went wild to the major hits “What’cha Gonna Do”, and the ubiquitous “Get Low”, which made have had every single person in the crowd singing about certain bodily functions. Jon was entertaining but a horrific version of the hit “Lovers and Friends”, where Jon tried to even sing the Usher lyrics, fell very flat.

Before 50 Cent’s hour long set, the rapper had ads for his video game, vitamin water, and movie playing on the screens, which left this reviewer to question the rapper’s street cred. But 50 Cent came out firing with “What Up Gangsta”, followed by solo hits from Young Buck and Lloyd Banks. 50’s first half hour was a massive improvement over previous sets, with a lot of new hit material from his “Massacre” album. The second half of his set, focused in on promoting New York rappers Mobb Deep, and G-Unit female artist Olivia, which brought the set down. As G-Unit left the stage, Banks and Buck screamed “F--- Tha Police”, in an obvious reference to the two getting arrested on gun charges earlier in the week.

Headliner Eminem ripped out a 105 minute set, that seemed to emphasize material from his substandard “Encore” release. Coming out to a one-two punch of new material of “Evil Deeds” and the anti-Bush slinging “Mosh”, Eminem seemed to display growing confidence in front of a massive crowd. With the Ford Field shows of 2004 being perhaps the pinnacle of his career, Eminem went on a staged tirade of the reports that he is retiring. The skit was amusing for about 30 seconds, but a staged putdown of rumored ex-fling Mariah Carey worked better.

Eminem ran into problems with song completion. Like some rappers, Mr. Mathers would rap part of a song, before cutting into his next one. The songs “The Way I Am” and “Business” seemed rushed at times.

Cohorts D-12 showed for a short set, which showed off their solo material, such as Bizarre’s humorous track “Rockstar”. Many D-12 fans went away disappointed without the group rapping “Purple Pills” or “Fight Music”. Most of the concert was spent bringing out rappers Obie Trice, and Trick Trick; whose’ “Welcome to Detroit” was a hit with the fans. By the time Em got to the set closer “Lose Yourself”, many were heading to the exits only partially satisfied.

At 70 dollars a ticket, the crowd was full, but a far cry from the Ford Field shows of 2003, where 95,000 people saw Eminem over two nights. But Eminem and 50 Cent proved that they could keep most of the fans happy, while the some brawled and were busy getting dragged out by Detroit Police.

But with the Anger Management tour, Eminem looks ready to take a step back into a more behind the scenes approach to the music, while 50 Cent looks ready to be a gangsta version of MC Hammer. Are his sneakers and cartoon next? Sneakers? check… Cartoon? …well, there’s always next year…

Need some advice on what live show to see this weekend? Got a question you're too afraid to ask anyone else? Art can be reached at arthatesyou@detroitbuzz.com.