New Jack Swing Concert

If you take you love away from me I'll go Crazy....... BlackStreet

This past Friday night me, Lightweight and her girl Take No Mess (TNM) went to see the new Jack Swing concert for Lightweight's birthday. It was a surprise for Lightweight. All she knew was to be ready to go out and I was picking her up at 5:15. She kept asking where we were going so I told her we had a 6 pm reservation at Gray's Papaya. For those of you who don't know about Gray's it's basically a store front hot dog stand with several locations in NYC. Of course Lightweight didn't believe this and figured out that we were going to her favorite restaurant Tony DiNapoli's (very good Italian food - 43rd St and B'way). She was all excited. She still didn't know about the concert. As we were eating dinner we told her that there was a part 2 to the evening. So TNM and I started to sing songs from the artists performing.

So we get to the Theater at Madison Square Garden and the place was packed. Black folk were out that night. So with that comes the fashion disasters. OH MY GOD - I can't believe people stepped out of their houses looking the way many of them did.

Fashion police was giving out summonses: Okay for the big girls - yall can't wear everything that your size 4 homegirl wears. Stop with all the tight spandex and little ass tank tops with no bra. 38 DD should not got without a bra - I'm sorry you just can't. Now for the skinny girls - great your skinny but I don't want to see you butt cheeks hanging out from under your too mini mini. And ladies what is up with the hair styles from the 80's I know it was a concert with music from the late 80's and early 90's but damn yall took it to far. Fellas weren't any better. Why was there this dude - he looked like he could have been Flava Flavs brother, in a cheesy white suit with a jacket that cam below his calf and the sleeves were too long. No lie. And he had the nerve to have on cheap black dusty shoes with it.

We had great seats. But why was there a reformed crack head sitting next to me. She said to me , "yo who performed first?" (cause you know she got there late) And to top it off it wasn't even her seat. She ended up having to move. During Tony Toni, Tone's set she broke out a piece of aluminum foil with some smelly shit in it. I was thinking to myself "hell to the NO she didn't!"

After Seven performed first. They are looking very old but they still did their thing. My only complaint with them is that they sang with tracks not a live band. Also the cousin was not there (babyface's brothers performed with some new dude). Next up was Tony Toni Tone. They rocked it out. Raphael Sadiqq no longer performs with them but the lead singer was their cousin who sounded and looked just like Raphael. They were as good as I thought they would be. Third up was Blackstreet. Now yall know that during their day they had several members leave the group. Well Friday we were introduced to some guy from NC that took Chauncey BLACK's place. They sounded excellent. The harmony was tight. They even had some dance steps going. And ladies member Mark Middleton's body was hot. He took his shirt off and had on a wife beater. Let me just say that his biceps were a thing of beauty. But he went further and took off the wife beater. His six pack was divine. If he would have been butt naked he would have given D'Angelo a run for his money in that video. Ooo ooh, I was having a flash back - sorry. They did all their hits. It's a shame the Chauncey BLACK wasn't there. Teddy Riley did some of his songs with Wrek's N Effect. Then GUY came out. The Hall brothers still look the same - goofy but they did their thing. At one point they started doing the running man across the stage. That had everyone laughing. Aaron sounded the same. What I didn't like about their show was the Aaron was trying too hard to have the same shine he had back in the day. "Your old damn it. Girls don't want you." He had the nerve to take his shirt off. Now if you all remember how skinny he was back then - well he is just as skinny now. My nephew when he was ten had more muscles then Aaron Hall has right now. Shame! Anyway the the concert was a great success in my opinion. I just wish that all of the groups that performed would come back out with some new material. It would sure be music to my ears and sound better than much of the garbage that is out nowadays. If you have the chance to see the concert go check it out. It was well worth my money.