oh man it was so fucking awesome!

So, my fiance and I went to a Lil Wayne concert last night. I saw him in Detroit last xmas, and I must say, this one was even more awesome. Lil Wayne is a great live performer, and once again, he didn't disappoint. I did feel bad, though, having to cheer for Milwaukee. I sort of felt like a traitor--ha.

I decided at the previous Wayne concert that I much preferred the environment of rap concerts to rock concerts. I've come out of rock concerts bruised and pissed. I used to go to rock shows simply to enjoy the music and support the bands I loved, but I would spend the entire time dodging drunk assholes punching each other, moshing in a frenzy of intentional violence.

There's little diversity at rock shows. Generally speaking, the crowds are comprised primarily of white people. Who don't dance. At all. And I enjoy dancing to live music. But when you're in the minority of white girl dancing to rock music, men and other women look at you like you're the rock show slut, even if you're dressed in jeans and the band's t-shirt (not that slut-shaming is okay in any sense).

That said, I love rap shows because everyone is dancing. Even my fiance in his no-rhythm dance which only can be described as a "wiggle" (don't worry; we're going to fix that before the wedding, I swear). The crowd is diverse, everyone has gathered to have an awesome time, and everyone is dancing and having fun and cheering and loving the music.

As much as I adore Lil Wayne's shows (after all, they are entertaining--the music, the lighting, the pyrotechnics), I still find the objectification of women cringe-worthy. The women were certainly beautiful and talented singers and dancers, and I do not judge them for their participation in the show, but I find their use in the show was only to further Wayne's image as a highly sexualized man. The women were sexual in every aspect of the performance, the performance being a strip-tease of sorts, complete with pole-dancing.

"Lollipop" was the worst in terms of female objectification. At the risk of sounding prudish, one part of the song featured Wayne thrusting against Shanell from behind, flames roaring up in time with each thrust. It sort of diminished Shanell's obvious talent, being used as nothing more than a sexual object for Lil Wayne to act upon.

So I have a love / hate sort of relationship with Lil Wayne and his music. "Lollipop" is one of my favorite songs in terms of the beat, and the sounds of words, but the performance of it is a soft-core porn of sorts (which wasn't surprising, given that the lyrics are pretty explicit). My biggest problem was how the women's talent was overshadowed by their sexual performances, and how their bodies were objectified.

All in all though, it was a good night out.

Update: I have a follow-up post here. The video that was included here has been moved to the follow-up post, since it directly relates to the discussion.