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Jazzy Jeff & Fresh Prince Forum

THE CHAMP IS HERE!


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After being apart of this board now for the last years, I could never imagine me having a story of seeing JJFP live like AJ had in '02 and Tim last year and other people here and there. Infact, I never thought I'd ever see the day in which I saw my all-time favorite rap group, DJ Jazzy Jeff & Fresh Prince perform live infront of my own two eyes. Here is my Live8 experience, I don't remember a few parts exactly but you get the main idea.

.........................

The story goes like this, the past week we've been researching a lot about Live8 and getting everything together. Friday night me and my boy Anthony leave work around 1010PM. We both aren't tired at all. We pumping with adreanaline. We hung out at his crib and got stuff together until 1240am or so. His ma had a bag full of stuff that we could put in like shirts and we brought a crappy styrofome cooler and packed it with waters. We waited for the bus to Atlantic City around 1:25am and we were off. Got to Atlantic City around 230 or somethin and took another bus all the way across south jersey to this train stop in this town called "Lindenwold". Got there around 430 and took the New Jersey Transit train to Philly. Now I've never traveled by buses or transit trains before and neither have anthony or his ma so we asked around alot. Good thing was a lotta people gave us great advice on where to go.

We go into Philly around 5 in the morning and walked the streets up to the Ben Franklin Parkway where the cops still had it blocked off. (It was gonna open at 6am). The whole time I was thinking bout how FP ran down this street in the "Freakin It" video and a little bit in the "I Think I Can Beat Mike Tyson" video. lol. Well around 545 people just started goin past the cops (since there was only 2 holding a large crowd back lol). We near the stage area around 6 something and we sit down and what not. Now we have 6 more hours of waiting for the show to begin. We were chillin on the left side (if you look directly toward the stage) of the horse statue in the middle. Around 8 though people (especially girls my age) were like being totally ignorant and actin', attackin' rough - so couldn't get any room to sit thats enough. lol. (nice rhyme right?). they started some heated arguments with people just sitting there minding there on business so then we moved to the back and off to the side where it was more relaxing. Me and my boy were just sitting, chillin and ending up sleeping a little bit on the concrete. lol. the crowd was packing on in though. We wanted to concert to start early and rehearsals were beat. The concert started 15 minutes early. Paul McCartney & U2 were live from London but after that, Kaiser Chiefs opened the show followed by Black Eyed Peas performing "Where is the Love", "Get it Started" and "Dont Phunk Wit My Heart". Then Will Smith came on the stage in a red 46664 shirt and did a speech about the situation in Africa and how a child dies of hunger every three seconds over there and everyone did a snapping of the fingers. So nice.

Next up my fellow Jersey boy Bon Jovi kicked it off with "Living on a Prayer", some other song then 'its my life" and he was amazing. just wow. Next Destinys Child came out and Beyonce said something about Live 8 and they performed "Survivor", "Say My Name" and some other song for the girls. They were good even though they looked like they were lip-syncing half the time. lol. After that, they showed Madonna live from London and that was aight. Next Chris Tucker came out and introduced Kanye West. Kanye West had an excellent performance with the live band. He performed his new joint "Diamonds are forever" then took it back to "All Falls Down" and "Jesus Walks". "Jesus Walks" moved the crowd literally and Kanye was freakin' preaching it. Then after that they showed a clip and then some dude introduced the champ. Philly's own Fresh Prince. Huge crowd reaction.

He came out in now a white shirt and black hat being carried on stage to the "Rocky" theme. He then introduced Phillys own DJ Jazzy Jeff - another huge crowd reaction. He took it back with "Gettin Jiggy Wit It" and then did "Switch". Those who said the crowd wasnt into it don't know because I was there and the crowd was the best. He then jokingly did a test with Jeff to see if they were fans and he rapped one line of the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme song and the crowd took over. He kinda mixed that with 'Switch" by the "Hey!!" in between verses. So good. I heard someone behind me, a kind young woman in her 20s who gave us somethin to sit on yelled out "Summertime!" and I just looked at her because I knew it was coming. Then the sample hit and slowly progressd as FP was talking and then "DRUMS PLEASE!"....and "Summertime" kicked off. The crowd was goin nuts, beach balls in the air. I was a little teary because this was my dream coming true. Just seeing DJ Jazzy Jeff & Fresh Prince LIVE in the Summertime in the middle of their hometown in Philadelphia with over a million of people all around me. I rapped each line and was totally into their performance. I wished they had much more time but I was happy.

Next up Dave Matthews band came on and since I'm not a fan, I was a little bored. I wanted to see Jay-Z and Linkin Park next and that was my boy Anthonys fav group - Linkin Park. Toby Keith then came on stage and dont get me wrong ,hes a great singer but I also wasnt feeling him or country music for that matter. lol. Alicia Keys then came on stage after him and sang a track - I forget which one and then finally Linkin Park came out. They did like 4 or 5 of there songs then when we thought they were over, they just introduced Jay-Z and did all their "Collision Course" tracks except "99 Problems". They had the most performance time and the crowd was amazing with them. Everyone was into it - including me. Such great performers both Linkin Park and Jay-Z. It was now around 4 and we decided to leave during Def Leppard.

It took us literally a half hour to just get around the crowd because it was packed much farther then we thought. It was packed and backed up the streets even when you couldn't see the stage, people were just camping out just for the listen of live music. We didnt get to see Stevie Wonder either (except during rehearsals) or anyone else because we needed to leave. We kinda were lost because we weren't sure what street to goto. We asked like 4 diff cops and finally got it right. Took the train back to "Lindenwold". As we were going, the train sometimes wasn't underground and I got to see views of Philly and across the Delaware River through Camden, New Jersey - which is one of the worst cities in the country. I was like disgusted with how nasty and gross it was. But I love the views of city scenary so it was cool at the same time. We got to Lindenwold a little after 6 and got on a bus back to Atlantic City. Got back to Atlantic City around 830. Anthony's dad picked us up from there and drove us back to Anthony's house. My ma then met us at a local convience store and my ma brought me home. Got home around 930ish.

Overall, It was an experience. All those people, everything we needed to do to make it happen was worth it. My dream came true of seeing Jazzy Jeff & Fresh Prince live and it was my first ever concert and in one shot, look how many artists I got to see. I'm pretty happy. Only drawbacks was the people early on just being rude and pushing through up front and cussing alot. Also alotta people were smoking cigs which bothered me but it couldn't kill my time. And I've learned, if you ever need help in the city or what not, dont be afraid to ask. Because people are pretty nice most of the time (I guess depends where you are) and they guide you through.

Me in Philly sitting around 8am waiting..

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Wow! Thanx 4 that review. I'm so happy 4 u. I know how i felt when i saw JJ+FP. Even that one time when i stepped out of the club and they took the stage and i wazn't let back in, while i waz partly furious, i waz also just happy 2 have seem them on stage b4 the whole thing kicked off. Seeing JJ+FP live is one of the best times of my life. I can't wait 2 see them again.

I'm glad that u don't have any $300 fines and speeding tickets 2 go along with your JJ+FP story...ha ha.

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Yeah, sounds like a great time. Good for you, you fulfilled a lifelong dream. I hope you remember this experience for the rest of your life.

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Thanx 4 the review! You are one lucky guy man!

:word: Nuff respect!

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