The second annual Smoker's Club tour, which kicked off October 12, finally landed at Warehouse Live's ballroom Friday night with bountiful billows of smoke. One of the Smoker's Club tour mantras is "Bring your lungs." A line was still wrapped around the building even at 10:30 p.m. The venue was sold out and packed wall-to-wall with the usual 20-something hip-hop crowd that a Scoremore promotion brings. We arrived just in time for Smoke DZA's set.
We were barely in the building ten minutes when we saw the first two people being carried out by their friends. There were also a couple audience members sprawled across the ballroom couches in deep slumber, not because the show was boring they had already "enjoyed" themselves a bit too much. DZA, who signed to Curren$y's Jet Life Records while on the Smoker's Club tour, did some songs off his latest mixtape "Rolling Stoned."
It was still early and we knew it was going to be a long night with a promising line up as the clouds of smoke stayed consistent.
At 11 p.m., DZA finished up and there was brief intermission before Def Jam recording artist, Big K.R.I.T. emerged on stage. K.R.I.T.'s thick southern accent is reminiscent of Pimp C and his energy made it evident that he loves Houston. The audience showed that the city loves him as well when they recited the lyrics to "My Time Machine" and "My Sub" in unison.
Bun B later joined K.R.I.T. on stage to do the "Country Shit" remix, which turned the crowd's spirit up a few notches. Before they left the stage, Bun said, "This is for Pimp, Hawk and Pat." The audience roared in agreement.
The instant Method Man stepped on stage in a tall white t-shirt and a du-rag, hands in the shape of huge W's extended in the air to represent the Wu-Tang Clan. Meth is a veteran rapper and has been performing for nearly 20 years. He has done shows as a solo artist, as the other half of Method Man and Redman and alongside the eight other members of Wu-Tang.
Meth's abundant experience was on display in one of the most enthusiastic live performance we've seen from a rapper in quite a while. He clearly enjoys every bit of performing -- stage diving much more successfully than when he tried it in London and no one was there to catch him -- and toked on a blunt between every song, asking the crowd, "Who got some weed up in this bitch?" Was that a joke?
