That being the case, I have always dug specific bits and pieces of rap/hip-hop. Something about being a 19 year old Slayer fanatic then being exposed to NWA 
It was indeed a great show. I have seen live hip-hop but it was in a festival setting (Lollapalooza) as opposed to an all rap bill. To be frank, I thought I might feel like this:
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKlDBi0cyIA[/video]
...minus the paranoid door-locking. But that wasn't case lol
Good vibes and the performances were great. De La Soul I expected nothing of, as I wasn't a big fan but they were surprisingly energetic and got the crowd going quite nicely. Public Enemy followed and I have to say Chuck D has one of the most commanding voices ever. Awesome stage presence and performance. There was actually a band playing with them which I thought was nice. I had to laugh when Chuck told one of the audience members to get up and move as they were all 50+ and were going insane on the stage. Flavor Flav (lol) was there and he actually did the material justice. He played a bass solo and drums on a track and it was surprisingly good haha
Chuck pointed out that he was "more than a f**king TV show" which I thought was interesting.Ice Cube followed and killed it. Did everything from Natural Born Killers to NWA stuff to solo stuff (obviously). I dig some gangster rap
As stated above, the vibe struck me at the right time in the right way. I never tried to look the part 
; but I have always dug the gritty vibe from Dre, Ice T, NWA, Snoop. Good grooves and I can appreciate skill in a non-guitar focused genre. Cube definitely hit the spot for that and then some. He had some funny merch as well:
LL followed it up and surprisingly, did much better than I expected. I dig his old school, more aggressive stuff; but most of the newer things and his more sappy songs I don't like at all. His DJ started the set spinning some records. He had skill, but I found it funny when he announced that this show they were "doing it for real", holding up his records. Supposedly, there is a way where you can be be a DJ without using vinyl? It was kind of Inception-ish to me ("WE ARE REALLY NOT REALLY PLAYING ACCOMPANYING MUSIC. AS OPPOSED TO THOSE GUYS WHO ARE REALLY NOT REALLY NOT REALLY PLAYING LIVE ACCOMPANYING MUSIC.") I digress. LL came up on a platform and did hit after hit. He brought people on stage to dance, which was cool to see especially in a post-Dimebag/Randy Blythe world. He was handing out flowers to ladies in the audience and they were digging it haha He brought Chuck D up to do a duet (lol) on a track from his new cd (Whaddup) and it was great as well. No new EVH track
and no new Brad Paisley track From a cover band musician point of view, it was very interesting to see how they all strung their sets together. Hit after hit after hit, very minimal breaks mixing one track into another and keeping the crowd moving and excited. There were lessons to be learned, genre differences aside.
To bring my metal equilibrium back in check, I ended up buying a Disincarnate cd on the way home for $5.99. Good times indeed
