Published in the Quad-City Times on Aug. 11, 2024

The only arena rap show of 2024 in the Quad-Cities didn’t feel like an arena show at all. 

Saturday night’s Summer Jam ’24 — headlined by Cleveland rap collective Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Atlanta’s Yung Joc and former “Pimp My Ride” star Xzibit — had the feeling of a house party this weekend at Vibrant Arena at The Mark.

There were old friends meeting in the aisles. The seats on the arena floor were obstacles for handshakes and dance moves. Cups were in almost every hand, on-stage and off.

This was an intimacy that you don’t get in an arena space very often. 

That’s partly because of the sparse turnout. Just shy of 1,800 fans attended Summer Jam, according to the arena. That’s roughly 20% of the building’s full capacity. The upper deck was sectioned-off on Saturday. 

This booking felt ambitious from the moment it was announced earlier this summer. On the rest of their 2024 tour, top act Bone Thugs-N-Harmony have been scheduling spaces a fraction the size of Vibrant Arena: a 1,600-capacity spot in Nashville, 1,700 in Columbus, 2,500 in Jefferson City, Missouri. 

But still, I commend venues that are willing to take a swing. And any noise about turnout sizes was peripheral when all these throwback hip-hop fans gathered in the same room. There was a positivity and joy that radiated from the relatively full floor seats to the scattered bleachers.

Xzibit, Yung Joc, local act open the show

It started with local rapper Torrian Ball, who took the stage at 7:10 p.m. and played tracks like “Trust Issues” and “Fake Love” alongside hype-men and a DJ. He led the crowd in cheers for which Quad-City they were representing — Rock Island seemed to make the most noise, while Bettendorf was an afterthought. 

Ball’s set was introduced with a bit of comedy by local social media personality Westend Wang, who ribbed the crowd for their age. He got big cheers by asking who in the audience had weak knees.

“Ain’t gonna be no fights tonight,” he joked. “We got work on Monday.” 

“Misunderstood” was the highlight of Ball’s set thanks to a piano accompaniment by Davenport musician Sam Mack Jr. 

Yung Joc took the stage at 8 p.m. with the bouncy “Patron,” a track that livened the crowd instantly. Joc, too, leaned into the local flavor. While breaking down “Knock It Out,” he asked the crowd to chant their area code. The overlapping 309s and 563s were messy. 

“You gotta figure this out,” he said. 

Joc’s hits were nice — the cotton candy sweetness of the beat on “Lookin Boy,” the ubiquity of set-closer “It’s Goin’ Down” — but his banter was better. He joked with fans in the first few rows and spent many minutes seeking out every single person celebrating a birthday, just to bring them to the front of the pit for the performance of his verse on T-Pain’s “Buy U A Drank (Shawty Snappin’).” 

(Speaking of T-Pain, for those curious after the fair fiasco: At this show, many drinks were bought, but none were thrown. The venue uncapped each bottle sold, and this crowd’s rowdiness was much more restrained.)

Xzibit got the next slot on the lineup, taking the stage to a “2001: A Space Odyssey”-styled montage of Los Angeles landmarks. It faded right into “Symphony in X Major,” a track that would’ve been a killer opener if Xzibit’s vocals weren’t lost in the sound mixing. 

The mix improved as his set went along. Xzibit brought a much different energy to the table than Joc, rapping with a viciousness that could have easily derailed the good time. But it didn’t because X pivoted tones with almost jarring ease.

One second, he’d growl on a gritty track like “Criminal Set,” dressed in all black except for a chain and crisp white sneakers. The next, he’d be nodding and smiling, cracking jokes with the crowd like a game show host. He joked about Olympic breakdancing, people using sick days to be at the show and the fact that nobody in the arena could out-drink him.

Xzibit even became self-aware about the duality between his comedy and grisly songs. He ended “Get Away With It,” a track from his rap supergroup Serial Killers, by realizing how violent it was. As if he’d heard it for the first time.

“What an aggressive song,” he laughed. “I was just listening to that, like, what the f***?” 

Most memorably, X challenged anyone in the crowd to come up and rap the entire first verse on “Alkaholic.” One brave soul volunteered and wilted after a few bars. X let him have it, leading the crowd in a womp-womp-womp and pointing at him and laughing when he missed a few lines on the infectious hook. 

That kind of crowd engagement was the highlight of X’s set. It’s commendable that, even if he was noticeably rattled by seeing the empty seats, X partied on anyways. 

“I don’t care if it’s five people, 500 people, 5,000 people,” X said. “I love this s**t.” 

Bone Thugs left frustrated

The show was closed by Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, who are on their 30th Anniversary Tour.

The rap quintet was without youngest member Bizzy Bone, but the rest of the crew was there: Wish Bone and Krayzie Bone in all-black, Flesh-N-Bone in Thugs-branded military fatigues, Layzie Bone in a pearly white fit with an “I’m From Cleveland” tee.

The group performed as much together as they did apart, which kept the stage engaging. Even a bit overwhelming.

On some songs, the group split up, with a few performing at the front and others mingling with the group’s DJ and hype man (dressed in a very slick throwback Randy Moss Vikings jersey, might I add) in the back. Flesh even got a true solo, playing a track from his 2023 EP “Living Legend.”

But still, the songs felt best when all four gathered at stage center.

Like on “East 1999,” one that Wish said was for the fans willing to dig “deep in the crates.” Or on “1st of Tha Month,” when Krayzie and Layzie tag-teamed at the front of the stage for hard verses in between the song’s woozy, hypnotic hook. “Weed Song” was for truly everyone. The aroma wafted through the room from the second Krayzie introduced it. 

This might have been a 30-year anniversary party for Bone Thugs, but it felt like a 51-year anniversary party for hip-hop, too. The group dedicated a large chunk of the center of their set to three fallen rap legends: Eazy-E, Notorious B.I.G. and 2Pac.

They played snippets of each artist’s biggest hit — “Boyz In The Hood,” “Juicy,” “California Love” — and immediately followed each one with a Bone Thugs collaborative track, too — “Foe Tha Love of $,” “Notorious Things,” “Thug Luv.” 

The tributes came full-circle on “Tha Crossroads,” Bone Thugs’ Grammy-winning hit ballad. Wish asked the crowd to put their cell phone lights up and dedicate the song to lost friends.

It was a beacon to all those who weren’t around for the best party in the Quad-Cities on Saturday night. 

The lights stayed high through the whole track, and the fans carried the words that Bone Thugs left behind. When the song wrapped up, it felt like the group had at least one or two more songs in the chamber. A positive note to end on, perhaps, as opposed to the mellow “Crossroads.” 

But the show ended abruptly. The group rushed off the stage, the way one might when teasing at an encore. But there was no encore. This was sincere. 

“We would close this motherf****r properly, but they told us we gotta get out at 10:45,” the group said. 

It was clear Bone Thugs-N-Harmony were frustrated by the hard-out time, and the fans were confused.

“They real serious about that curfew,” the group continued. “They shouldn’t be treating their guests like this.” 

It left a weird aftertaste on what was a pretty wholesome evening. But I guess all good house parties end before you’d like them to, right?