13 October 2006 (gig)
27 October 2006
The warm-up DJ was spinning some well known tracks to get the crowd going, showing off Brixton's sound system to the best of it's capabilities. The tunes were rumbling out of the speakers to a more than up for it, if extremely varied, crowd. This highlighting the broad appeal of James Todd Smith aka LL Cool J. On the screen at the back of the stage various images of LL Cool J's work and achievements from music to the big screen, flashed before us - the Entertainer, James Todd Smith.
When the man himself eventually hit the stage fifteen minutes late it was to a rapturous welcome from his fans. Kicking off with "Something Like a Phenomenon" breaking it with a demand to the audience "When I say scream - scream" which they did, this was a constant throughout the night's performance. You could have easily mistaken the setting to be that of whichever teen sensation currently gracing the top of the charts rather than that of a hip-hop legend with twenty years in the industry and ten albums to date under his belt. This due to the scores of screaming young fans at the front of the venue vying to get that bit closer to LL. This dream came true for three young ladies as they were brought up onto the stage during "Hush" which LL Cool J serenaded to them.
LL continues to knock out the old favourites "Doin' it Well", "Mama's Gonna Knock Ya Out" to name but a few. The security nightmare that was to follow was unusual and curious to observe. LL just couldn't control himself, whilst belting out his most recent top hit which was a collaboration with Jennifer Lopez "Control Myself", he requested that fifty people from the audience to join him on stage. Not quite that number made it but the sizeable crowd that did, followed him around the stage for the duration of the track. The security on stage appeared less than happy at having to keep his teenage fan club at bay as he bowelled from side of the stage to the other.
The set was drawn to a conclusion with the track that first propelled a seventeen year old LL Cool J into the limelight "I Need Love". The days of lighters in the air are long gone, the request from the stage was to put your cell phones in the air. Now the view is that of little blue lights from the glowing screens of people's mobile phones, swaying from side to side. There was a swift goodbye and then he was gone. People lingered for a bit waiting for LL to return to the stage. He didn't, the show was over.
As we were informed at the start of the show with the montage of LL Cool J's accolades over the last twenty years he's an Entertainer. We were entertained - now scream!
