Kanye West is the current golden boy of hip-hop. His College Dropout is one of the best albums of the year. Unfortunately, quality studio product in rap does not necessarily translate to the stage (see Eminem, 50 Cent). It didn’t take long for Kanye West to prove that he’s equally adept at commanding a crowd as creating beats. And what a crowd! The 50,000 or so urbanites that he drew to Centennial Park threatened to shut down the whole area. It was the biggest On The Bricks of the year and possibly the biggest show in Georgia of ‘04 outside of Music Midtown.

Kanye blended soul, funk, gospel and smooth hip-hop into a heady mixture. Just seeing the offbeat sing-a-long on “Jesus Walks” was an amazing experience. Other highlights included the aggressive pulse of “Spaceship” and West’s solo version of the smash “Slow Jamz” (which he kindly donated to fellow Chicagoan Twista - who not coincidentally drew the second biggest On The Bricks crowd of the season).

(Chris McKay / concertshots.com)