August 30, 2008 – After devastating performances by the St. Lunatics, multi-platinum recording artist Lil Wayne rolled into the Chaifetz to throw down, spit fire, and claim his title as best rapper alive.
Decked out in aviator sunglasses, a Nooka watch, and his finest chains, Weezy F Baby, took the stage as fans threw dollar bills on the stage, paying respect to the Cash Money CEO.
Following the surprise appearance by Nelly, Murphy Lee, and the rest of the St. Lunatics, Lil Wayne's performance saw Bryan “Baby” Williams, AKA Birdman, as a last minute guest, appearing to perform the duet “Stuntin' Like My Daddy.”
Lil Wayne's set saw a diverse tracklisting, from the title track from 1999's The Block Is Hot to hits from his double-platinum release 2008, Tha Carter III, his seventh studio album.
Set List:
- Money on My Mind
- Duffle Bag Boy
- The Block is Hot
- Burn This City
- Comfortable
- Started Out Hustlin'
- Ms. Officer
- Got Money The Sky's the Limit
- Leather So Soft
- Milli
- Stuntin' Like My Daddy
- We Takin' Ova
- Pop Bottles
- Lollipop
Photographer's Notes:
This performance was a highly unique set to photograph due to several factors. The most prominent feature was that the cruciform stage was in-the-round, providing a 360º photo pit and a lot of real estate to cover throughout the show.
Two spotlights, positioned opposite from each other in the arena, lit this show, and generally proved adequate for keeping Lil Wayne illuminated. There were only a few instances, namely when Birdman shared the stage, when this two-light setup failed to shine light on the rapper from the key angles.
The lighting setup also introduced the interesting instance of backlighting for many shots, which was excellent so far as one could line up the rapper with the far light.
Overall, Lil Wayne took good advantage of the 360º stage and worked all sides throughout the performance, but not to such a frenetic degree that tracking was impossible.
One hugely nice aspect of this shoot is that the press were allowed to photograph the entire performance, which went a long way toward a good variety of images in the final set.
