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This Rap Tour Is Really Smokin’

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It’s one of those music fan mental exercises, like assembling a “desert island” list of essential albums: What would the ultimate concert be? In rock maybe you go with the fantasy bill of Elvis, the Rolling Stones and the Clash. For country, Hank Williams, Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash are surely tenable. And in R & B, try to find a better lineup than Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder.

But what about rap?

Well, how about Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and Ice Cube? And, just for fun, throw in that mercurial upstart Eminem, just to keep the kids interested. Now that would be a dream team for sure--but it’s no daydream. In fact, that stellar squad is on its way to an arena near you.

The Up in Smoke tour, headlined by Dre and featuring a deep supporting cast (Warren G, Xzibit, Kurupt, Mack 10, WC, Tha Eastsidaz, MC Ren), assembles tonight in Chula Vista to kick off a national tour that visits the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim on Friday and Sunday.

“It is, without a doubt, the greatest rap tour in our time,” says Michael Papale, a partner in The Firm, the management company for Cube, the Backstreet Boys and Korn. “I equate it to when the Who and Clash toured. . . . This tour galvanizes a generation and galvanizes the races. You won’t believe the crowd, it’s going to be like going to a Laker game.”

Even if this tour boasts more stars than the Lakers, it may not qualify with some as the clear-cut winner as the ultimate fantasy rap concert. There are strong cases to be made, of course, for Tupac Shakur, Public Enemy, the Beastie Boys or Run DMC.

“Yeah, so I’m not going to say it’s the greatest ever,” Cube says. “But it is definitely something special. . . . Everybody on this bill is as famous as famous can be. They have nothing to prove to anybody, so there’s a comfort level. We’re all here as a West Coast family.”

The tour also benefits from some intriguing subplots, among them Eminem’s recent legal woes, the reunion of three of N.W.A’s surviving members and, despite Cube’s view of it as a family affair, the task of juggling major star egos.

“It’s hard; the problem is there’s not enough time and too much talent,” says Xzibit, the 25-year-old Los Angeles rapper. “It was extremely hard sequencing the show. . . . It’s about 3 1/2 hours, but Dre took care of it. It came down to the best of the best from everybody. The show never stops moving.”

Didn’t some acts want a bigger chunk of stage time? “Oh yeah,” Xzibit said with a chuckle. “But Dre is the president, this is his show. It’s Dre time.”

Or, as Papale, Cube’s manager, says: “It’s Dre’s world right now, we just live in it.” That’s what they used to say about Frank Sinatra, and its not a stretch to say Dre is now the chairman of the board in the rap world. Besides his work in the seminal gangsta rap group N.W.A, Dre has now put his imprint on several key moments in hip-hop history.

His “Dr. Dre 2001” disc, released in November, is closing in on 5 million copies sold and has, remarkably, outsold his watershed 1992 disc “The Chronic,” which introduced the world to a young rapper named Snoop Doggy Dogg and yielded the song “Nuthin’ but a ‘G’ Thang,” named by Spin Magazine as the best single of the 1990s.

Dre is playing the role of mentor-producer for a young phenom again, this time with the 26-year-old Marshall Mathers--better known as Eminem, the hottest rapper today. Anointed and accompanied by Dre, Eminem has become the first solo white rapper to earn huge commercial success and street credibility within a genre dominated by black artists.

Eminem’s guest appearances on “Dr. Dre 2001” hits such as “Forgot About Dre” not only pumped up sales of that disc, they also churned up further fan interest in the young rapper. That paid off at the end of last month, when Eminem’s second album, “The Marshall Mathers LP,” sold 1.8 million copies in its first week. That set a record for single-week sales by a solo artist and set the stage for quick sell-outs for the Up in Smoke tour. The disc has held on to the No. 1 spot for three weeks now.

“The timing absolutely could not be better for this tour,” says Gary Bongiovanni, the editor-in-chief of Pollstar, a trade publication for the concert industry. “It has an incredibly strong bill, and Eminem is hanging on at No. 1. Eminem brings a huge cross-cultural appeal.”

The heat surrounding Eminem might suggest that he would be better served by a splashy solo tour.

“Yeah, it’s a concern,” says Paul Rosenberg, Eminem’s manager. “But we made this commitment to Dre a while ago, and the best thing for Eminem long term is tour with Dre right now, not to go out and do something quick. . . . This helps take him to the next level, performing in front of large crowds with Dr. Dre, which is what people want to see right now.”

The West Coast version of the show opens with Warren G and Eastsidaz. Then comes Eminem’s solo set; Cube with MC Ren, Mack 10 and WC; and finally Dre and Snoop. But throughout the show (which will be staged on multiple sets, including one that an insider compared to Superman’s icy Fortress of Solitude), they’ll perform in various combinations. More than once, most or all the rappers will be on stage together. And, while MC Ren is not on the official bill, several sources say he will join the tour, setting the stage for him to join Cube and Dre for a reunion of most of N.W.A.

“There will be just a smidgen of N.W.A,” Cube says, “We want to do a full N.W.A tour later this year, so we’re just going to give people a taste, just enough. . . . There will be a lot going on, the show will be almost four hours. But it’s not going to be one of those shows you get tired of, believe me.”

Rap Has Proved Weak on the Road

So promoters in the 40-plus cities on the tour must be thrilled, right? “That’s tough to read,” Bongiovanni says. The reason is that hard-core rap and hip-hop in general have rarely spawned blockbuster tours. The rap genre may be a dynamo in record stores, but it has often fizzled on the road.

The Hard Knock Life tour, headlined by Jay-Z and DMX, was a strong performer in 1999, and the Smokin’ Grooves festival logged a few good years on the road before it was discontinued last year, but they have been the exceptions to the rule. No hard-core show hasbeen among the Top 10-grossing tours in any of the last four years, even though the genre’s albums are routinely among the top sellers at retail.

Bongiovanni and others point to a variety of factors for the rap-concert doldrums, among them fans’ perception of possible danger. There’s also the ethos of the shows themselves: The genre is so married to studio and turntable wizardry that live performances can rarely match the recorded versions of the music. Some tours have been fraught with disorganization and poor sound technology as well, perhaps a reflection of the dearth of top promoters risking their time and money on the genre.

Last year, the Ruff Ryders/Cash Money Millionaires tour--featuring multi-platinum stars such as DMX, Juvenile and Eve--was the top hip-hop offering, and it stumbled badly. Shows in Irvine, Miami, Philadelphia and Tampa, Fla., were canceled or postponed in the weeks after six people were stabbed during a backstage melee at a Boston area arena.

“With the hard-core rap shows, a lot of promoters fear that there might be some incident at their show or at one the week before,” Bongiovanni says. “It only takes a few knuckleheads.”

Another variable might cross the minds of promoters for the Up in Smoke tour--the volatility of Eminem, who may be the biggest draw on the bill.

A week after “The Marshall Mathers LP” debuted at No. 1, the Detroit rapper was in a Michigan court to answer felony assault and weapons charges stemming from two confrontations. A judge ordered Eminem to return to court in July, but he also allowed the rapper to leave the state and join the tour. (“It’s not like we won’t know where he is,” notes William Harding, a Macomb County, Mich., prosecutor.)

Eminem has been praised by many critics as a superior wordsmith who offers both wry and scathing appraisals of youthful angst, but he also has been the target of advocacy groups for parents, women, gays and lesbians, all of whom take exception to the clowning rapper’s delight at profane, graphic and violent lyrics.

Of course, all of that notoriety may actually help the tour.

“We sold out two shows in one day,” says Ken Scher, an executive vice president at Nederlander, which handles bookings at the Arrowhead Pond. “You can’t get any stronger indication of how marketable this genre is and the strength of this package.”

This tour also has an advantage that few hip-hop tours can claim: history.

“Part of the problem with hip-hop tours is there isn’t a legacy,” says Peter Paterno, Dre’s attorney. “Metallica has been playing since 1982, U2 has been playing since the early ‘80s, so they’ve built bonds over years and years. . . . Not a lot of hip-hop artists have that, or material that deep. . . . With these guys, it’s just hit after hit after hit.”

Agreements Were Reached in March

The all-star tour concept was hatched by Dre late last year and began taking its final form in January and February, and by March the agreements had been made, according to managers for the acts. Organizers acknowledge there were struggles reaching accord on money issues and stage time, but Papale, Cube’s manager, said those squabbles were never bitter or drawn out.

“Really there was a sense of a family atmosphere,” he said. “These guys work great together. It developed and grew very organically or it never would have happened.”

Added Paterno: “It was a nightmare, but it was a good nightmare.”

Xzibit, a junior partner in this grand stable of stars, says he would never have let financial matters keep him off a stage with Dre and Cube. “Even if I was going along without a dime, I would still go,” he says, “This isn’t even about the money. It’s a big show and its going to be under a magnifying glass.”

That scrutiny explains why Dre--a famously meticulous craftsman--ordered what Xzibit calls a “lock-down” for rehearsals early this week in Chula Vista. Only the crew and performers were allowed in, according to an official with Interscope Records, Dre’s label. Dre also spent two days last week working with the tour’s sound system. “Believe me,” Paterno says, “it’ll be state of the art . . . and it’s going to be the best rap tour ever. There isn’t any doubt about it.”

Up in Smoke with Dr. Dre, Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, Warren G, Westside Connection, Mack 10, Tha Eastsidaz, Kurupt, Xzibit tonight at Coors Amphitheatre, 2050 Otay Valley Road, Chula Vista. 7 p.m. (619) 671-3600. Also Saturday and Sunday at the Arrowhead Pond, 2695 E. Katella Ave., Anaheim. 7:30 p.m. Sold out. (714) 704-2500.

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Home › Live Sound

Up In Smoke

TOUR PROFILE Hip hop's dominance of the airwaves and charts has completely revolutionized the sound of popular music. But the genre, especially in its

By ROBERT HANSON

TOUR PROFILE Hip hop’s dominance of the airwaves and charts has completely revolutionized the sound of popular music. But the genre, especially in its

TOUR PROFILEHip hop’s dominance of the airwaves and charts has completely revolutionized the sound of popular music. But the genre, especially in its infancy, has trailed traditional rock music in one crucial area, live performance – a DJ rig and a handful of vocalists can look a little out of place in arena-sized venues where you either “go to 11” or go home.

But live hip hop has moved with the times. And much of its evolution can be attributed to the “godfather of gangster rap,” Dr. Dre, who in the late ’80s and early ’90s brought to hip hop a level of production and professionalism that was lacking. This year’s Up In Smoke tour, with Dr. Dre as the headliner, furthered the idea that large hip hop tours can be viable and boasted a level of production and sound quality that stands shoulder-to-shoulder with any arena rock juggernaut.

In addition to Dr. Dre, the lineup featured Dre’s long-time partner-in-crime Snoop Dogg and Dre-protege Eminem. The three headliners collaborated with one another throughout the show, as well as performing with a host of other support acts on a stage set that blended influences from both Broadway productions and Kiss concerts, complete with a storefront backdrop reminiscent of L.A.’s seedier sections, a descending chrome skull and pyrotechnics galore. Mix caught the tour when it pulled into the San Jose Arena last August.

BIG BOTTOMAccurately reproducing material that is heavy with loops, samples and sound effects is always a challenge for live sound engineers, and hip hop, with its dependence on an often heavy and distorted bottom end, presents a unique set of problems. Many “out-of-box” P.A./monitor packages are not engineered to produce the kind of low-end fidelity that hip hop requires. This point was not lost on FOH engineer Tim Colvard, who was involved in almost every aspect of the tour, beginning with pre-production back in the fall of ’99. Colvard, a veteran of tours with Whitney Houston and Earth, Wind & Fire, handpicked the components that he felt were best suited to hip hop’s unique sonic qualities, including a V-DOSC system. “We had come across the V-DOSC system several times, and I knew it would cover me as far as the fidelity from probably 150 to 20k,” recalls Colvard. “The question was getting the subwoofers that I needed to do this. So basically we had to get three different vendors lined up to do this tour, which can be tricky.”

The main P.A., including a total of 52 flown V-DOSC cabinets, was provided by ProMix, with 24 additional subwoofer cabinets provided by Maryland Sound. Eighth Day Sound provided two Midas XL-4s for FOH and monitors, as well as the complete monitor array.

Colvard is running between 14 and 16 inputs on his XL-4, not including effects returns. Eight to nine of the channels are dedicated to vocal mics, depending on the particular set list and guest performers. The remaining channels are reserved for the onstage turntable setup, the Instant Replay system and a MiniDisc player, which contains the bulk of the backing tracks and sound effects. “There is no instrumentation onstage, so you’re doing just a little coloring of the tracks and adding some room feel with the reverb and gates.” Colvard’s rack includes an Eventide Orville Harmonizer, TC 2290 multi-effects, Roland SPDE-3000 delay and a Yamaha SPX990 multi-effects.

“Basically, we’re utilizing all of the automation on the console to do level changes from song to song,” says Colvard, who relies on the board mutes to switch among the eight or nine different live performers. “Because there isn’t a live band, the dynamic curve has to happen by way of the automation so that it gives the same feel that a band would give. You can bring your levels up and down to help the ear not get fatigued by just blaring music; it moves around a little bit. I think from that standpoint, using the XL-4 gives us a great option as far as dynamics and effects changes.

“[Dre] allows me the freedom of doing what I think should happen,” Colvard continues. “He comes out every day and he usually listens to see what’s going on and hears what it sounds like – he’s amazed at how venues sound different each night and make his songs sound different. At the same time, he’s given this trust to me to make it happen. It’s a great working relationship for both of us. He’s backed me as far as what I needed from the creative end to make the hip hop sound re-created live, the way it should be. So from that standpoint, it’s a pleasure to work with him.

“The main thing was making sure that we had the proper amount of subs in ratio to full-range cabinets. A lot of shows really don’t cater to the sub end of the spectrum; this one has to. We have 24 DB-8 subwoofers that are from Maryland Sound. We also have 12 SB 1000s, which are the EAW sub. All of those subs are on the floor, and they give a great feel throughout the audience. And if you stand in front of the venue and listen to the cars going by, they have that same feel to them. The object is to re-create that live.”

LOUD STAGEHandling monitors and mixing on a Midas XL-4 was Sean Sturge. Sturge, who has managed monitors for a number of hip hop artists, runs a stage monitor setup, including 22 single 12-inch EAW 850 wedges and sidefills, with 12 SB 1000 subs.

“The new Sennheiser [SKM-5000 Platinum] mics and the new dbx 160 SLs make a pretty good combination,” Sturge notes. “I’m still stuck on my XL-4. With rap, I don’t think there’s any other console you can use, because you can go through scenes; artists switch microphones and go back and forth, so it’s very helpful. Dre, being a producer, his stuff has to sound like it’s in the studio. Everything has to sound correct, which is the same for any artist. But with an artist who doesn’t produce their own music, it’s more your judgment than anything else. With him, he can definitely let you know, `Hey, that’s not cool; I can hear it, because it’s my music.’ But that hasn’t been a problem. It’s been a cool, smooth tour.

“We’re basically running tracks off the MiniDisc, and all I’m using are some 160 SLs with a straight, flat EQ. I’ve got a lot of sidefills, six 850s, 12 SB 1000s, onstage. It’s a loud, loud stage. There’s 10 wedges across the front, all 1-by-12s. Very loud.”

“The biggest challenge [with this tour] was probably taking the three different sound companies and putting them together,” concludes crew chief Mark Bernich. “In general, we’ve been very lucky considering the amount of gear. A lot of times you take two different companies, and you run into a mess of problems. We were actually lucky; it worked perfectly. We didn’t have to change anything.”

U.K. sound rental company Tiger Hire is supplying two Soundcraft FIVE monitor consoles for Radiohead’s current tour. The rig also features a Series FIVE at FOH, a Spirit 324 digital mixer for effects and a Series TWO console for the sup port act. www.soundcraft.com…The audio system at the new Olympic Stadium in Sydney, Australia, is based completely on a Peavey CobraNet system and features two MediaMatrix Mainframes. Installed by Sydney-based The P.A. People and its manufacturing arm, Creative Audio, the P.A. system design for Olympic Stadium is the largest ever installed in Australia. www.peavey.com…Built in a 100-year-old castle in the heart of Helsinki, Finland, the popular music club Kaarle XII has recently taken delivery of a new NEXO PS15 P.A. system. HedCom, NEXO’s Finnish distributor, supplied installers Design Electric Service with a PS Series system, including four full-range PS15 cabinets driven by a Crown Macrotech 5000 power amplifier and controlled by a PS15TD controller …Closer to home, Concert Systems USA, of Ocean Springs, MS, has taken delivery of a 48-cabinet NEXO ALPHA rig. The new system can be configured as one large system suitable for arena/outdoor festival use, or as two/three smaller systems. www.nexosa.com…MTX Audio offers a detailed guide to stage monitor use designed for worship center musical directors who face acoustical challenges. MTX’s The Monitor White Paper explains the basics of sound, emphasizing the differences between direct and indirect sound sources and how each type affects worship service teams’ performances. The guide is available at www.mtxaudio.com/css…Some 40 million visitors are expected to visit EXPO 2000 in Hanover, Germany, and the EXPO’s Culture and Events program presents musicians and performers from around the world for 153 days and nights. RockSound, the contractor responsible for the Culture and Events program’s audio requirements, supplied 11 stages and ordered Midas XL-4, Heritage 3000 and Heritage 2000 consoles to augment its existing Midas inventory. www.telex.com…Dave Thomas and assistant Jordan Zur of Cleveland’s Eighth Day Sound used an InnovaSON Sensory Live all-digital console to mix sound for the 2000 NFL Hall of Fame Festival in Canton, OH, where a record crowd exceeding 20,000 came to attend “Pro Football’s Greatest Reunion.” Thomas had some 40 inputs to juggle and used 17 of the Sensory’s 24 outputs to feed a 360 arrangement of d&b Audiotechnik E9 loudspeakers in a multidelayed configuration… Sennheiser’s growing line of Evolution microphone promotional packs offer an off-the-shelf, everything-you-need-in-a-box pack for musicians. First introduced at Winter NAMM 1999, the Promo Packs now include the ePack, Drum Pack, Three Pack and Kick Pack. www.sennheiserusa.com…The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis is known as one of the loudest sports arenas in the U.S. In 1998, the Metrodome installed a permanent, four-way EV speaker system with more than enough power for baseball or football. But for basketball, which requires a different configuration, something more was needed. The NCAA tournament is the first event where the new X-Array Xi system is being used. The new installation – a temporary one comprising 10 Xi 2153 cabinets – is hung around the new scoreboard, adding more power to the current house system…LT Sound in Venezuela has purchased a complete EV X-Array system, including a Midas 48-input Heritage 3000 and a 52-input XL250 console and Klark Teknik processing. The sale was put together by Steve Mendez of Sam Ash music retailers in New York and Josh Radin of Metro North Marketing. LT Sound is a full-service production company and is a sub- division of the Trama Corporation …Atlantis Audio of Scottsdale, AZ, used its new Yorkville TX Speaker System for a recent Phoenix Symphony POPS concert, featuring Doc Severenson. Atlantis Audio is currently using four TX8 three-ways, two TX4 two-ways and four TX9S subs, all powered by Yorkville Audiopro amplifiers. www.yorkville.com…dB Sound, of Des Plaines, IL, recently purchased its first 70-input ATI Paragon II console and used it immediately on Savage Garden’s worldwide tour. dB Sound moni- tor engineer Scott Pike cites the console’s noise floor, sound quality and mixing flexibility. Other ATI Paragon II users include Alabama, Ricky Martin, Tina Turner, Sting, Bob Dylan, Bryan Adams, The Judds, Barry Manilow, Backstreet Boys, Sheryl Crow, Faith Hill and Amy Grant. www.audiotoys.com…Audio Art Sound of New York chose a pair of Turbosound TQ-440SP enclosures for music playback in the play True West. Jim van Bergen, owner of Audio Art Sound and sound designer for True West, placed the TQ-440SPs upstage on the three-quarter thrust stage. www.turbosound.com…Auburn ‘s Muscleshoot Casino, located in between Seattle and Tacoma, is the largest casino in the Northwest. MZW Prductions of Marysville, WA, designed and installed a multizone sound system, made up of over 300 Community compact CPL 23 loudspeakers. Mike Woods, president of MZW, used Allen & Heath DR66 and DR128 matrix mixers to control 18 zones within the casino with a fully integrated paging and music system. www.community.chester.pa.us …For the third consecutive year, rental giant ProMix West provided an all-Apogee sound system to the Beverly Hilton International Ballroom for the 57th Annual Golden Globe Awards. The distributed system, designed and installed by Emmy Award-winning sound engineer Carlos Torres, included Apogee SSMs, AE-2s and AE-5s. www.apo-gee-sound.com…Allen & Heath has released new software for the MixWizard Series of compact mixing consoles. The free software, which provides full control over Mix Wizard effects parameters, plus access to additional noise gates and EQ, may be downloaded from www.allen-heath.com .

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The 20 greatest hip-hop tours of all time

Our ranking, inspired by all the great rap acts on the road this summer, is 100% correct

L ook around and it might feel like we’re in a golden age of rap tours.

Rhyme greats De La Soul recently finished a European tour billed The Gods of Rap with the legendary Public Enemy, Wu-Tang Clan and Gang Starr’s DJ Premier. And the summer concert season is set to feature even more high-profile hip-hop shows.

West Coast giant Snoop Dogg is headlining the Masters of Ceremony tour with such heavyweights as 50 Cent, DMX, Ludacris and The Lox. Lil Wayne is doing a string of solo gigs and will launch a 38-city tour with pop punk heroes blink-182 starting June 27. Stoner rap fave Wiz Khalifa will headline a 29-city trek on July 9. The reunited Wu-Tang Clan continue their well-received 36 Chambers 25th Anniversary Celebration Tour, and Cardi B will be barnstorming through the beginning of August.

With all this rap talent on the road, The Undefeated decided to take a crack at ranking the 20 greatest hip-hop tours of all time.

Our list was compiled using several rules: First and foremost, the headliners for every tour must be from the hip-hop/rap genre. That means huge record-breaking, co-headlining live runs such as Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s On the Run II Tour were not included, given Queen Bey’s rhythm and blues/pop leanings. We also took into account the cultural and historical impact of each tour. Several artists, ranging from Run-DMC and Salt-N-Pepa to MC Hammer and Nicki Minaj, were included because they broke new ground, beyond how much their tours grossed. For years, hip-hop has battled the perception that it doesn’t translate well to live performance. This list challenges such myopic ideas.

With only 20 spots, some of rap’s most storied live gigs had to be left off the list. Many were casualties of overlap, such as Run-DMC and the Beastie Boys’ memorable 1987 Together Forever Tour and the Sizzling Summer Tour ’90, which featured Public Enemy, Heavy D & the Boyz, Kid ’n Play, Digital Underground and Queen Latifah. The 12-date Lyricist Lounge Tour, a 1998 showcase that featured Big Punisher, The Roots, De La Soul, Black Star, Common, Black Moon’s Buckshot and Fat Joe, also just missed the cut.

You may notice that Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. are missing from the list. But this was no momentary lapse of sanity. ’Pac’s and Biggie’s brief runs took place when rap shows were beginning to become a rarity, leaving most of their memorable stage moments to one-off shows. Dirty South royalty Outkast’s strongest live outing, when Big Boi and Andre 3000 reunited in 2014, was not included because it was less of a tour and more of a savvy festival run.

There are other honorable mentions: Def Jam Survival of the Illest Tour (1998), which featured DMX, the Def Squad, Foxy Brown, Onyx and Cormeg a; the Ruff Ryders/Cash Money Tour (2000); Anger Management 3 Tour with Eminem and 50 Cent (2005); J. Cole’s Dollar & A Dream Tour (2013); and Drake’s Aubrey & The Three Migos LIVE! tour (2018).

With that said, on with the show!

20. Pinkprint Tour (2015)

Nicki Minaj, featuring Meek Mill, Rae Sremmurd, Tinashe and Dej Loaf

The most lucrative hip-hop trek headlined by a woman also served as the coronation of Nicki Minaj as hip-hop’s newest queen. What made The Pinkprint Tour such a gloriously over-the-top affair was its seamless balance of dramatic Broadway-like theater, silly high jinks and a flex of artistic ferocity. One moment Minaj was in a black lace dress covering her eyes while mourning the loss of a turbulent union during “The Crying Game.” The next, she was backing up her memorable appearance on Kanye West’s “Monster” as the most wig-snatching guest verse of that decade. And the Barbz went wild.

Gross : $22 million from 38 shows

Kendrick Lamar performs during the Festival d’ete de Quebec on Friday, July 7, 2017, in Quebec City, Canada.

Amy Harris/Invision/AP

19. The Damn. Tour (2017-18)

Kendrick Lamar, featuring Travis Scott, DRAM and YG

When you have dropped two of the most critically lauded albums of your era in Good Kid, M.A.A.D City (2012) and To Pimp a Butterfly (2015), there’s already an embarrassment of riches to pull from for any live setting. But Kendrick Lamar understood that to live up to his bold “greatest rapper alive” proclamation he also needed populist anthems to turn on the masses. The Damn. album and world tour presented just that, as he led his followers each night in an elevating rap-along. It kicked off with a martial arts film, a cheeky nod to Lamar’s Kung Fu Kenny alter ego, before launching into the chest-beating “DNA.”

Gross: More than $62.7 million from 62 shows

Drake and Future performing on stage during The Summer Sixteen Tour at AmericanAirlines Arena on Aug. 30, 2016 in Miami.

Getty Images

18. Summer Sixteen Tour (2016)

Drake and Future

This mammoth, co-headlining tour was a no-brainer: Drake, the hit-making heartthrob, Canada’s clap-back native son and part-time goofy Toronto Raptors superfan. And Future, the self-anointed Atlanta Trap King, gleeful nihilist and producer, whose slapping, codeine-addled bars made him a controversial figure on and off record. The magic of this yin/yang pairing shined brightest when they teamed up to perform such tracks as “Jumpman” and “Big Rings” off their industry-shaking 2015 mixtape What a Time to Be Alive . When the smoke settled, Drake and Future walked away with the highest-earning hip-hop tour of all time.

Gross : $84.3 million from 54 shows

From left to right, Sandra ‘Pepa’ Denton, DJ Spinderella and Cheryl ‘Salt’ James perform on stage.

17. Salt-N-Pepa Tour (1988)

Featuring Keith Sweat, Heavy D & the Boyz, EU, Johnny Kemp, Full Force, Kid ’n Play and Rob Base

It may seem preposterous in this outspoken, girl-power age of Cardi B, Lizzo, Megan Thee Stallion, Kash Doll, Young M.A, Tierra Whack and City Girls, but back in the early ’80s, the thought of a “female” rhyme group anchoring a massive tour seemed out of reach. That was before the 1986 debut of Salt-N-Pepa, the pioneering group who’s racked up a plethora of groundbreaking moments and sold more than 15 million albums. The first female rap act to go platinum ( Hot, Cool & Vicious ) and score a Top 20 hit on the Billboard 200 (“Push It”), Salt-N-Pepa led a diverse, arena-hopping showcase that gave the middle finger to any misogynistic notions. And Salt, Pepa and DJ Spinderella continue to be road warriors. They’re currently on New Kids on the Block’s arena-packing Mixtape Tour.

Encore: Opening-act standouts Heavy D & the Boyz would co-headline their own tour the following year off the platinum success of their 1989 masterpiece Big Tyme .

16. Glow in the Dark Tour (2008)

Kanye West, featuring Rihanna, N.E.R.D, Nas, Lupe Fiasco and Santigold

Yes, Kanye West has had more ambitious showings (2013-14’s button-pushing Yeezus Tour) and more aesthetically adventurous gigs (the 2016 Saint Pablo Tour featured a floating stage, which hovered above the audience). But never has the Chicago-born visionary sounded so hungry, focused and optimistic than he did on his first big solo excursion, the Glow in the Dark Tour.

Before the Kardashian reality-show level freak-outs and MAGA hat obsessing, West was just a kid who wanted to share his spacey sci-fi dreamscape with the public, complete with a talking computerized spaceship named Jane. Even the rotating opening acts — topped off by the coolest pop star on the planet, Rihanna — were ridiculously talented.

Gross : $30.8 million from 49 shows

15. I Am Music Tour (2008-09)

Lil Wayne, featuring T-Pain and Keyshia Cole

Between 2002 and 2007, Young Money general Lil Wayne was hip-hop’s hardest-working force of nature, releasing an astounding 16 mixtapes. Then Weezy broke from the pack with the massively successful I Am Music Tour. The bulk of Lil Wayne’s 90-minute set was propelled by his career-defining 2008 album Tha Carter III , which by the show’s second leg had already sold 2 million copies. By the time T-Pain joined the New Orleans spitter for a playful battle of the featured acts, Lil Wayne’s takeover was complete.

Gross : $42 million from 78 shows

MC Hammer, performing on stage in 1990, had a large entourage for his Hammer Don’t Hurt ’Em Tour.

14. Hammer Don’t Hurt ’Em Tour (1990-91)

MC Hammer, featuring En Vogue and Vanilla Ice

With 15 background dancers, 12 singers, seven musicians, two DJs, eight security men, three valets and a private Boeing 727 plane, MC Hammer’s world tour was eye-popping. Rap fans had never seen anything of the magnitude of the Hammer Don’t Hurt ’Em stadium gigs, which recalled Parliament-Funkadelic’s army-size traveling heyday in the 1970s.

Each night the Oakland, California, dancing machine, born Stanley Burrell, left pools of sweat onstage as if he was the second coming of James Brown. If the sight of more than 30 folks onstage doing the Running Man, with MC Hammer breaking into his signature typewriter dance during “U Can’t Touch This,” didn’t make you get up, you should have checked your pulse.

Gross : $26.3 million from 138 shows

13. Things Fall Apart! Tour (1999)

Each gig was a revelation. This was no surprise given that Philadelphia hip-hop collective The Roots, formed by longtime friends drummer Questlove and lead lyricist Black Thought, had a reputation for being unpredictable. Still, it’s ironic that a group known for being the ultimate road warriors — they were known for touring 45 weeks a year before becoming the house band on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in 2014 — is represented on this list by one of their shortest tours.

But the brilliant Things Fall Apart club and hall sprint, which took place throughout March 1999, proved to be an epic blitz fueled by the band’s most commercially lauded material to date, Questlove’s steady percussive heart and the inhuman breath control of Black Thought.

Encore: Neo soul diva Jill Scott, who co-wrote The Roots’ breakout single “You Got Me,” gave fans an early taste of her artistry as she joined the band onstage for some serious vocal workouts.

12. House of Blues’ Smokin’ Grooves Tour (1996)

The Fugees, Cypress Hill, A Tribe Called Quest, Busta Rhymes, Ziggy Marley and Spearhead

While gangsta rap was topping the charts, the hip-hop industry faced a bleak situation on the touring front. Concert promoters were scared to book “urban” acts in large venues. Enter the House of Blues’ Kevin Morrow and Cara Lewis, the booking agent who achieved mythic status when she received a shout-out on Eric B. & Rakim’s 1987 anthem “Paid in Full.” The pair envisioned a Lollapalooza-like tour heavy on hip-hop and good vibes. The first ’96 incarnation came out of the gate with Haitian-American rap trio The Fugees, multiplatinum weed ambassadors Cypress Hill, A Tribe Called Quest and Busta Rhymes.

Encore: The series, which has also featured Outkast, The Roots, Lauryn Hill, Gang Starr, The Pharcyde, Foxy Brown and Public Enemy, is credited with opening the door for a return to more straight-ahead hip-hop tours led by Jay-Z, DMX and Dr. Dre.

Kanye West (left) and Jay-Z (right) perform in concert during the Watch The Throne Tour, Sunday, Nov. 6, 2011, in East Rutherford, N.J.

11. Watch the Throne Tour (2011-12)

Jay-Z and Kanye West

In better times, Jay-Z and Kanye West exhibited lofty friendship goals we could all aspire to, with their bromance popping on the platinum album Watch the Throne. Before their much-publicized fallout, Jay-Z and West took their act on the road for the mother of all double-bill spectacles.

Two of hip-hop’s greatest traded classics such as the ominous “Where I’m From” (Jay-Z) and soaring “Jesus Walks” (West) from separate stages on opposite sides of the venue. Those lucky enough to catch the tour can still recall the dream tag team launching into their encore of “N—as in Paris” amid roars from thousands of revelers.

Gross : $75.6 million from 63 shows

10. The Miseducation Tour (1999)

Lauryn Hill, featuring Outkast

In 1998, Lauryn Hill wasn’t just the best woman emcee or the best emcee alive and kicking. The former standout Fugees member was briefly the voice of her generation as she rode the multiplatinum, multi-Grammy success of her solo debut The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill . By February 1999, it was time to take the show on the road. Hill and her 10-piece band went beyond the hype, especially when they tore through a blistering take of the heartbreaking “Ex-Factor.”

Encore: Outkast (Atlantans Andre 3000 and Big Boi) rocked the house backed by some conspicuous props, including two front grilles of a Cadillac and a throwback Ford truck, kicked off their own headlining Stanklove theater tour in early 2001.

9. No Way Out Tour (1997-98)

Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs, Lil’ Kim, Ma$e, Busta Rhymes, Foxy Brown, 112, The Lox, Usher, Kid Capri, Lil’ Cease and Jay-Z

The Los Angeles Times headline spoke volumes: “Combs to Headline Rare Rap Tour.” Combs, of course, is Sean “Diddy” Combs, the music, fashion, television and liquor mogul who Forbes estimates now has a net worth of $820 million. But back then, the hustler formerly known as Puff Daddy was struggling to keep his Bad Boy Records afloat after the March 9, 1997, murder of Brooklyn, New York, rhyme king The Notorious B.I.G.

But out of unspeakable tragedy rose Combs’ chart-dominating No Way Out album and an emotional all-star tour. Despite suggestions that large-scale rap shows were too much of a financial gamble, Puffy rallied the Bad Boy troops and a few close friends and proved the naysayers wrong. The No Way Out Tour was both a cathartic exercise and a joyous celebration of life. “It’s All About the Benjamins” shook the foundation of every building as Combs, The Lox and a show-stealing Lil’ Kim made monetary excess look regal. And the heartfelt Biggie tribute “I’ll Be Missing You,” which was performed live at the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards, had audiences in tears.

Gross: $16 million

Rap stars, from left, Redman, foreground, DMX, Method Man and Jay-Z join host DJ Clue, background left, in a photo session on Jan. 26, 1999, in New York, after announcing their 40-city Hard Knock Life Tour beginning Feb. 27, in Charlotte, N.C.

AP Photo/Kathy Willens

8. Hard Knock Life Tour (1999)

Jay-Z, featuring DMX, Redman and Method Man

Jay-Z stands now as hip-hop’s most bankable live draw. In 2017, the newly minted billionaire’s 4:44 Live Nation production pulled in $44.7 million, becoming America’s all-time highest-grossing solo rap jaunt. It’s a long way from the days of Jay-Z lumbering through performances in a bulletproof vest when he was last off the bench on Puff Daddy’s No Way Out Tour.

Surely the seeds of Jay-Z’s evolution as a concert staple were first planted on his Hard Knock Life Tour, which was documented in the 2000 film Backstage . This was a confident, full-throated Shawn Carter, and he would need every ounce of charisma, with Ruff Ryders lead dog DMX enrapturing fans as if he were a Baptist preacher at a tent revival and the duo of Redman and Method Man rapping and swinging over crowds from ropes attached to moving cranes. What a gig.

Gross : $18 million

Flavor Flav (left) and Chuck D (right) of the rap group Public Enemy perform onstage in New York in August 1988.

7. Bring the Noise Tour (1988)

Public Enemy and Ice-T, featuring Eazy-E & N.W.A. and EPMD

There has always been a controlled chaos to a Public Enemy live show. Lead orator Chuck D jolted the crowd with a ferocity over the intricate, combustible production of the Bomb Squad while clock-rocking Flavor Flav, the prototypical hype man, jumped and zigzagged across the stage.

DJ Terminator X cut records like a cyborg and never smiled. And Professor Griff and the S1Ws exuded an intimidating, paramilitary presence. Armed with their 1988 watershed black nationalist work, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back , an album many music historians consider to be the pinnacle hip-hop statement, Public Enemy spearheaded arguably the most exciting rap tour ever conceived.

Encore: Along for the wild ride was the godfather of West Coast rap, Ice-T, who was putting on the rest of the country to Los Angeles’ violent Crips and Bloods gang wars with the too-real “Colors.” N.W.A. was just about to set the world on fire with their opus Straight Outta Compton. Eazy-E, Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, MC Ren and DJ Yella unleashed a profanity-laced declaration of street knowledge that was instantly slapped with parental advisory stickers. And Erick and Parrish were making dollars with their rough and raw EPMD joint Strictly Business .

6. Nitro World Tour (1989-90)

LL Cool J, featuring Public Enemy, Eazy E & N.W.A., Big Daddy Kane, Too $hort, EPMD, Slick Rick, De La Soul and Special Ed

But not even LL Cool J was ready for the monster that was N.W.A. The self-proclaimed World’s Most Dangerous Group completely hijacked the spotlight when N.W.A. was warned by officials not to perform their controversial track “F— the Police” at Detroit’s Joe Louis Arena. A minute into the song, cops stormed the stage and shut down Eazy-E and crew’s volatile set, a wild scene that was later re-created in the 2015 N.W.A. biopic Straight Outta Compton .

Encore: A few months before the Detroit gig, N.W.A. was booed during a Run-DMC show at New York’s Apollo Theater. “We all had watched Showtime at the Apollo , so we all knew if it went bad what was gonna happen,” Ice Cube explained on the Complex story series What Had Happened Was … “We hit the stage, and as soon as they saw the Jheri curls, all you heard was ‘Boo!’ I mean, before we even got a line out, they was booin’. I guess they just wasn’t feeling the Jheri curls.”

Rappers Christopher “Kid” Reid and Christopher “Play” Nolan of Kid ‘n Play perform onstage during “The World’s Greatest Rap Show Ever” on Jan. 3, 1992 at Madison Square Garden in New York.

5. The World’s Greatest Rap Show Ever (1991-92)

Public Enemy, DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, Queen Latifah, MC Lyte, Geto Boys, Kid ’n Play, Naughty by Nature, A Tribe Called Quest, Leaders of the New School and Oaktown’s 3.5.7.

Props to the promoter who put together this awesome collection of hip-hop firepower for a tour that at least aimed to live up to its tagline. What stands out the most was the early acknowledgment of rap’s reach beyond the East and West coasts. The significance of including Houston’s Geto Boys, for instance, cannot be overstated.

Scarface, Willie D and Bushwick Bill carried the flag for Southern hip-hop, winning over skeptical concertgoers with their raw dissection of ’hood paranoia, “ Mind Playing Tricks on Me ,” which had become a favorite on Yo! MTV Raps . Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince proved they could still rock the house with PG-rated material. (It helped that Will Smith had just begun the first season of NBC’s The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. ) Queen Latifah busted through the testosterone with the empowering “Ladies First.” And Naughty by Nature frequently knocked out the most crowd-pleasing set of the night with their promiscuous anthem “O.P.P.”

Encore: The World’s Greatest Rap Show Ever made its Jan. 3, 1992, stop at New York’s Madison Square Garden less than a week after nine people were fatally crushed at a hip-hop charity basketball game at City College of New York. Before Public Enemy’s powerful message of black self-determination, Heavy D, an organizer of the doomed event, made a plea for unity. Fans were certainly listening. The gig was a resounding, peaceful triumph.

LL Cool J performs at the Genesis Center in Gary, Indiana in December 1987.

Raymond Boyd/Getty Images

4. Def Jam Tour (1987)

LL Cool J, Whodini, Eric B. & Rakim, Doug E. Fresh and the Get Fresh Crew, and Public Enemy

From 1986 to 1992, New York’s Def Jam Records was the premier hip-hop label. Its roster of artists, which included Public Enemy, the Beastie Boys, EPMD and Slick Rick, was unparalleled in range and cultural dominance. So when it came time for partners Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin to spread the Def Jam gospel on its first international tour, the imprint’s biggest star, LL Cool J, was chosen to lead the way. And he didn’t disappoint.

James Todd Smith strutted out of a giant neon boombox sporting a Kangol hat, dookie rope gold chain and Adidas jacket. Of course, that jacket would soon be thrown to the floor as a shirtless Ladies Love Cool James tore through his ’85 single “Rock the Bells” as if it were the last song he would get to perform.

For many overseas, their first taste of American rap also included DJ Eric B. & Rakim, who were killing the streets with their 1987 masterpiece Paid In Full . Almost overnight in Germany, France, Norway and the Netherlands, hip-hop became the new religion.

Encore: This was the first proper world tour for Public Enemy, who had just dropped their 12-inch single “Rebel Without a Pause.” Although they were the opening act, Chuck D and his posse stole the show, establishing their standing as global behemoths. The now-legendary show at London’s Hammersmith Odeon can be heard throughout It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back .

The Up In Smoke Tour in 2000 was a dream team bill, headed by producer Dr. Dre and featuring Eminem, Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg and more.

Photo by Ken Hively/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

3. Up In Smoke (2000)

Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, Eminem, Tha Dogg Pound, Warren G and Nate Dogg, and Xzibit

The multimillion-dollar stage design put the concert industry on notice that not only could rap shows attain the lavish production values of the best rock shows, they could surpass them. It was also an emphatic statement that the largely West Coast rap dignitaries knew how to throw a party. And there still isn’t another hip-hop song that matches the first 20 seconds of Dre’s “Next Episode” in concert.

Gross : $22.2 million from 44 shows

2. Raising Hell Tour (1986)

Run-DMC, featuring LL Cool J, the Beastie Boys and Whodini

There’s a reason Run-DMC is hailed as the greatest live hip-hop act of its era. They understood that less is always more. Because of their stripped-down beats and rhymes, the group amplified the genius of every aspect of their concert presentation up to 11. Jam Master Jay’s scratching was more thunderous than the other DJs on the 1s and 2s. Run’s pay-me stage presence commanded respect. And D had the throat-grabbing voice of God. They wore Godfather hats, black jeans and shoelace-less Adidas sneakers. The Hollis, Queens, crew was the personification of cool.

LL Cool J was just 18 during the Raising Hell Tour, but he was coming after Run-DMC’s crown every night. The hotel-wrecking Beastie Boys co-piloted rap’s bum-rush into Middle America, scaring parents wherever they landed. And Whodini brilliantly straddled the line between electro funkateers and around-the-way dudes representing BK to the fullest.

As “Walk This Way,” Run-DMC’s genre-shifting Aerosmith collaboration, exploded on the pop charts, vaulting the Raising Hell album to 3 million copies sold (the first hip-hop album to go triple platinum), ticket sales followed. The 45-city tour affirmed hip-hop’s cultural takeover.

Encore: The image of Joseph Simmons commanding 20,000-plus fans to hold up their sneakers during a performance of “My Adidas” at a New York show is still a surreal sight.

1. Fresh Fest (1984)

Kurtis Blow, Run-DMC, Whodini, The Fat Boys, Newcleus & the Dynamic Breakers, New York City Breakers, Turbo and Ozone

Ricky Walker had an idea: The concert promoter wanted to put together the first national rap music and break-dancing tour. In 1984, hip-hop had moved on from its underground beginnings in the Bronx. Run-DMC had just dropped their self-titled debut, and their “ Rock Box ” became the first rap video to received play on MTV. Breakin’ , the first break dancing movie to hit the big screen, pulled in nearly $40 million at the box office on a minuscule $1.2 million budget. Walker saw the future.

He called New York impresario Simmons to tap some of his Rush Productions talent, which included heartthrob Brooklyn trio Whodini , rap’s first solo superstar Kurtis Blow, the comedic Fat Boys and, of course, the hottest hip-hop act in the country, Run-DMC. But when it came time to promote the first show, billed as the Swatch Watch NYC Fresh Fest Festival , in Greensboro, North Carolina, Walker was laughed out of the room by a radio ad man.

Rap was still viewed by many record industry power brokers as a passing fad. In a 1985 interview with Billboard magazine, Walker recalled the salesperson pleading with him. “You’re a friend of mine,” he said. “Can’t I talk you out of doing this show?”

Walker’s instincts, however, proved to be dead-on. Fresh Fest moved 7,500 tickets in four hours. The tour, which also featured some of the best street dancers on the planet, such as Breakin’ stars Boogaloo Shrimp and Shabba Doo, as well as the synth funk-rap group Newcleus, not only did brisk business at mid-level venues but also sold out 20,000-seat arenas in Chicago and Philadelphia. Like the pioneering rock ‘n’ roll shows of the ’50s conceived by Cleveland radio DJ Alan Freed, the Fresh Fest proved that rap could be a serious and profitable art form. The rest is hip-hop history.

Gross : $3.5 million

Keith "Murph" Murphy is a senior editor at VIBE Magazine and frequent contributor at Billboard, AOL, and CBS Local. The veteran journalist has appeared on CNN, FOX News and A&E Biography and is also the author of the men’s lifestyle book "Manifest XO."

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Dr. Dre's Up In Smoke Tour Comes Under Fire

After the Up in Smoke tour came under fire last week from two Michigan cities that tried to prevent it from showing two controversial videos, it's unclear how the incident will affect the rest of the outing.

The tour features multiplatinum rappers Dr. Dre , Eminem , Snoop Dogg and Ice Cube .

One of the videos depicts a robbery where Snoop Dogg contemplates killing a man. He asks concertgoers, "Should I do this ni--a?" The other, titled "Don't Marry a Ho," shows a partially nude woman and depicts oral sex, according to Greg Bowens, a spokesperson for the Detroit mayor's office.

Officials in Detroit and Auburn Hills, Mich., said the videos violated local ordinances. On Thursday, hours before the performance at Detroit's Joe Louis Arena, city officials asked the concert organizers not to air the segments.

"It was the police department determination that ... [the videos] would contribute to the delinquency of a minor," Bowens said, referring to underage ticket holders.

Police threatened to ticket members of the tour if the videos were aired. In last minute negotiations — which even included tour promoter (and former star Los Angeles Lakers guard) Magic Johnson — Up in Smoke officials agreed not to air the tapes in exchange for an extra hour of performance time, Bowens said.

The next night, the Up in Smoke tour was scheduled to stop at the Palace, an Auburn Hills venue located near Detroit. That day, acting on a tip from the Detroit authorities, the police department there made a similar request, Auburn Hills Police Chief Doreen E. Olko said.

The police informed promoters that the tapes' content would violate the city's decency ordinances and would violate the terms of the Palace's liquor license, according to Olko.

This time Up in Smoke officials refused to allow the police to view the tapes and asked a federal judge for an injunction against the city. The judge ruled that the city's attempt to block the tapes amounted to prior restraint and that the tour could air the videos.

Dr. Dre Ticketed For Tape

The show went on, but Auburn Hills police ticketed Dr. Dre for violating the city's nudity ordinance after seeing the second tape. They filed an action against the venue with the Michigan Liquor Control Commission. The Palace's liquor permit doesn't allow the venue to show adult entertainment without a city permit, Olko said.

Tour publicist Marcee Rondan declined to comment about either incident. The rappers on the tour plan to release a statement this week, she said.

Dr. Dre's attorney said the rapper was considering suing Auburn Hills over the incident, according to the Associated Press.

One expert said venues can't do much to restrict what happens onstage at concerts.

"As a building manager, there isn't a lot that you can do," said Gary Bongiovanni, editor of Pollstar, a concert-industry magazine. The magazine plans to publish a story about the Michigan controversy this week, he said.

"Unless there is a clear public danger, [venue owners] don't have grounds to cancel it," he said.

But city officials have opted to ticket or arrest stars after a performance for what happens onstage, as in the Auburn Hills case last week, he added.

Representatives of other venues scheduled to host the rap tour did not return phone calls Monday.

Tour Troubles Persist

Last week's court battle was the latest in a string of high-profile troubles that have followed the Up in Smoke tour around the country.

This weekend, Eminem's wife, Kimberly Mathers, attempted suicide in the couple's Sterling Heights, Mich., home. The rapper's marriage has been strained recently as Eminem (born Marshall Bruce Mathers III) faces weapons charges in two Michigan courts. The charges stem from a June 4 incident in which he allegedly pistol-whipped a man who kissed his wife outside a suburban Detroit nightclub and accusations that he brandished a gun at a member of a rival rap group.

Mathers supported Eminem during the controversy in a letter that was published in a Detroit newspaper.

Eminem's most recent release, The Marshall Mathers LP, recently was certified five-times platinum and has yielded the hit "The Real Slim Shady" ( RealAudio excerpt ) and "Kim" ( RealAudio excerpt ), a song that details a violent fantasy about the rapper's wife.

On June 17, Nate Dogg , a singer on the tour who has been featured on several West Coast rap hits, such as "Regulate" ( RealAudio excerpt ), was arrested after he allegedly kidnapped, abused and made terrorist threats to his girlfriend.

A man on Snoop Dogg's tour bus was cited for possessing 300 grams of marijuana in Temecula, Calif. Authorities could not determine if the man or the bus was affiliated with the tour.

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Taylor Swift's Eras Tour shakes up Europe amid Tortured Poets Department success

P aris, France - Having shaken four continents, Taylor Swift 's Eras Tour finally brings the biggest pop culture icon of the century to Europe on Thursday, starting with a four-night run in Paris.

Swift has broken almost every record in music , and her sixth tour is no exception.

The Eras Tour, which began in March 2023, is already the first to sell more than $1 billion in tickets and is expected to more than double that by the time it concludes in Vancouver this December.

Swifties in Paris are especially excited to hear songs off her new album, The Tortured Poets Department , being performed for the first time.

Many critics have derided the 31-track album as bloated and mediocre – "a rare misstep," in the words of British music mag NME.

Such blasphemy leaves her devoted fanbase seeing red – Paste magazine felt the need to keep their damning review anonymous , knowing all too well how her fans would react.

But a few bad reviews are unlikely to lead to a cruel summer for Swift – the album sold 1.4 million copies on its first day and broke every streaming record going, reaching a billion streams on Spotify within five days.

Some 42,000 people will see Swift in Paris before she heads on for dates in Sweden, Portugal, Spain, Britain, Ireland, Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Poland and Austria.

Many are traveling a long way – around one in five of the Paris audience is coming from the United States, according to the La Defense Arena where she is performing.

Swifties travel long and far for international leg of The Eras Tour

The 34-year-old's tour remains a money-making machine beyond the wildest dreams of promoters and venues.

Research group QuestionPro estimated that last year's US dates generated $5 billion for the country's economy. The US Travel Association said the figure may have exceeded $10 billion when hotel rooms, restaurants, and other indirect sales were included.

The La Defense Arena says it has doubled the previous record of merchandise sellers across its dates.

The mere mention of a London pub, The Black Dog , on her new album was enough to send a swarm of Swifties to its doors this month, potentially saving the struggling boozer.

Fans tracked it down after realizing it lay close to the home of British actor Joe Alwyn , with whom Swift had a six-year relationship that ended last spring .

Swift's tell-all dissections of her love stories have been the fuel powering her global domination, and fans have been pouring over The Tortured Poets Department for cryptic clues about Alwyn, her short-but-dramatic fling with Matty Healy (lead singer of The 1975), and her current beau, NFL star Travis Kelce .

"There is something in her music that captures the adolescent desire for a poetic existence, charged with passion, danger, and love," said Satu Hämeenaho-Fox, author of Into the Taylor-Verse.

Soukeyna, a 16-year-old fan traveling up from southwest France for opening night, said Swift gives her "the feeling of being part of a community."

"She's a complete artist who writes her own words, and you really have to listen to the lyrics and understand them, which is something unique," she added.

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• June 15, 2000 Setlist

Eminem Setlist at Coors Amphitheatre, Chula Vista, CA, USA

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• What's the Difference ( Dr. Dre  cover) Play Video
• Forgot About Dre ( Dr. Dre  cover) Play Video
• Kill You Play Video
• Dead Wrong ( The Notorious B.I.G.  cover) Play Video
• Who Knew Play Video
• Under the Influence Play Video
• Marshall Mathers Play Video
• Criminal ( Live Debut ) Play Video
• The Way I Am ( Live Debut ) Play Video
• The Real Slim Shady Play Video

Edits and Comments

8 activities (last edit by Roxyyy , 29 Jul 2020, 20:05 Etc/UTC )

Songs on Albums

• Marshall Mathers
• The Real Slim Shady
• The Way I Am
• Under the Influence
• Dead Wrong by The Notorious B.I.G.
• Forgot About Dre by Dr. Dre
• What's the Difference by Dr. Dre

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• May 20 2000 UIC Pavilion Chicago, IL, USA Add time Add time
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[url=https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/eminem/2000/coors-amphitheatre-chula-vista-ca-1bd35100.html][img]https://www.setlist.fm/widgets/setlist-image-v1?id=1bd35100[/img][/url] [url=https://www.setlist.fm/edit?setlist=1bd35100&amp;step=song]Edit this setlist[/url] | [url=https://www.setlist.fm/setlists/eminem-bd68122.html]More Eminem setlists[/url]

Tour Update

Remy martin producers series - season 5.

• Kendrick Lamar
• Post Malone
• ScHoolboy Q
• Childish Gambino
• Joey Bada$$
• Tyler, the Creator
• Travis Scott
• Post Malone ft. 21 Savage
• Chris Brown
• Bryson Tiller
• Ty Dolla $ign
• Nicki Minaj
• Vybz Kartel
• Lil Uzi Vert
• May 6, 2024
• May 5, 2024
• May 4, 2024
• May 3, 2024
• May 2, 2024
• May 1, 2024
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