Humble is not a word you would associate with 50 Cent, but the guy did seem keen to please at his press conference last week when he charmed his way through 40 minutes of presentations and questions before telling us he loved Taiwan, in Chinese.
It was the opposite of what you might expect from a self-confessed gangster who has guns counting down loading times on his Web site and whose lyrics have got him in trouble with the politically correct and the left leaning.
"Fiddy" was unfailingly polite and put his foot in his mouth just once, when he praised Taiwanese women but then ruined the effect of generosity by dissing the guys. The Vinyl Word failed to register one cuss word, even when we were moved to ask him if it was indeed true that he used to sell crack cocaine. The answer was an almost apologetic, "Yeah, I could dance rings round you with this question and not answer it, but yes I did. I'm not proud of it, I did what I had to do at the time."
Later, he took to the stage at Zhongshan Soccer Stadium in front of around 20,000, teaming up with rappers Lloyd Banks and Young Buck for an hour-and-a-half of relentless rap, spitting lyrics with the intensity of an AK-47 on automatic. It was tough stuff for those more accustomed to the sweet and sticky Jay Chou (周杰倫), or MC Hotdog. Toward the end the New York hip-hop artist could sense he had lost his audience a little. "I hope you ain't running out of gas, 'coz I got a loads more hits coming."
It's interesting to compare 50 Cent's show with others The Vinyl Word has recently covered at Zhongshan Soccer
Stadium, including The Prodigy and Jolin Tsai (蔡依林).
Tsai pulled in the most punters, with well over 30,000 glo-stick waving fans. She also got asked back for an encore. 50 Cent nearly got another curtain call when he finished after 10pm; but The Prodigy's 4,000 fans were cut off around 9:30pm by a disco song. Clearly, in Taiwan, Mando-pop rules, rap comes second and dance music is still an acquired taste for most young music fans.
Drum 'n' bass -- it has to be said -- seems to appeal mostly to male foreigners. Even so, there were plenty of pretty young things dancing till 5am when LTJ Bukem and MC Conrad stepped up to the plate for Luxy's Peace Memorial Eve party on Monday. The London DJ was on top of his game and scored once again with a flawless performance.
The "Snow Job" party scheduled for the same night at new venue the Ice Bar, however, failed to happen. Promoter and DJ Marcus Aurelius said, "It's a pretty cool place but the owner got cold feet and called it off."
There's a bit of a chill this weekend on the party front. Cor is offering a "Winter Heat Bikini Party" tonight; and tomorrow Coffey, Junior and Megan will be hosting a late night (or early morning) session from 4am till 8am. Door damage is NT$300, with a drink. Cor is at B1, 331, Nanjing E Rd, Sec 3, Taipei (台北市南京東路三段331號B1). Also, Ministry of Sound is back! A low-key re-opening party tonight will cost you just NT$350 and there's a chance of winning a mobile phone. Wow.
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