Beenie Man

Slated to take place over two days (Friday April 23 and Saturday April 24), the second staging of the Jamaica Springfest show didn't get off the ground until minutes after 3 pm on Saturday at Montego Bay's Caribbean Beach Park.

When it did get going, sterling performances by dancehall deejays Beenie Man and Elephant Man, and by rapper Li'l John rescued the event, which was plagued by no-shows, the poor weather and many technical difficulties.

Due to heavy showers in the second city, the previous night's show was postponed until 3PM the next day, with the intention to have the two shows running back to back. Still, persistent overcast conditions threatened but kept at bay for the duration of the show.

The event, staged by Radio One from Atlanta and Danga Zone Entertainment from Montego Bay, was saved by a tremendous performance from Beenie Man, while Elephant Man and crunk enigma Li'l Jon and the Eastside Boyz also gave noteworthy performances.

Beenie Man, in his usual inimitable style, doused the venue with a flood of hits from his current catalogue. Being the showman that he is, Beenie Man utilised charisma and effective dialogue to charm the crowd, a move that worked well for him. The number of patrons in attendance swelled to approximately 5000 shortly after 1 AM when Beenie Man took the stage. The crowd showed their approval of the Doctor's performance and he was greeted with thunderous applause. For his set, Beenie Man went back into his catalogue from in the mid to late 1990s and unearthed some of the classics that have kept him on top of his game.

Elephant Man was also in good form, despite the fact that numerous acts before him had exhausted the overused gimmick of teaching the crowd the latest dance moves.
Nevertheless, Elephant stood tall. His energy was felt throughout the venue and patrons eagerly participated in his dance class. His latest Billboard charter Jook Gal (which saw the Young Bloodz making a cameo on stage), Signal the Plane, the dancehall anthem Pon di River, Pon Di Bank, and Blasé were quite effective in Elephant's set. Wayne Marshall, who later joined him on stage also represented well. Baby Cham too, delivered another one of his entertaining performances, which capped with the Billboard monster Vitamin S.

Crunk King Li'l Jon and the Eastside Boyz were quite popular. The Get Low remix, Yeah and Damn rocked the crowd the moment the first lines were uttered.
The women billed on the show made an impact - each in her own characteristic way.

Early in the evening, Kris Kelli held her own and delivered a good performance that featured Althea and Donna, the original Uptown Top Ranking and Hide Away. Ce'cile was up to her usual tricks and delighted the crowd with a sexy performance of Do It to Me, Give it To Me and others.

Dressed in a sexy black top and a mini-skirt that exposed her gorgeous legs, Ce'cile tantalised the men in the audience.

She later called up Voise Mail and Delly Ranks who delivered a spicy stint with their current chart-busters She Wants it Harder and Weddy Weddy. Special mention must be made of Macka Diamond, whose comedy of slackness earned her shouts of approval and the first major 'forward' of the night. Her latest hits Tek Con, Done Already and the amusing Money-O really did it for her.

Some of the US acts that impressed included the boy group Formula One, female rapper Rasheeda (whose sexy dancers had the men going wild), boy group ATL, the hot Trina, and the Ying Yang Twins. Petey Pablo, Former B2K member Omarion and Marques Houston had the teenage girls in the crowd going wild from the moment they hit the stage.
Other artistes weren't so lucky or exciting.

Mr Vegas came and did his thing, and the crowd stood still. Rapper Jadakis was boring. Don Yute, who has been absent from local stages for a number of years, failed miserably, while Tanto Metro and Devonte delivered their now-routine set, which went down fairly well with the crowd.

J-Kwon, Chingy, Tamia, Glenn Lewis, Li'l Flip and Rik Rok were missing in action. J-Kwon, Chingy and Tamia, all of whom were schedluled to appear on Friday night's show had to leave the island for other engagements. Li'l Flip reportedly missed his flight, but the promoters offered no explanation for the absence of either Lewis or Rik Rok.

In addition to the no-shows, there were too many breaks between performances, this despite the MC's valiant efforts to spark interest by holding numerous dance competitions on stage.

The idea behind Jamaica Springfest is certainly a good one - but all parties involved need to iron out the kinks and to ensure a better production of this event if any future staging is being considered.

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