Winter concert is a success with Lupe Fiasco

Lupe Fiasco has never been a typical rapper. Anyone who attended his Friday, Dec. 2 performance in the College at Brockport's Tuttle South gym witnessed his eccentric, genre-spanning musical style firsthand.

Lupe opened the show looking part-Beethoven, part-rapper, jumping around and waving his hands like a mad conductor while facing his band rather than the audience.

He then launched into a thunderous take on the politically-charged dance number "Words I Never Said," featuring emerging pop star Skylar Grey. The odd combination of a club beat, pop vocals and rock ‘n' roll political fire would seem strange from any other artist, but Lupe has never been comfortable in the typical hip-hop box.

To bring forth his non-formulaic, genre-spanning sound, Lupe performed with a full rock band, featuring guitar, bass, drums, keyboards and one very energetic violinist. Breaking the typical rap show mold, Lupe even allowed each musician time for a solo, and the wild, electric violin solo may have been the highlight of the night.

In all, it was more rock concert than rap show. Lupe's eccentric, never-stationary stage presence was more like Zack de la Rocha or Anthony Kiedis than any rapper one could name. For nearly the entire show, the 29-year-old rapper jumped across the tiny stage while punching the air and twisting his arms in snake-like movements.

There was also a fairly impressive lighting display. All the concert promotion materials featured orange lasers over a black background, which set the bar pretty high for visuals.

However, there is only so much one can do with Brockport's humble stage setup in a gym. Still, the multi colored strobe lights and cascading orange spotlights were occasionally something to behold.

Musically, the concert was a roller coaster of styles, sounds and genres.

Lupe got the gym floor shaking with club bangers like "Coming Up" and "I Don't Wanna Care Right Now" from his new album, Lasers. He alternated these with piano-driven soul ballads, such as "Kick, Push," "Hip-Hop Saved My Life" and "Paris, Tokyo" from his first two albums, awkwardly titled Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor and Lupe Fiasco's The Cool (it seems the Chicago rapper takes copyright very seriously).

Possibly reflecting this varied sound, the audience was totally inconsistent, jumping in sync at times and then remaining mostly stationary for long periods of time. Regardless, Lupe made sure the audience stayed cool by dousing them with countless water bottles. At times, it seemed like Lupe had a personal goal to scatter those glimmering beads of water as far as he could.

Lupe did slow down at times, most notably during a bit of annoying stage banter in which he repeatedly declared "Lupe Fiasco update," then proceeded to tell the audience some new happening in his hip-hop career, which most of the audience probably could have lived without knowing. He noted Lasers was recently nominated for Best Rap Album and "The Show Goes On" for Best Rap Performance and Song at the Grammys. As he so tragically reminded the audience, he has only won one Grammy for his eight previous nominations.

Near the end of the long, wild performance, Lupe and his band seemed poised to leave the stage (presumably for a "The Show Goes On" encore). Instead, they immediately launched into the epic, horn-driven chorus of "The Show Goes On," and true to the meaning of the song, the show did go on. Lupe closed the night with a bass and synth-heavy performance of the rhythmic Lasers club song "Out of My Head," which was worth sticking around for.

It was an unexpected way to close a show by a hip-hop artist who transcends genres and styles, and always does things his own way.