Pix by Carol A. Allen
On Thursday, July 10th, fresh off of a stop in Montreal, mega-artists Akon, Sean Paul, and Wyclef Jean tore up the Molson Amphitheatre. In fact, they not only tore up the stage, they lit it on fire and took the term "blazing" to a whole new level. Literally. Most of Wyclef's show was highlighted with flames, in fact, he took some time out to burn one of his guitars on stage. And, as if that wasn't enough, he paraded through the crowd, climbed up one of the posts and reminded everyone that he is the Carnival king throwing in some calypso music and encouraging everyone to wave whatever they could in the air in anticipation of Toronto's Caribana Parade which takes place on August 2nd. The place went wild.
Akon, born Aliaune Thiam, made a parachute entrance on to the stage following a short video spoof of him being denied entry into the country by an immigration official and overpowering the pilot to make sure that he reached his destination. He attempted to keep up with Wyclef's energy, even throwing in the calypso remix of his hit, "Don't Matter" from his Grammy-nominated second album, Konvicted to keep the crowd on their feet and in pre-Caribana mode. Intermittent bursts of fire and loud clashing sounds kept his show entertaining and even more so when he took his shirt off.
The 35-year old artist, who became popular after his 2004 song, "Locked Up" reached the US top 10, recently signed Toronto Hip Hop Artist, Jason Harrow aka Kardinal Offishall to his Konvict Muzik label . The first single "Dangerous" from the album, Not 4 Sale, just leaped into the Billboard Hot 100 charts Top 20 jumping from #23 last week to #16 this week. It's scheduled to be released on August 5.
Reggae Artist, Sean Paul, who had dancers on stage to help him out, kept the audience entertained although the sound system seemed to be a little distorted. That did not stop the crowd from screaming out the words to his popular hits which include, "Temperature," "Baby Boy" and "Gimme the Light." Overall, the fusion of Haiti, Jamaica, and Africa, with a mix of r&b, hip hop, zouk, reggae and calypso blended effortlessly and made the recipe for one phenomenomenal show. Big shouts to Kardi, Solitair and Lindo P always representing Toronto and doing their thing.
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