August 30, 2008 – After devastating performances by the St. Lunatics, multi-platinum recording artist Lil Wayne rolled into the Chaifetz to throw down, spit fire, and claim his title as best rapper alive.
Decked out in aviator sunglasses, a Nooka watch, and his finest chains, Weezy F Baby, took the stage as fans threw dollar bills on the stage, paying respect to the Cash Money CEO.
Following the surprise appearance by Nelly, Murphy Lee, and the rest of the St. Lunatics, Lil Wayne’s performance saw Bryan “Baby” Williams, AKA Birdman, as a last minute guest, appearing to perform the duet “Stuntin’ Like My Daddy.”
Lil Wayne’s set saw a diverse tracklisting, from the title track from 1999′s The Block Is Hot to hits from his double-platinum release 2008, Tha Carter III, his seventh studio album.
Set List:
Photographer’s Notes:
This performance was a highly unique set to photograph due to several factors. The most prominent feature was that the cruciform stage was in-the-round, providing a 360º photo pit and a lot of real estate to cover throughout the show.
Two spotlights, positioned opposite from each other in the arena, lit this show, and generally proved adequate for keeping Lil Wayne illuminated. There were only a few instances, namely when Birdman shared the stage, when this two-light setup failed to shine light on the rapper from the key angles.
The lighting setup also introduced the interesting instance of backlighting for many shots, which was excellent so far as one could line up the rapper with the far light.
Overall, Lil Wayne took good advantage of the 360º stage and worked all sides throughout the performance, but not to such a frenetic degree that tracking was impossible.
One hugely nice aspect of this shoot is that the press were allowed to photograph the entire performance, which went a long way toward a good variety of images in the final set.
This entry was posted on Monday, September 22nd, 2008 at 11:52 pm and is filed under Music Photography and tagged with 2008, arena, baby, bird man, chaifetz, f baby, hip hop, in the round, jr, lil wayne, Music Photography, nelly, rap, spotlights, st. louis, st. lunatics, sunglasses, tattoo, tha carter, three, tour, weezy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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I haven’t had much time to comment on your latest posts as it’s back to school time for me. So I managed these 15minutes to browse a little bit around the blog and I have to say their as good as usual!
Heard you came to Europe on vacation, liked it here?
Best Regards!
Hey Celso, thanks for the comment, nice to hear from you. Glad you got to break away from your studies!
Yes, I was in Norway for almost two weeks and had a great time. I always love visiting Europe, and this trip was no exception.
Fabulous set Todd – looks like Lil’ Wayne is a fun one to shoot! I love the variety of poses you were able to get!
Hey Keath, thanks! Lil Wayne was fun to shoot, despite a very challenging stage set up. There was really no shortage of poses to shoot! Thanks for the comment.
Dude, this is one HECK of a set. So many cool angles and expressions. I bet you were lovin it.
Hey Keith! I was loving it. Regardless of whether he is, in fact, the “best rapper alive,” Lil Wayne is undeniably the biggest hip hop act at the moment.
That we got to shoot for the entire set was pretty excellent. I’d heard that it was a possibility the week before the show, but actually getting the OK at the venue was very nice. Thanks for the comment!
RIDICULOUS!
To all who endeavor on reading this post: This. Set. Is. Huge. Pace. Your. Self.
So many pictures! AH! Which means o-so-many picks: 2, 7, 9, 10, 14, 16, 19. My tops are prolly 2, 14, and 19. this is like your 15, but a different angle :P Go figure. Also really enjoy these thumbnails:
1
2
3
4
5
Great shot of Birdman… it was hard to get one without his hat blocking his eyes.
Interesting flare .
ChaCh$ng . Were you as tempted as I was to just swipe this off the stage?? Sure — you have a great job, but extra cash never hurt anyone… right?! I was tempted, but knew it would be inappropriate.
I agree, I LOVE the rim/backlighting… if you could harness it for your shots. I really enjoyed shooting the majority of the show at 800 at 1/640 – 1/1250… and that’s on the D80. The D3, again, produces such amazing results — would much rather have it over the 5dmk2.
And yes, I went through every thumbnail. That’s why I warn people to pace themselves… because I didn’t.
Hey Chris, thanks very much for the detailed comments. This show was a lot of fun to shoot, and of course getting to photo the whole performance was a huge bonus. Three songs would have been OK, but having full-set access made this a great shoot.
The only downside was the volume of images such a long shoot produced!
The great quantity of light was a nice touch, too. I never get tired of spotlights, even if they’re not always the most interesting light.
Thanks for your picks, and thanks for looking at all the images! There are over 100 shots in this set.
These are great! I’m wondering what lens you used to get such close up shots?
Hi Vida, thanks for the comment. I used the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 for the more close up shots.
These are some awesome shots Todd! A 360° degree pit!
So how many shots did you take? I usually take 400-1200 shots per concert. Then edit down to at about 400 shots. these always include crowd reaction shots, artists, and backstage if I get access. Most shows I also get unlimited sets, but with this years line up at the music festival fest I don’t think I’ll get it like this.
Hi Robert, thanks for the comment. Due to being able to shoot the whole set, I shot around 600 frames for Lil Wayne. It was refreshing not have a three-song limit for such a popular artist.
damn todd! you really out-do yourself everytime…these shots are rediculous! Everything you shoot is GOOOOLD!!!
I am trying to get into the show in NJ in October with Jay-Z and NeYo…wish me luck on that…how hard is it to get in touch with LW’s people anyway? it seems i have had issues with finding the right folks at U.M.G
actually i think i found the proper person now…so yeah, like i said, wish me luck!
Hi Kenny, glad you got the contact sorted out. Good luck, and thanks for the comment.
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[...] were Nelly and Murphy Lee, who delivered a tight and quick set of the crowd-pleasing jams before Lil Wayne’s set capped off the [...]
[...] I expected considering the distance. That said, it’s really hard to compare this shoot to Lil Wayne’s last show at the Chaifetz. For that gig, I shot from the pit and was allowed to photograph for the entirety of the set, [...]
wats up lilwayne
HELLO!
Lil wayne is my man, he’s really cool, nofink can stop me frm lykn im, those pics are tech thou, am out…