A couple of drinks and smoke breaks into the evening, the crowd at Mezzanotte Cafe came alive as Afroman strode to the stage with two Colt .45 malt liquors in hand and a giant grin on his face. He was more than happy to have a little fun with the hip-hoppers during his March 24 show, but on his terms.
New songs made up the bulk of the set, which was the second of two New York stops on his current national tour, although fans showed up for the hits.
New songs made up the bulk of the set, which was the second of two New York stops on his current national tour, although fans showed up for the hits.
The rapper is out promoting his second holiday album, A Colt .45 Christmas (Hungry Hustler), and Waiting to Inhale, which is currently available for download at his Web site, www.afromanmusic.com, and at his shows. The rap star has found even more ways to talk about getting high and having sex after his viral hit, “Because I Got High,” swept the Web in 2001.
Bleating for Afroman’s trophy tune started halfway through the show, but he didn’t launch into it until the end of the night. When the turntable beats commenced, the singer’s presence felt little more than incidental to the white 20-somethings, who could and did sing along to the entire song. The singer gave in to the mood, let the audience have their fun and picked up his guitar. Surprisingly, he managed to play a solo instead of merely supporting the beat.
Bleating for Afroman’s trophy tune started halfway through the show, but he didn’t launch into it until the end of the night. When the turntable beats commenced, the singer’s presence felt little more than incidental to the white 20-somethings, who could and did sing along to the entire song. The singer gave in to the mood, let the audience have their fun and picked up his guitar. Surprisingly, he managed to play a solo instead of merely supporting the beat.
“High” peaked at No. 18 on Billboard’s Top 40 list in 2001, and is currently ranked seventh on the magazine’s ringtone downloads list. However, the ode to plans left undone undercut the night’s party vibe. The song moves from the innocuous (“I was going to clean my room/ but then I got high.”) to the tragic (“I messed up my entire life/ because I got high.”). As Afroman began staggering around the stage—the result of two now mostly empty beer bottles —it seemed clear his hit made for a pointless performance. However, nobody seemed too concerned with deeper meanings at the end of the hour-long set.
It’s hard to see why anyone should have been when “Let’s All Get Drunk Tonight” started off the show. Lines like “Drink that beer ’til your belly can’t hold it” don’t rely on much subtext, but the catchy up-tempo beat got the crowd dancing and shook off memories of the poor sound mixing that plagued the night’s two opening acts, The Forum and The Higher Connection.
Afroman’s parodies of holiday carols ooze a middle-school sensibility but have lyrics for adult ears only. Frosty the Snowman becomes a frozen lothario, and Afroman subs himself in for the jolly old elf in “Afroman is Coming to Town.” Even with a sexually explicit song directed at Beyonce, however, Afroman’s lewd catalog of tunes left something to be desired, as funny lyrics only go so far.
Still, it’s hard not to get absorbed in Afroman’s chill-out-and-have-a-good-time aesthetic. His lyrics might be cheesy and the rhymes may be obvious, but if they were better, they wouldn’t be nearly as much fun.
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