The Anger Management Tour

Rappers soften up like asphalt

Comments (0) By Serene Dominic Thursday, Jul 21 2005

Anger is an energy: Eminem still looms large.

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Scheduled for Tuesday, July 26

Cricket Pavilion

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If they really wanted to bring tantrum suppression to an amphitheater near you, they might've added The Game or Jah Rule or Triumph the Insult Dog to the bill. But this is more like a Rap Pack love fest, with Eminem most certainly Chairman of the Board, crunked-up Lil Jon as Dean, and Fiddy as Sammy, less for his versatility than for his fondness for garish jewelry (Obie Trice and Stat Quo can wrestle for Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop honors). Fiddy and Em also have their own internal fraternities, G-Unit and D12, respectively, to share spotlight time with. It remains to be seen whether the guys in D12 can ever emerge from Eminem's shadow on this tour, especially since "My Band" seems to have forced them to take the service entrance to their own record. One senses that Eminem's reason for this tour and his submergence into D12 is that at this juncture of his career, he wants an outlet to promote other talents and to release incorrigible material with his imprimatur that contradicts the caring, socially conscious Eminem image he's been cultivating since 8 Mile. The same softening process seems to have accelerated for 50 Cent with less spectacular results. Just like Marshall spent most of The Eminem Show reminiscing about dropping a gun in a parking lot, The Massacre has Fiddy waxing over his bullet-catching days like some octogenarian repeating WWII stories in a VA hall. If "Candy Shop" is a new direction, I smell sitcom in three years.