West Coast rap royalty reigned in the desert at Glendale concert

It’s been over four years since rap pioneers Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, E-40 and Too $hort last performed together as supergroup Mount Westmore, and with only two tour dates this year — one on Friday night at Desert Diamond Arena and one a week ago in San Jose, California — it’s no surprise the West Valley venue was filled to capacity with fans wanting to savor the rare moment. 

Opener and G Funk pioneer DJ Quik started things off with a slew of his classics, bringing his now-grown daughter, Damyiah Mornaé, out halfway through his set to C-walk with him. It was an endearing moment that blended the past and present. Quik turned to the crowd and asked, “How many of y’all are into 1980s hip-hop?” Getting the raucous response he wantee, he urged the crowd to wave their hands from side to side, leading into his highest charting single, “Tonite.”

When the proverbial dust settled on his stripped-down set, it was clear that this show was going to be equal parts bass and nostalgia. 

The usual pattern of rappers in groups almost always takes the same path: a group forms, releases a hot album and then the individual artists drop their own record or mixtape and never look back. NWA launched half a dozen careers this way, Wu-Tang launched almost twice that. Seeing four established legends reverse this pattern to form their own supergroup is something usually reserved for the rock scene, not hip-hop. 

There was no attempt to dress up the stage for the headliners beyond four empty thrones and sliced-up lowriders on the wings. And why should there be? The foundation of West Coast rap has always been the uncompromisingly laid-back beats and hooks of Compton, Long Beach and the Bay Area.

The floor-to-ceiling screen behind the thrones was the lone nod to the modernity of our increasingly visual, digital world, playing the music video to “Big Subwoofer” as the headliners came out one by one, each spitting their opening verses to their first collective single. The atmosphere heightened with every entrance, hitting a fever pitch as the Doggfather himself casually stepped across the stage in an all-too-familiar blue tracksuit, blunt in hand. 

The night was an anthology in round robin form, each artist taking turns to step to the front of the stage to deliver what felt like a teaser portion of a hit single before passing the torch, a constant and beautiful back-and-forth between four rappers who can rightfully claim their places as cornerstones of West Coast hip hop. 

By the time the iconic orchestral intro to “The Next Episode” hit, the audience was fully entranced by the fluidity of the give and take happening between lyricists, Snoop Dogg sliding from side to side of the stage while Ice Cube, E-40 and Too $hort called out the punchlines to each bar from their respective gilded seats. The song, like every song of the night, ended on a sampled boom effect from the supporting DJ, welcoming the next performer. E-40 obligesd, his signature beanie bobbing with his head as the crowd echoed back the call-and-response to “go stupid, go dumb.”

When Too $hort took center stage, he kicked off the dirty rap stint of the evening, rhetorically asking the crowd, “Where the ladies at?” before jumping into 2003’s “Shake That Monkey.” The bass line was emphatic and added to the seismic impulses of the many throwing it back across the arena. Of the nearly 19,000 in attendance, a considerable portion twerked throughout the evening; this is just the first opportunity to do so. The ladies’ night portion continued with Ice Cube’s “You Can Do It,” Snoop Dogg’s “Beautiful,” and E-40’s “U and Dat,” all tracks that certainly soundtracked their fair portion of conceptions over the decades. 

The set then rolled into a blend of West Coast anthems made famous by region and not just artist or label, from Tupac’s “Gangsta Party” to Luniz’s “I Got 5 On It.” These are the tracks that kept the windows rolled down on a summer evening in ‘96, your arm comfortably resting out the driver’s side window as you bobbed your head to the beat, sipping your water like it was gin and juice. Hats were slightly askew, the jeans were baggy and for some, like Snoop, the bandanas hung on the left side. 

As the night continued, those in attendance were reminded of the enormity of what they were witnessing. Individually, each artist present had sold out shows in the Valley for years, but had never performed as a group in the greater Phoenix area. In fact, aside from a short select tour in 2022, Mount Westmore does not perform live. 

And yet, for one night in Glendale, in front of a sold-out crowd, they were here. Ice Cube said, “We’ve all been here as solo artists, and you always show out. So we wanted to do something special for y’all.” 

It was something special indeed.

As the evening entered its final act and the setlist blew past 30 songs (I lost count at 30, to be honest), there were a few key tracks that the crowd was still itching for. Mount Westmore knew this and indulged the audience, crescendoing with Snoop Dogg and Pharrell Williams’ blockbuster hit “Drop It Like It’s Hot.”

Following another cinematic boom, Ice Cube picked up his mic and walked toward center stage: “Do you know why you had such a good time tonight? Because today was a good day.”

The melodic intro to 1992’s “It Was A Good Day” rang through the arena: “Drunk as hell but no throwin’ up / Halfway home and my pager still blowin’ up / Today I didn’t even have to use my AK / I gotta say it was a good day.”

It was, in fact, a good day.