Kanye West in Tampa

Yesterday, I somehow came to the conclusion that Kanye West was worth driving across the Florida peninsula on a Monday night for. What I saw was the most bizarre, inexplicable, random concert performance of my life... I'll take this act by act.

Lupe Fiasco: Getting the show started on a "normal" note, Lupe settled for the classic turntable/rapper/back-up rapper setup for a quick run through his best songs. He occasionally relied to much on crowd participation, which didn't work well since it was 6:00 in the afternoon and everybody was still arriving. Despite that rookie mistake, I can definitely see why he's considered one of the most promising things in rap music right now. The way he tore into every verse of the closer "Daydream" kept me wanting to go home and pull out his first album again.

N.E.R.D.: Only one word can describe their show: chaos. What is going on here? There were at least 20 people on the stage at any given time, about 6 of whom were actually musicians. Where as the songs I know and love off their 2002 debut record In Search Of are tightly constructed pop/rap/rock songs, this entire set was a mess of thrashing power chords, amateur drum pounding, and hordes of "singers" yelling "yeah!" and "come on!". I think this band might become hip-hop's version of Gwar. No, that wasn't a compliment.

Rihanna: I'm not familiar with her records, but somebody tell me: does Rihanna typically sing during Rihanna songs? She spent the first half of the set posing (not even dancing) to heavy dance beats while here backup singers tried to form a chorus. The second half of the set showed promise as she belted out a pair of decent soul ballads, and she finally found some confidence when she closed with her hit "Umbrella". Not a bad set, but Mary J Blige shouldn't worry about losing her job anytime soon.

Kanye West: Due to his well-known narcissism, Kanye took the stage by himself, with the band almost invisible off to the side. But he actually needed the entire stage to do method-acting interludes that involved talking to his spaceship (I swear I'm not making this up). How many hip-hop sets have a storyline? Who else would attempt this?

This over-the-top performance art was occasionally distracting, but all was forgotten when he actually played songs. The band was versatile and innovative with his songs: some of his best songs were reworked completely. "Heard'Em Say" became a drum stomp with guitar solos, "Hey Mama" was a beautiful piano soul ballad, and "Good Life" was the perfect audience call-and-response pop song that carried on for about five extra choruses.

Kanye had the stage presence and energy to own the stage solo and perform over-the-top theatrics. I thought he was trying to be the next Jay-Z, but now I'm pretty sure he's shooting to be the next Michael Jackson. He makes me wish more rappers dared to be this ridiculous.