Summer Jam Cancelled and Not Many People Care

The Queen City Summer Jam, scheduled for tonight at Cricket Arena, has been cancelled. The previously announced lineup included Mike Jones, Hurricane Chris, Rocko, Pleasure P, and Lil Will. And you call that a Summer Jam? I'm sorry, but a lineup of B-list and C-list rappers hardly warrants that title.

When Mike Jones is the headliner of a concert, it's not that big of a show.

I usually refrain from comparing Charlotte to other cities because I think it's unfair, doesn't do much good, plus I love it here. But a true Summer Jam is the one held every year in New York, sponsored by radio station Hot 97. Again, this is New York, which is the capitol of everything, so they can pull off big shows like that. This year's concert included Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Alicia Keys, T-Pain, Public Enemy, members of Wu-Tang, Jadakiss, Fat Joe, Fabolous, and just about every other relevant hip-hop artist around.

I don't expect Charlotte's Summer Jam to match that, but ours could've been a heckuva lot better. If not, give the concert a different name. Call it the Queen City Summer B-list and C-list Rappers Concert. Call it what it is. I'm not sure why the concert was cancelled, but I venture to guess that it was due to low ticket sales, which was probably due to a weak lineup.

The next potentially big hip-hop summer concert in Charlotte is the annual Power 98 Summerfest, scheduled for August 2 at Cricket Arena. So far only Plies, Yung Berg, and Mario have been announced, with the promise of more acts. That's a decent start. At least each of these artists have hit songs currently on the radio (though I think Plies is the worst). But I hope Power 98 delivers. Or I'll be complaining about this one as well.