review by Ital-K & Tafa
click photo to enlarge
 South Florida is the place to be during Memorial Day weekend and party-goers from all over The U.S. and beyond in the know are making the pilgrimage every year to take part in the many events and parties.
Downtown Miami ’s Bayfront Park was the location for the second installment of VP’s Annual Showcase. Fans, artists and the media gathered there to celebrate VP’s 25th Anniversary last year and in 2005 at 26 years old VP is showing no signs of slowing down.
 Early performances came from reggae legend Freddie McGregor who is celebrating more than 40 years in the business and still going strong treating fans to roots staples such as “Big Ship.”
 The Fireman scorched the stage with an early set as the sun set on the youthful crowd. As if Miami ’s weather wasn’t hot enough, Capleton brought More Fiyah with songs such as “Firetime” and “Blazing you.” Towards the end of his set he performed a wicked melody of classics including “Bombo Red” and “Tour” introducing each song, then letting fans take over for the remainder.
 Beenie Man performed for almost 45 minutes driving the crowd crazy with a wide selection of hits from yester-year and songs from his latest release King of the Dancehall. “The Doctor” gave a hilarious acapella course on making love in which he demonstrated various techniques of pleasing a woman. He paused to explain to the crowd how he and Bounty had a lyrical war, he and Capleton had war, and he and…wait a minute Beenie has warred with just about every artist out there! His point was; that it was strictly lyrical war, he never resorted to violence as rumors have implied his involvement in dancer Bogle’s death [see story]. He followed this proclamation of innocence with his latest track “Frame I.”
 Following Beenie Man was the “The Messenger” Luciano, dressed in a Royal Blue military uniform with Red-Gold-and –Green trim. Luciano gave a rootsikal performance of his soulful hits like “Sweep Over My Soul” and “Ulterior Motive” that had the crowd swaying and singing in unison. Luciano’s gospel-tinged performance seemed to be thoughtfully placed in between Beenie Man and Elephant Man’s sets.
 When Elephant Man and his entourage took the stage you could almost see a wave of energy sweep over the crowd. It seemed as if the 2005 Hurricane season had an early start as “The Energy God” unleashed his fury. On the speaker box one minute, high above on stage beams the next and out in the crowd two minutes later Ele made the Energizer bunny look weak. To my surprise Ele, gave props to Beenie Man who early professed his innocence in Bogle death. (Bogle danced for Elephant Man and was one of his closest friends.) Ele had his own rumor control to deal with and while he paid tribute to his dancer he was more concerned with discrediting the vicious rumor that he is H.I.V. positive. All rumors aside Ele gave a mad-sick-head-no-good rendition of We Are the World stripping of his shirt and rolling around on the stage kicking and screaming like a rock star. Elephant Man = Entertainment.
 Sizzla Kalonji followed and the Bobo-Ahanti Rastafarian was in the best mood I have ever seen him in! Decked out in an all white suit with a pair of matching white shades he smiled profusely throughout his set of hits including “Solid as a Rock”, “Can’t Keep a Good Man Down.” With nothing but aces in his pack each tune Sizzla drew for drove the fans further and further into a unified frenzy. Watching from the sidelines I said to myself “Who could possibly follow this?”
 Buju Banton followed with his first appearance in Miami in almost 2 years, Gargamel quickly ran thru his classics before calling Assassin to join him on stage. The artists had to share the stage due to time constraints and the classic you take 16 bars I take 16 had an authentic Kingston vibe as they worked of each others energy randomly choosing lyrics from thier songs to a variety of riddims. With a veteran and a promising young entertainer exchanging the microphone, the VP Showcase came to an end.
 I-Wayne didn’t get to perform due to time constraints, but one DJ couldn’t dissatisfy the crowd. The MC’s handled the show well, Power 96's Lance-O, 103.5 the Beat's Papa Kieth and guests MC’s Jabba, Mad Vibes and Firelinks all took turns introducing the many artists gathered to showcase VP Records. As the venue cleared I thought to myself how is VP going to top themselves next year? We’ll have to wait and see!
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