Vegas

Las Vegas... It was wild out there last weekend. I had a blast observing it all and getting in the middle of a couple parties and nonstop craziness.. I meant to write about it when I returned last Sunday but for some reason I just didn't feel that compelled to do so. I arrived in Vegas really early on friday morning around 9:30am after an all night drive that I actually enjoyed. They hooked me up with a room right away at the Monte Carlo. I had reserved it last year when they first announced that the NBA Allstar game would be in Vegas. I'd been looking forward to it ever since because I knew it would be a sight to see.. I never expected the amount of women that I saw.. Whoa, that town was filled with the finest, wildest, beautiful-est women you can imagine and then some... Seemed to me like the ladies out numbered the fellas but then again, my head was turning everytime I saw some fine lady and that was every half second. I ignored words like "there go Jay Z!" or "Jamie Foxx got a room up here somewhere.." or "checkout Kevin Garnett at that table..." Nah, I was amazed by the amount of women just parading around.

Anyway, all week long I've been hearing the reports about how things got out of hand in vegas. All the arrests, the fights, the stupidity in the stripclub, the foolishness in parties and nightclubs... I saw a lot of ignorance portrayed by everybody, all people of all colors but the reports I've been reading of late only points fingers at black folks. I heard they're considering taking the Allstar game to Europe next year.. I guess they figure all the rappers, bloods and crips, pimps and ho's and regular black folks ain't gonna buy a plane ticket to go out there! Nah, we probably wont but despite all the so called trouble, I bet Vegas still made a ton of money over last weekend...

But anyways, enough of that... The highlights for me last weekend were the incredible performance by Prince over at his club 3121. Whew.. talk about a blessed and abundantly talented brotha! he opened the show with an old obscure but personal favorite of mine called "Something In The Water" from the 1999 album and closed the show with some great guest performances by Will I Am, Natalie Cole and Celo performing Crazy with Prince's band. he never sounded better! I also love the way they slowly get the crowd going inside that club by having the DJ play a mix of tunes at a low volume. Then they increase the volume and the amount of songs until before you know it, you're watching a really cool live Prince video followed by the man himself coming onstage and blowing everyone away... He was all over the place interacting with the crowd and making a few ladies very happy by reaching into the crowd and pulling them up onstage himself. Incredible show...

Anoher highlight was the surprise conversation I had while waiting on the tram to take me from Mandalay Bay hotel to the Excalibur. I noticed these two brothas dressed in black suits. One had a hat on and I instantly recognized him. It made me proud to see him. It was Terry Lewis. Then all of a sudden I noticed Jerome Benton. For those not knowing, they are original members of The Time and of course you may remember Terry Lewis producing all those incredible hits with his partner Jimmy Jam. Without those two, janet ain't making no kind of musical noise... Jerome struck up a conversation with me after I jokingly said "why aint you over at the Rio?"(3121 club is there) He smiled and said "we been there a bunch of times.." After that we just had a real cool conversation as the tram took forever to get there. Those two were very down to earth people.

Other highlights included the various ladies who approached me thinking I was a basketball player, striking up nice conversations and making me feel like I had it going on. Ha haaa... *smile* It was cool.. I told them I was retired but still had the money... yeah, they laughed at me too... *smile* It was fun... I got in a lot of walking and had some bomb pina colada's at the Paris Hotel. It was hot in Vegas so those drinks came in handy... Other mentionable highlights also include the slamdunk competition and all the really cool exhibits and NBA stuff at the Mandalay Bay Hotel. It was a cool but wild time... Viva Las Vegas... I was actually glad to get out of there because by saturday night I was tired of it.. My vote is that they have the Allstar game in New Orleans next year!! Yeah!! Ha haa....