The dress code was fiercely observed in this sold-out concert hall, where shimmering evening gowns lit up the room even when the lights were down.
The fellas looked plenty sharp themselves in well-pressed suits and shoes that glimmered like slip-on disco balls.
On stage, a full orchestra mirrored the crowd’s natty attire in sleek, matching white get-ups.
Jeezy explained what was to come next.
“I’m gonna tell you right now, we’re gonna sweat the tuxedos out tonight,” the superstar rapper announced at PH Live at Planet Hollywood on Friday, rocking a bejeweled white tux as lustrous as the many platinum records he’s earned over the past two decades. “We’re gonna sweat the dresses out tonight.”
Busy as local dry cleaners may be right about now, there was a larger point to the evening’s ritzy fashion displays, something more meaningful than simply looking stunning during a night out in Las Vegas: They were a tone-setter for an evening of celebration commemorating the 20th anniversary of Jeezy’s breakout major label debut, “Thug Motivation 101,” an album that both redefined and sky-rocketed the popularity of Southern trap music, one of hip-hop’s grittiest variants.
Jeezy would mark the occasion by performing much of the record with an orchestra. During a recent interview with NPR, he explained why he chose to do so.
“I know my first time ever seeing a symphony and a(n) orchestra was the first time I performed with one,” he said. “So I wanted to take that experience around the world, ‘cause there’s a lot of Black and brown boys and girls and adults that haven’t even seen this experience ever.”
And so he’s spent the past six months touring the country with The Color of Noize Orchestra, the trek concluding this weekend with Jeezy’s second stint at PH Live.
The last time he was in town, he set the Guinness World Record for the largest orchestra in a hip-hop concert by performing with 101 musicians in November. (He returns to the venue on Sunday).
Jeezy’s repertoire blends well with orchestration: plenty of his recordings feature sampled horns and strings, which feel even more triumphant and dramatic when performed live on songs like “Go Crazy,” with its thunderous drum and bass interplay, and a guitar-solo enhanced “Bang.”
Pistoning his legs onto the stage, shaking his fists like he was rolling invisible dice, Jeezy punched his words like a boxer working the heavy bag as he began the show with a dozen cuts from “Thug Motivation,” an album that chronicles the rewards and perils of Jeezy’s drug-dealing past and the crisis of conscience that can follow (“When you’re living wrong, it’s hard to sleep right / But it is what it is, gotta eat, right?” he rhymed on “Everythang”).
On a bracing “And Then What,” where he was joined on stage by rapper-producer Mannie Fresh, Jeezy delivered the song’s final verse a cappella, as if to further emphasize his words.
“I got million dollar dreams and federal nightmares,” he bellowed. “What did you expect, man? I came from nothing.”
But times have changed — and so has Jeezy’s audience.
“I used to come for the trappers,” he said, addressing the crowd prior to launching into an emotive “Soul Survivor.” “But now I’m coming for the doctors, the lawyers, the self-made women.”
This night was for them, fancy clothes and all.
But then it was time to take those fancy clothes off — at least for the man with the mic.
An hour into the show, the orchestra left the stage, Jeezy swapped his suit for a sleeveless black T-shirt and then posed a rhetorical question.
“Can we turn this into a gangsta after-party?” he wondered aloud before delving into another 30 minutes of hits riotously received by the packed house.
The message was clear: Jeezy may have left the streets long ago, but he still knows how to navigate the neighborhood.
Contact Jason Bracelin at [email protected] or 702-383-0476. Follow @jasonbracelin76 on Instagram.