Rick Ross. Meek Mill. Wale. : 03 13 2012

MMG Takeover : Hammerstein Ballroom : New York, NY : 03 13 2012 :

For my second time shooting at Hammerstein, since Trey Songz back in November, I was there to shoot what turned out to be one of the livest hip-hop shows I’d been to in a while. Wale kicked off the night with some tracks from Maybach Music Group’s Self Made album, his Ambition album (go buy it if you haven’t already), and he even took us back in time a little with “Pretty Girls” and “Nike Boots”. He also performed his Rack City remix, Make it Rain remix, and No Hands.

Meek took the stage and performed a number of tracks from his Dreamchasers mixtape, as well as some stuff from the Self Made album. I was excited when I thought he was going to perform “Tony’s Song”, as he recited a snippet of the lyrics, just to see who in the audience had heard the mixtape.

As Meek Mill closed out his set, he performed “Ima Boss”, which was the segway to bringing out the Boss, Rick Ross. Ross entered at stage left and the place went crazy! You hear me? Simply bananas! (see pic)

Rick Ross performed a nice list of his hits from Self Made, throwbacks like “Hustlin”, and a lot of songs from his recent Rich Forever mixtape. He brought out special guest Dj Khaled to hit the stage for a song or two. Shortly after that, another special guest grabbed the mic – Swizz Beatz. After Swizz, Stalley, and after Stalley – French Montana joined Ross for “Stay Schemin’. Frenchie also performed “Shot Caller”.

There were so many special guests in the backstage area, that I decided to retreat to the dressing room to avoid the end-of-show madness.

Busta Rhymes, Maino, some folks from Bad Boy, Swizz Beatz, Sway, French Montana, Dj Khaled, Omarion, and Rihanna were some that I recall.

To make a long story short, this was a hell of a show! I’m so glad I took the trip up to NYC from DC.

***Shoutout to Ebro at Hot 97 for giving me the green light to shoot.

***Shoutout to Rich Kleiman as well as the Board Administration for the ALL ACCESS.