Embarking on one of the biggest concert tours of 2023, maybe even the biggest tour of his career, 50 Cent’s Final Lap Tour has seen him perform all across the USA and Canada this summer, celebrating the 20th anniversary of one of the highest selling rap albums of all-time, Get Rich Or Die Tryin’. The tour will eventually take him through countries in Europe, Asia, and Australia, but for now 50 has landed in Detroit, kicking off the final week of the North American leg of the tour before he flies overseas. With his career focused on TV, film, and other entrepreneurial endeavors in recent years, fans all over the world have been eager for the rare opportunity to see 50 Cent perform live, and for what may be their last chance.

We originally caught the tour and reviewed it in Toronto back in July, but decided to also make a special road trip out to Detroit for what was originally slated to be the last stop in North America, a climactic closing in the hometown of one of 50’s iconic mentors, Eminem. For us, this would be another fun road trip visiting a different city while also being a gamble at a chance to see one of Hip-Hop’s most reclusive legends, who only seems to perform live these days when another artist of similar stature brings their tour to his city. Most recently, Eminem surprised fans with an appearance at an Ed Sheeran concert in Detroit, and we were hoping he might do the same for his former protege. Time would tell if our gamble paid off.

After spending our first day in Detroit exploring the sights downtown, including a stop at Eminem’s restaurant and merch store, Mom’s Spaghetti, our second day in town would see us make our way up north to Clarkston, a suburb just outside of the city where the Pine Knob Music Theatre was located. While the venue was about a 45-minute drive outside of the downtown core, the look and feel felt similar to Toronto’s Budweiser Stage, with a partial roof covering the seated area and an exposed, general admission lawn area in the back. Unlike our first review of the Toronto tour stop, we actually showed up on time to this one and were able to catch the show from the very beginning, including the opening set by Jeremih. Joined by a couple of pole dancers, Jeremih warmed up the crowd, especially the ladies with his steamy RnB songs, doing a quick 3-song set including energetic performances of “Birthday Sex” and “Don’t Tell ‘Em.”

Pretty soon after Jeremih’s quick set, it would be time for one of the greatest live performers in Hip-Hop history to hit the stage, Busta Rhymes. Right from the beginning his set was slightly different from what he did in Toronto, as his intro included a video of Chris Rock on the jumbo screens doing the outro from his latest album, Extinction Level Event 2: The Wrath of God. From there, the throne set up center-stage would rotate to reveal Busta himself, and Spliff Star and DJ Scratchator would hype up the crowd as the beat built up for “Ante Up (Remix),” and Busta proceeded to tear the house down!

Continuing into “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See,” Busta and Spliff Star showed some dope coordination with the sound mixer, Spliff turning an imaginary knob as Busta’s mic cut out to give the crowd a chance to join in, and turning it back up to bring Busta back in for the hook. Sitting a lot closer to the stage this time around, we could see that Busta was rapping the whole time, and the change in sound levels was just part of the show. After checking the Detroit crowd’s energy levels, Busta continued on with a setlist that was slightly altered from what he performed in Toronto. While he didn’t do “Make It Clap” or his feature on The Pussycat Dolls’ “Don’t Cha” this time, he swapped in the ’06 club banger “Touch It,” alternating from crouching down for the quiet raps to jumping up for the loud ones. He’d also perform his feature on Lumidee’s “Uh Oooh,” and played a scene from the new music video he just dropped for his latest single, “Luxury Life” featuring Coi Leray, which will appear on an upcoming new album produced by himself, Pharrell, Timbaland and Swizz Beatz.

Busta would continue to blend eras, getting the crowd to sing along to his mid-2000s Mariah Carey collab “I Know What You Want” along with a rare performance of the Rick James-assisted “In The Ghetto,” before doing another 2023 single off the upcoming album, “Beach Ball.” The crowd stayed hyped throughout his set, and the energy would only grow as he got into a couple of his biggest show-stealing guest verses in his career, getting everyone to jump to A Tribe Called Quest’s “Scenario” and showing off the fast flow on Chris Brown’s “Look At Me Now.” Similar to how they closed out in Toronto, Busta Rhymes and Spliff Star showed off impeccable choreography and showmanship as Busta performed part of “Break Ya Neck,” and sprayed the crowd with champagne as they toasted to “Pass The Courvoisier.” While Busta still didn’t have enough time on stage to really dig into his endless supply of hits, he still tore shit down and got the crowd energized ahead of 50 Cent’s arrival.

By sitting closer to the stage, we got to really appreciate the showmanship and stage presence 50 Cent pulls off throughout his set. He started things off with the same spectacle as he did in Toronto, with a glass box filling up with smoke, and we got to experience the mind-fuck of trying to figure out how he magically appeared inside the box as the fireworks went off, with no visible movement from behind or underneath. His setlist started off the same, going from the mixtape track “I’m On Some Shit” to bringing out Tony Yayo and Uncle Murda as his hypemen as he got into hits like “What Up Gangsta,” “I Get Money,” and “Hate It Or Love It.” The crowds energy continued to stay high, with plenty of fans rapping along to the words as 50 performed “If I Can’t,” and the screens behind him lifted to reveal the full band playing behind them.

50 would head backstage as the band played out the instrumental, and a team of dancers took over the stage to show off their moves. The band would eventually play 50 back in with the beat to “Magic Stick,” and he came out in a blue sweatsuit to perform the next segment. He’d perform the street anthem “Hustler’s Ambition” before bringing it back to the club hits, doing the hook and the first bit of his verse from “How We Do” and letting the ladies take over the stage again for a dance-off. 50 would return in yet another new outfit as he got into more club records like “P.I.M.P.” and “Candy Shop,” getting the fans to dance.

Next would be the first real deviation we saw from what 50 performed in Toronto, as he pulled out the Get Rich Or Die Tryin’ classic “Patiently Waiting,” and those who were indeed patiently waiting for Eminem to show up got their wishes fulfilled. With Yayo and Uncle Murda backing him, 50 Cent performed his first verse of the song, and the crowd absolutely erupted as he continued with the hook and Eminem graced the stage for the second verse! It was definitely the most hype moment of the evening, as Eminem killed his verse and we all waved our arms in unison when 50 got back to the hook, and shouted out lyrics along with him and Shady. Together, Em & 50 would then take it back to ’09 with the deep cut off of Eminem’s Relapse album, “Crack A Bottle,” both emcees visibly happy to be performing the celebratory song together. Eminem would then get the crowd to make some noise for one of his best friends, 50 Cent, as well as for Hip-Hop’s 50th anniversary before shouting “Detroit, I love y’all!” as he left the stage.

Although Eminem’s time on stage was short lived, most of the crowd was hyped just being able to see him, and we were all in the right mood to get down as 50 pulled out the dance track “Disco Inferno.” 50 would then slow it down, performing “Window Shopper” along with a couple romantic songs for the ladies, including “Best Friend” and the ’03 classic “21 Questions.” It wouldn’t be too long before we got to see another surprise guest, as 50 brought out Detroit emcee Kash Doll, who would take over the stage with her single “Ice Me Out,” getting the crowd to dance. The dance vibes continued as a dancer got to do a solo routine after Kash Doll’s performance, which led into 50 returning with a group of dancers to perform “Just A Lil’ Bit.” This was another example of being able to pick up more details by sitting closer, as we noticed another magic trick where the dancers pulled off 50’s red tracksuit and he appeared in an all-white outfit in a split second.

50 would take some time to acknowledge his film and TV success with his show Power, performing the theme song “Big Rich Town,” and also gave an RIP shoutout to Pop Smoke before performing “The Woo.” The Detroit love would continue, as 50 next brought out Peezy, who I admittedly wasn’t familiar with but he got the hometown crowd turned up to his song “2 Million Up.” After giving Peezy his time to shine, 50 would continue on with the setlist, nailing the fast flow from his ’07 hit “Ayo Technology” as laser lights shot down around him and a pair of dancers, and his guitarist came down to the main stage to perform a solo. With those Justin Timberlake vocals bringing in an RnB vibe, 50 would stay focused on the ladies, bringing Jeremih back to the stage to perform their collab “Down On Me” together. As he did last time, Jeremih sat down in front of a piano that was brought on stage behind him, and he’d perform a stripped-down version of “Birthday Sex” as he played the keys, with a dancer doing her own steamy performance from atop the piano.

The rest of 50 Cent’s main set was the same as when we saw him in Toronto. He’d do one more for the ladies with the song “Baby By Me” before getting the crowd to light up their phones as he performed the dramatic “Many Men,” and would get confetti to shoot out into the crowd as he did “I’m The Man.” The big finale was of course “In Da Club,” which had a prolonged drum build-up before 50 and his team of dancers came out with even more confetti raining down on the crowd as he rapped those famous lyrics “go shorty, it’s your birthday!” The crowd turned all the way up, many putting their phones away to actually dance and enjoy the song as 50 performed the track with ease, and the band played him out with an epic outro.

Tony Yayo would be quick to get the crowd to chant for 50 to do an encore, and after some dancers got down on stage with pyrotechnics shooting off flames around them, 50 would eventually return with his feature on Chief Keef’s “Hate Bein’ Sober,” as well as his verse from G-Unit’s “Rider Pt. 2.” The encore segment is where 50’s been known to switch up some of his setlist from show to show, and for Detroit he’d use some of it to give another hometown artist some shine, bringing out Icewear Vezzo to perform his songs “Up The Scoe” and “Money Phone.” This was another artist I was unfamiliar with going into this show, but the Detroit crowd showed him a lot of love.

50 would then tease a few rarities, starting off songs and cutting the beat out midway to perform the verses acapella as he engaged the crowds on each side of the stage. He’d do “Wanksta” for the right side, then came over to the left to do “Stunt 101,” and would go to the middle to do “Poor Lil Rich.” He’d then pull out a deep album cut from Get Rich Or Die Tryin’ I wasn’t expecting to see, performing the epic Ja Rule diss, “Back Down.” With no punches held, 50 performed all of the first verse and used the opening bars of the second verse to transition into “Southside.” “That’s Ja lil’ punk ass thinking out loud/ Southside ’til I die, that’s just how I get down.” To close out the show, 50 would perform the hype intro to his 2005 film Get Rich Or Die Tryin’, “I’ll Whip Ya Head Boy,” rapping the verses as all the pyrotechnics shot off flames around him.

Overall, this concert was definitely worth the trip to Detroit. While much of Busta Rhymes and 50 Cent’s setlists were similar to what they performed in Toronto, they did switch things up to keep it interesting, with 50 pulling out even more Get Rich Or Die Tryin’ deep cuts this time around. It was dope seeing 50 use his platform to give some of Detroit’s newer artists some shine, not to mention the epic moment of seeing Eminem share the stage with 50. While I still have some of the same gripes with this show as I did in Toronto, wanting to see songs like “Heat,” “Like My Style” with Tony Yayo and “Don’t Push Me” with Eminem get performed, the setlist Detroit got was still fulsome of 50’s career, showcasing his biggest impacts on Hip-Hop through music, TV, film, and even video games. That’s another epic road trip in the books!

50 Cent has shows in Baltimore, New Jersey, and a second Toronto show this week before he flies out to Europe. Tickets for all tour dates can be found at 50Cent.com.

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