If you remember the 90s you probably weren’t there. That might be said about Friday’s opening UK date for the ‘I Love The 90s’ Tour, at the SSE Arena, Wembley. The thousands-strong audience ranged in ages from those who *were* there – those of a similar age to or older than the performers – down to the ones whose knowledge of Vanilla Ice’s hit, ‘Ice Ice Baby’ might be from when he stopped, collaborated and listened with Jedward, on their mashup of ‘Under Pressure/Ice Ice Baby’, back in 2010.
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The show got off to a great start, opening with Young MC, followed by Tone Lōc, Color Me Badd, and Coolio each playing a 15 minute set of high energy hip-hop, with the latter singing some really great covers, as well as his bigger hits like, ‘Gangsta’s Paradise’. Standing downstairs, this first time visitor to the SSE Arena was impressed by how civilised the audience was, even though every single one of us was giving it all we were worth. The acts were all very slick and professional, with the crowd showing our appreciation and responding to whatever we were asked, whether it be putting our hands in the air, yelling “hell yeah” or singing along with the hits. There was a changeover between each act, at which time we were treated to a visual feast of videos from the 1990s, bringing a tangible feeling of nostalgia to the room.
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At 7.45 the atmosphere definitely changed, with a wave of excitement filling the arena, as the arrival was announced of the First Ladies of Hip-Hop – Salt-N-Pepa and DJ Spinderella. The trio came on stage, accompanied by some very buff male dancers, and announced that “this is not a show – this is the Salt-N-Pepa experience!”
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And an experience it was! Salt-N-Pepa and DJ Spin were clearly enjoying themselves, as they kept us going with big numbers like ‘Shoop’, ‘Whatta Man’, ‘Let’s Talk About Sex’ (along with an apology from Salt-N-Pepa to all the ladies for getting them in trouble as young girls singing these songs). Including a slot by DJ Spinderella featuring a quick run through many hits of the era, the ladies, who have been performing together for 31 years, kept us going for a solid hour. We were also treated to an empowering “Pep Talk”, prefacing their track, ‘None Of Your Business’, with Pep telling us all what to say when anyone questioned us doing what we wanted with our lives (Tell them…it’s NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS). Finally, after walking off, they were enticed back on to perform an encore of their platinum selling, ‘Push It’.
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Final act of the night was the very charismatic Vanilla Ice, who opened up with a reminder of how hard he works (and works out), showing us some fearsome dance moves, as well as some fun, such as throwing water on his crew, and members of the audience. Mr Ice, Rob to his friends, gave out at the current generation of young people, who spend all their time on their computers and phones – “this generation have nothing!” – and launched into a good-humoured rant about how it was back in the day…before suggesting we post our photos and videos on Twitter and Instagram (“and all that shit”) and to make sure we tag him and all the others in.
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Working his way through tracks such as ‘Play That Funky Music’ and ‘Ninja Rap’, he finally got to the one we were all waiting for. With a shoutout to Jedward (“all we need now is Jedward!”) , who sadly weren’t there, he dropped hard into ‘Ice Ice Baby’, while the entire audience sang along, word perfect.
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Altogether, ‘I Love the 90s’ was a night to remember, and brought back a lot of fond memories of a time when life was perhaps a little easier. The tour continues across the UK with shows in Bristol (October 5), Liverpool (October 6) and Birmingham on 7 October, before making its way back to the US. Tickets and further information can be found here.
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Be sure to also revisit our interviews with Pepa, and Vanilla Ice.
