Nas and Busta Rhymes bring excitement, but Wu-Tang Clan falters in Ruoff show

Ten legendary emcees graced the Ruoff Music Center stage on Thursday night, carrying a combined resume of nearly three centuries of East Coast hip-hop hitmaking.

Three of them — co-headliner Nas, Raekwon of the Wu-Tang Clan and late addition Busta Rhymes — brought supreme energy, engagement and skill to the mic at what is likely to be Indianapolis' biggest hip-hop show of the year. The rest of exalted Shaolin masters seemed only somewhat interested in being there, often coming and going from the stage mid-song.

At one point, Wu-Tang Clan leader RZA had to make a pseudo-public school announcement for his group mates to all return to the stage to perform iconic hit "Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nuthing Ta F' Wit." Raekwon, like a grade school student to his teacher, told him he had to get some water first.

Ruoff was nearly empty at the show's 8 p.m. start time, but it filled in a bit by the time RZA opened things up. This was nowhere near a sellout, though.

RZA did his part to keep the energy up.

"I want to thank Indianapolis, Noblesville, the whole muthaf----- Indiana for rocking with us tonight," he said to start the show.

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But there is such a thing as too laid back, and Wu-Tang crossed that threshold a few times during several sets throughout the night.

This created a bit of a rollercoaster effect: Wu-Tang was decent to introduce the night, then Nas killed. That bled into some better but still not superb Wu-Tang, another strong Nas set and an energetic, but brief, Busta Rhymes injection. Wu-Tang finished it out, but the biggest crowd pops came for the solo artists on the bill.

As was the case at the St. Louis show that kicked off the tour on Tuesday, Wu-Tang was also missing a critical piece of the pie: Method Man.

I do not know where Method Man is. It was not explained. I can't find any articles on the subject. He is more of an actor these days, I guess.

There were, I think, nine Wu-Tang Clan members on stage throughout the night, including Young Dirty Bastard, the son of departed founding member Ol' Dirty Bastard. Because of the constant coming and going, it was hard to keep track. Nas also joined in a few times.

The other members handled some of Method Man's parts, but it was a glaring weakness for me. "C.R.E.A.M." is not as sweet without that hook.

Wu-Tang energy and roster deficiencies aside, it was still a somewhat entertaining and memorable night.

This was my second time seeing Nas, and he was excellent yet again.

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He's not flashy or loud, but he's into what he's doing up there. And his song resume stacks up with anyone's.

The biggest applause of the night came for the end of his final set, "Made You Look" and "If I Ruled the World." People were up and yelling along for most of that set, which also included a good "Hate Me Now" rendition.

A few more highlights came when Nas shared the stage with Raekwon, as they both brought it most of the night. They closed Nas' first set out with their collaborative track with Mobb Deep, "Eye for a Eye (Your Beef Is Mines)."

GZA and Ghostface Killah were strong at the mic at times, but I felt Raekwon did most of the heavy lifting for Wu-Tang as they ran through the hits. Raekwon also filled out some of the sets with songs from his "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…" album.

There were just times where the sheer number of members was a bit awkward.

RZA and GZA started the night together with "Liquid Swords," then they brought up one member at a time to do a bit of another song. It took about 15 minutes to get the whole group on stage for "Bring da Ruckus," which was great but a little bogged down by the strange pageantry that preceded it.

After about 90 minutes of either alternating between or squishing together Nas and Wu-Tang, we got our 20-minute or so taste of Busta Rhymes, who was only added to the bill a few days ago.

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He entered wearing a bright blue suit jacket with colorful floral imprints, with a hat and hype man Spliff Star to match.

"You muthaf----s look tired," he told crowd as hit the stage around 10 p.m.

As he worked through his version of "Ante Up," his voice dropped down to an inaudible whisper. People around me started yelling about the apparent technical difficulties, before Spliff turned an imaginary crank on Busta's head that brought him back up to a yell.

Screams and leaps into the air from the crowd.

He then attempted to have the crowd sing Mariah Carey's part in "I Know What You Want," which went about as you'd expect. We could muster about half an octave to her five.

We were then sprayed by his patented machine-gun delivery for a few more songs. Both he and RZA also literally sprayed the crowd with champagne at different points in the night.

But then, a tender moment.

"It's been 30 years of friendship, 30 years of brotherhood, 30 years of real rap s---," he said. "I love the Wu-Tang Clan. I love Nas. I'm glad they decided to throw me into this last minute."

This was only the second night of the tour. A full deck and some organization would help Wu-Tang tremendously, and Busta Rhymes could use a bit more stage time. I imagine all of that will be ironed out.

But those of us here in Indiana are left with a pretty good show that could have been outstanding.

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Rory Appleton is the pop culture reporter at IndyStar. Contact him at 317-552-9044 and [email protected], or follow him on Twitter at @RoryDoesPhonics.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Wu-Tang Clan, Nas at Ruoff Music Center in Noblesville