T-Pain keeps it cool at big hit-filled Stone Pony Summer Stage show in Asbury Park

This wasn't a “fancy” party, but attendees had a blast nevertheless.

After an hour or so of crowd-sung boozy choruses, sloshy sing-alongs and joyous rhymes, hip-hop vocalist T-Pain assessed the situation at his sold-out Mansion In Wiscansin Party Tour show Friday, June 21 at the Stone Pony Summer Stage in Asbury Park.

“I think I’ve been getting it wrong the whole time,” said T-Pain from the stage. “I don’t think we do a fancy party because this is a different type of crowd.”

The Jersey Shore crowd, majority female, was about letting their hair down on a hot summer night. T-Pain read the room, as it was, and delivered the hits and more over an hour and a half, starting with “Up Down (Do This All Day).”

It was a broad musical smorgasbord, from the T-Pain classics “Bartender,” “I'm N Luv (Wit a Stripper),” and “Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin'),” to wild cards like Chris Brown's “Kiss Kiss” and Journey's rock classic, “Don't Stop Believing.”

T-Pain, aka Faheem Najm of Florida, performed solo on a stage backlit by a video screen. DJ Montay played the beats and surveyed the scene from atop of the video screen. LaRussell, NandoSTL and Young Ca$h were also on the bill and the openers joined T-Pain at the close of the show.

The concert was T-Pain's Asbury Park debut. The rapper-singer is known for singing melodies over an auto-tune vocal effect.

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“He really brought the crowd together and he brought it together by singing songs people didn't expect him to sing,” said Grace Ward of Neptune. “'Kiss Kiss' was so good. I got these tickets five months ago when I heard he was coming to Asbury Park. It was great to see a different crowd out here enjoying the music.”

The Summer Stage's 4,500 capacity was full, and several hundred fans listened, and saw partial views, of the show from the First Avenue median and atop of cars parked there, the Watermark bar on the boardwalk, and on the boardwalk itself across Ocean Avenue.

Despite the area being in the midst of a heatwave, it was about 10 degrees cooler at the Asbury Park shore thanks to ocean cross winds.

The T-Pain show was the first hip-hop concert on the Stone Pony Summer Stage since the 2013 Mac Miller, Chance the Rapper and Meek Mill bill. Hip-hop legends Eric B and Rakim played a North to Shore festival show inside the venue last summer. They were introduced by Gov. Phil Murphy.

T-Pain had advice for the crowd. Believe in yourself, he said, don't do drugs “but if you do, do half and wait an hour,” and in life, “don't do it because it's cool, do it because you're cool.”

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Chris Jordan, a Jersey Shore native, covers entertainment and features for the USA Today Network New Jersey. Contact him at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: T-Pain keeps it cool at Stone Pony Summer Stage show