Ludacris, Chingy heat up the Gorge

New ghetto superstar 50 Cent was the main attraction at Monday's KUBE 93.3 FM Summer Jam at the Gorge Amphitheatre in George, but it was Dirty South rapper Ludacris and his emerging protégé, Chingy, who stole the show.

The early morning gate call of 11 a.m. didn't detour many Westsiders from making their way to Central Washington for the star-studded festival. Neither did the heat.

As the mercury rose throughout the day, fans continued to pack the sweltering area in front of the stage. Skimpy bikini tops and micro miniskirts were, as always, the unofficial Summer Jam dress code for women.

"People were dropping like flies up there," said Shauntel Callandret, 19, of Seattle, who made her way to the front after properly hydrating.

Luckily the artists — perhaps studying Summer Jam performances of the past — stuck to short sets and didn't deviate too much from the hits.

Breaking the ice on stage was Digital Underground, the band of revolving members that broke onto the rap scene in 1989. Frontman Shock G didn't take too long to transform into his alter ego, Humpty Hump, the man with a prosthetic nose (which he eventually threw into the audience) and lyrically silly but catchy rhymes.

Second on stage was Wayne Wonder, a dance-hall artist from Jamaica, who apparently knew he was low man on the program and performed a short and less than memorable set.

A traffic jam delayed R&B crooner Ginuwine from getting to the show on time, but nobody seemed to mind. Once Ginuwine did hit the stage, his performance was all about the ladies, and that's when the clothes began to come off. Women flashing the camera had no problem with their endowments prominently displayed on the big screen.

Not to be outdone, actor/singer Tyrese kept the bare-breasted admiration going. Although Tyrese has been slowly making an acting name for himself in such films "Baby Boy" and "2 Fast, 2 Furious," Monday's soulful and sizzling performance showed that he's not just another pretty face — he can sing, too.

Breaking out of the crooner mode was Fabolous, whose stop-and-go set was less than fabulous and overpowered by the backup rappers.

Then came Ludacris.

High-powered and energetic, even those squashed in the heat of the front row had their hands in the air, waving like ... well, they just didn't care. Lud brought out the newest artist on his Disturbing Tha Peace record label, Chingy, who kept the energy level high throughout his set, including his current hit, "Right Thurr."

Nothing, however, could match the unadulterated star power of 50 Cent. He has numerous singles on the charts, "and they're all from the same album," he joked to the crowd after a lengthy set of those hit songs and others from the album "Get Rich or Die Tryin' " and his "mix tape" days.

Stripping from a basketball jersey — the clothing choice for most of the Summer Jam artists — to a T-shirt, to a bulletproof vest to his bare chest, 50's muscular and tattooed body kept the women screaming, while his catchy and sometimes vicious lyrics kept the men rapping along with him.

And while security was tight for 50 — in 2000 he was shot nine times outside his grandmother's home in Queens — the security for Summer Jam was nearly nonexistent. But the concert, which has been marred in the past by violence, went off without any major incidents this year.

After the shooting death of Seattleite Leonard Smaldino following the 2002 Summer Jam concert, Grant County officials worked unsuccessfully to shut down the festival. The compromise was shutting down the Gorge campground and nearby Wild Horse Campground.

"It made a tremendous difference," said Grant County Sheriff's Department Chief Deputy Courtney Conklin. Conklin said seven people were jailed, all on nonviolent offenses.

Many Summer Jammers camped in neighboring Kittitas County, but even that "was much quieter than we expected," said Kittitas County Undersheriff Rob DeGroot.