If the old adage is true and patience is a virtue, then the hip-hop fans of Syracuse are an incredibly virtuous group.

Last night at the Landmark Theatre, fans waited for more than three hours, sitting through four unknown acts and two DJs, before hip-hop stars Lloyd Banks and Young Buck of G-Unit decided to grace the audience with their presence.

‘It took a little while for them to get out,’ said Alex Parker, 17, of Cazenovia. ‘But it was still a good show.’

At 10:25 p.m., nearly three hours after the show was scheduled to begin, the show’s DJ began pandering to the eager, anxious crowd, asking them to join him in a chant. When he called ‘G,’ the crowd returned with ‘Unit.’ When he screamed ‘Lloyd,’ the crowd responded with an enthusiastic ‘Banks.’ When he yelled ‘Young,’ the fans shouted ‘Buck.’ And when he said ’50,’ the crowd shrieked ‘Cent,’ amazed that the G-Unit leader had decided to join his partners in crime.

‘You want 50?’ the DJ asked the crowd, laughing. ‘I never said he was going to be here.’

The crowd laughed, but apparently had been set up for such a joke the whole time. According to Danyana Stroman, 27, of Syracuse, a rumor had apparently spread through the crowd that 50 Cent was going to perform at the show as a special guest. As it turned out, though, he never did.

A few minutes later, at 10:30, three hours after the concert was scheduled to begin, Young Buck finally burst onto the stage, accompanied by the pungent smell of marijuana. After playing himself up to the crowd for a few minutes, Buck turned to the fans, knowing that they wouldn’t be pleased if he stayed out on stage too long without bringing out Banks to join him.

‘I know you don’t think I came out to Syracuse by my fucking self,’ Buck said as Banks ran out on stage, joining him.

Throughout the night, the two rappers pushed the crowd to show their G-Unit love. At one point, Banks told everyone in the crowd who was ‘down with G-Unit’ to raise their hands. Then he asked that the lights be put on in the arena so he could see his fans directly praising him. Instead of simply soaking up the glory, though, Banks called out a fan in the upper deck for not having his hands in the air.

Together, Buck and Banks performed an hourlong set of each of their hits, as well as those of their group, G-Unit.

‘It’s cold as a motherfucker outside,’ Banks offered as the set drew to a close, ‘but in here, we’re on fire.’

Banks then launched into the song that launched his solo career, ‘On Fire,’ which was followed by a number of ‘G-Unit’ chants, before he and Buck left the stage.

While the two did their best to appease the crowd, the wait they forced upon them ultimately dug the grave for their performance.

‘The show was OK,’ Stroman said. ‘They gave a real performance for the hour they performed. But it would have been better if 50 Cent was here.’

Published on November 4, 2004 at 12:00 pm