If you were like many of us that weren’t too keen on the entire Supafest line-up, preferring to diss the teenage crowds, overpriced drinks and the many cons of holding an event at Telstra Stadium (binoculars please!), then seeing Nelly and Snoop Dogg at this gig would have definitely been a more attractive alternative.

Getting up close and personal with arguably two of the biggest international names in hip-hop with a venue capacity of only 750 people, this was definitely a unique opportunity to see these two artists in an intimate setting.

After enjoying what seemed like many hours of complimentary glasses of Moët and canapés (the perks of having VIP access), I guess you could say I was feeling like I’d been transported to Snoop Dogg’s crib with all the booze, groupies and celebs that were circulating. Being so close to Jamal Woolard, the actor who played Biggie Smalls in Notorious, I cannot deny was more than a little exciting… until the influx of B-grade Aussie celebs regrettably killed the buzz, not to mention the plastic groupies trying so desperately to get ANY famous person’s attention.

The biggest cringe factor of the night was actually hearing one groupie say to the other “just act cool” when Jamal Wooldard walked passed them. Guess it wouldn’t be a complete hip-hop show without them though!

Not ever having been the biggest open Nelly fan, I must say his set was surprisingly enjoyable at times (although at this point anything to distract me from those groupies was a good thing!). Nelly came on stage with his boys and smashed out the crowd-pleasers Party People, Down Down Baby, Shake Ya Tailfeather, his classic with Jagged Edge Where The Party At as well as Ride Wit Me, before hitting us with Country Grammar, which set the crowd off.

Other highlights included my guilty cheesy pleasure Grillz before Nelly proceeded to do the mandatory “I need three ladies on stage” routine. As you’d expect the girls went mental but the whole process took so long that many of us lost interest. Although in Nelly’s defence, it probably didn’t help that we’d just spotted Busta Rhymes either. After Nelly finished getting down and dirty with the girls on stage, he brought Avery Storm on stage to help him sing Here I Am , then dropping Hot In Herre, where – you guessed it – he took his shirt off, before finishing off with Dilemma and his number #1 hit Just a Dream .

As the lights dimmed and the warm-up DJs that had been entertaining us came to a halt, we all knew Snoop was up next – but not before an epic introduction. With the help of Seiji Ozawa’s famous classical tune Camina Burana drilling through the speakers (a track which can only be used successfully by an artist as an intro if you’re kinda of a big deal, i.e. Michael Jackson). Snoop managed to do it justice, vamping up the crowd with a sea of roars whilst playing a video montage of his career to date, mixed in with shooting scenes from both The Godfather and Scarface .

Sporting his famous braided locks and killer black shades, Snoop stayed true to his West Coast roots coming out wearing an L.A Lakers jersey matching perfectly with his purple Adidas ensemble. Wasting no time, he belted out the favourites I Wanna Rock , The Next Episode, Gin And Juice, What’s My Name and Beautiful all through his bling knuckle-duster microphone. But no one could have predicted what happened next…

Hip hop heavyweights The Game, T-Pain, Busta Rhymes, Fat Joe and Spliff Star all stormed the stage during Snoop’s set! The Supafest stars that had turned out to support their peers rushed the stage to join him in a number of impromptu tracks. To the crowd’s delight, they joined Snoop for the remainder of his set as well as laying down a solid hour of freestyling – one of the biggest hip hop spectacles I can safely say Australia’s ever seen.

Snippets of tracks performed included Terror Squad and Fat Joe’s Lean Back , The Game’s Hate It Or Love It, Busta Rhymes’ Pass The Courvoisier and Spliff Star and T-Pain’s Bartender. The epic night finished on a high leaving everyone still reeling when Snoop performed Drop It Like It’s Hot with his booty popping back-up dancers, and his own rendition of Kris Kross’s Jump.

Those lucky enough to attend this intimate gig definitely witnessed their very own slice of hip hop history. As Snoop Dogg’s sound engineer said to me after the show, “What we saw don’t happen everyday”. All I can say is, Fo Shizzle!