A hip-hop explosion at Powerhouse

Xzibit wanted to give the hometown crowd a pat on the back. “Broadcasting live from planet Los Angeles,” the gruff-voiced rapper said to the packed house Thursday at the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim, launching an explosive set that highlighted some of the best West Coast rap of the last five-plus years.

Indeed, critics who lament the stagnant state of hip-hop might have modified their opinion if they’d attended Powerhouse 2004, the annual concert put on by radio station KPWR (105.9), a.k.a. Power 106. The quick-paced, four-hour event showcased the wide range of hip-hop’s best artists and included performances from two of the genre’s most significant and influential acts.

During his commanding 30-minute set, red-hot rapper-producer Kanye West, whose credits include hits with Jay-Z, Alicia Keys and Brandy, showed that hip-hop can have lyrical substance. The Chicagoan stormed the stage and launched into a hyper medley of his material as both a producer (Dilated Peoples’ “This Way,” Slum Village’s “Selfish”) and a performer. His stellar album “The College Dropout” is a leading candidate for hip-hop album of the year.

West performed with a religious zeal as he served up moving renditions of the critically introspective “All Falls Down” and the self-help-themed “Through the Wire.” Twista, who raps faster than a speeding bullet, sauntered onstage for the R&B; love letter “Slow Jamz,” in which he and West mix their come-ons with clever lines that make creative use of soul singers’ names.

West was followed by Ludacris, the devilishly funny Atlanta rapper whose humor contrasts starkly with the materialism and violence espoused by many of today’s popular rap acts (even though his music sometimes contains healthy helpings of both). Like a stand-up comedian reveling in his own work, Ludacris performed with a smile through the majority of his charged 30-minute set.

Lil Jon, the producer of Usher’s smash single “Yeah!,” which also features Ludacris, made an unannounced appearance and seemingly encouraged Ludacris to extend his show. “I’m just gonna keep going until they cut me off,” he said, half-jokingly.

More than 20 years ago, hip-hop was dismissed as a fad, something that would disappear by the end of the 1980s. But two Powerhouse acts, the Beastie Boys and Too $hort, have helped prove the naysayers wrong. Indeed, much of the teen crowd seemed lost as the Beastie Boys performed such seminal material as “Paul Revere” and “Brass Monkey.” The newer hits “Intergalactic” and “Ch-Check It Out” seemed to register better with the audience.

Too $hort’s songs about the world of pimps and prostitutes have had as much effect as his entrepreneurial spirit, which has inspired generations of independent-minded rap businessmen. The Oakland rapper delivered an abbreviated set that suffered from technical difficulties as he revisited his nearly two-decade-long recording career.

Concert-closer Big Boi, one-half of the revered OutKast, churned through a well-received 30-minute medley of his hits, without his eccentric partner Andre 3000 but with the help of such talented friends as singer Sleepy Brown and rapper Killer Mike.