The Up in Smoke Tour

The smoke hasn't settled yet, but there can be no doubt that this summer's "Up In Smoke" tour had the biggest fire of any touring music show. This Hip Hop All-Stars show features Dr. Dre, Snoop Doggy Dogg, Eminem, Ice Cube and other special guests in a program offering many surprises, from onstage to backstage to scenes from the road shot by the artists themselves on home video cameras.

They may be every parent's nightmare, but the rap all-stars that comprise the 2000 Up in Smoke tour (smoke, as in blunts and chronic--or marijuana, for the uninitiated) are incredibly popular with a surprising cross-section of young music lovers today. This two-hour-plus DVD captures most of one concert by the four rappers who joined together for this tour: Ice Cube, Eminem, Dr. Dre, and Snoop Dogg. If you aren't a fan of the music, don't expect this to change your mind or even to help you understand these rappers' appeal. For the devoted, however, you get heaping doses of four of the hottest acts working, in a show that includes lavish production values as well as plenty of backstage footage and photographs as extra features. Given the slice-and-dice editing (no shot, it seems, is allowed to last more than two seconds), it's hard to get a fix on them or a true picture of what the show looked like if you happened to be sitting in the audience. --Marshall Fine