Kanye West live at Pace University
Photo: Walik Goshorn

NEW YORK — Kanye West brought his School Spirit Tour to Pace University's tiny Schimmel Center for the Arts on Thursday night and performed with the dynamism of a stadium headliner.

Even though he's exceeded the platinum plateau and has hits on the radio and television, West is still not satisfied. He feels his debut, College Dropout, should have been permanently marked with a magazine's classic certification, namely The Source's five-mic rating, when it was reviewed earlier this year. West has it all wrong, though. If you ask the people who have been packing his shows the past couple of months, they'll tell you College Dropout is a classic — one of those rare albums that can be appreciated live, and any of its songs will move you no matter where they're played in the set.

	Click for photos from the show

As always, West used up-and-coming singer John Legend — look out for him, you'll be talking about him before you know it — to act as a point man and warm the Pace University crowd up. Sitting at the piano, Legend played the keys and sang an original tune called "Used to Love You." "I'm good, I really am," Legend said. "May-be, I should rob somebody," he sang. "So we can live like Whitney and Bob-beeee!"

After Legend's selection, the instrumental for Jay-Z's "Takeover" consumed the theater and fans started throwing up the Roc-A-Fella Dynasty sign. West came out in a green polo shirt and blue blazer and did some grandstanding — he was applauded loudly simply for walking to the front of the stage and posing.

The rapping producer started his set with "Get Em High" and "Two Words." "Yo, two words, Chi-town, South Side, worldwide, 'cause I rep, 'til I f---in' die," he rapped on the latter cut, keeping most of the crowd bouncing.

The Schimmel Center, which held only 400 fans, made for a setting so intimate that Kanye could touch people in the audience if he walked a runway that was connected to the stage, and he could certainly see the entire crowd from anywhere he was standing. He took exception after peeping a crew of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority members in the front row who had the audacity to sit down while he was ripping. He half-jokingly asked security to replace them with the people in the balcony who were on their feet if the women did not do likewise.

He did not have to wait long. Violinist Miri Ben-Ari came out and started playing her part on "The New Workout Plan." That record, a favorite especially with females, made the lethargic spectators rise to their feet and join everyone else in the festivities. Ben-Ari continued to show her grace with the strings as she performed a medley of cuts such as Kurtis Blow's "The Breaks," Jay-Z's "Dirt Off Your Shoulder," Jadakiss' "We Gon' Make It" and Michael Jackson's "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'."

West then took the floor again, telling everyone he was going to play a song and if they didn’t like it, "Don't say sh--." The fans were very vocal, however, after they heard a few notes of "All Falls Down." Syleena Johnson came onstage to help with the chorus while everyone sang along: "I'm telling you all, it all faaalls dow-owww-owwwn."

The Pace students kept their vocal cords pulsating during "Slow Jamz" — so much so, Kanye threw the mic cord over his shoulder and let his followers do the work for him. "I'mma bring the Cool Whip, then I want you to strip/ See you is my new chick, so we get our grind on," they yelled. West came back in and gave an extra verse that's not featured on the album: "Said she had friend looking like Janet Jackson/ Came over, she was looking like Freddie Jackson," he rapped.

Later West brought out GLC and Consequence for "Spaceships," and all three did a synchronized dance involving a move similar to the A-Town Stomp that included spinning. The most personal cameo, at least for the Pace students, came via "School Spirit." He brought up all those girls who were acting too cute to stand up earlier in the show to perform their sorority's line-dance. "AKAs step, AKAs step, AKAs step."

The energy level stayed high as the tempo was turned up on "Jesus Walks." West introduced a new dance of the same name that looked like cross between a drunkard stumbling out of a club and the Elvis Presley shuffle dance that the King used to do. At the beginning of "Last Call," fans started singing the "La, la, la, la" intro too fast and West had to tell them to take it easy. "Slow down, y'all," he said, laughing. "Y'all going 'Lalalalalalalala!' "

In between raps, while John Legend played at the keys, West mixed music and message like some tenured singers do. "People come up to me and say, 'You got robbed,' " West told the crowd. " 'You should have got five mics.' I tell them, 'Yeah.' "

Well, Kan, all you really need is one mic — the one that allows the fans to hear you.

For more sights and stories from concerts around the country, check out MTV News Tour Reports.

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Miri Ben-Ari (file)

Over the past three years, Miri Ben-Ari has carved out a unique niche as the hip-hop violinist for artists including Jay-Z, Wyclef Jean and Kanye West. Soon, however, the 26-year-old may be calling on some of her rapping friends for musical assistance at her own shows. Miri will release an album this year.

The project, she said, is "hard to explain. It's one-of-a-kind. There's nothing like it. The only thing I could compare it to would be Carlos Santana's projects, because he's an instrumentalist who mixes different elements like pop, rock and Latin music. And I'm doing the same with classical and hip-hop."

Ben-Ari, whose last name means "daughter of a lion," is still at work on her untitled project and getting her guest stars together. Mya, Scarface, Lil' Mo, Fabolous, Anthony Hamilton and Kanye West have all agreed to appear on the LP.

"I'm actually producing," Ben-Ari said of her album. "I've been producing for some time. Sometimes I do it from scratch. Sometimes I collaborate with other producers. Sometimes I get a track and flip it. Sometimes I start a track and we develop it. And sometimes I'll hear a track, fall in love with it and do it my way. It all depends."

Her first foray into hip-hop isn't her debut opus. She released the jazz album Sahara in 1999 and the live Temple of Beautiful in 2003. Miri grew up playing classical music, fell in love with jazz at 16 and branched out into other musical genres. She moved to New York from Israel in the late '90s hoping to use her classical training onstage.

"What I really wanted to do was improvise," said Ben-Ari, who recalls being introduced to rap through Notorious B.I.G. and Jay-Z. "I'm a stage addict. I love to perform. New York is the best place to express yourself musically, to check out other music and find opportunities to get on different stages."

Miri first played hip-hop and R&B on her violin at open-mic gatherings, and then began attending jazz classes. Famed trumpeter Wynton Marsalis soon took her under his wing.

Introduced to Ben-Ari by a mutual friend, Wyclef Jean was so taken by Miri he asked her to perform with him during a "Showtime at the Apollo" taping and a Carnegie Hall gig. Appearances on BET's "Rap City" and "106 & Park" followed, and the floodgates opened when Jay-Z had her play during his historic 2001 Summer Jam set. Jigga subsequently featured her on his live Showtime concert early last year.

"I loved it," she said of Summer Jam. "It was amazing. So much energy, so much love. Working with Wyclef and Jigga was tremendous. They're both brilliant and know what they really want. They're not superstars just because they have mad talent."

Miri's been working a lot lately with another mad genius, Kanye West. She just played on a track he produced for Janet Jackson, and her violin is heard on approximately 90 percent of his recent The College Dropout.

"We started trusting each other after spending so much time in a studio together," Ben-Ari said of recording West's album. "He doesn't need to talk to me anymore when he gives me tracks. He knows what I do and trusts me. When I do my thing, I always know what to do. I never need to think about anything, I just do me. Music comes to me. I don't process any thoughts when I play music. I always like to hear things instantly."

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