CHULA VISTA, Calif. — For one brief moment at the

Up in Smoke tour kickoff show Thursday, the surviving members

of the gangsta rap group

color="#003163">N.W.A stood, reunited, under a

shower of fireworks.

It was what Dr. Dre calls

a "chin check" — a taste of things to come.

"The knockout blow is coming," Dr. Dre promised of his upcoming N.W.A tour. The sold-out audience at the 20,000-seat Coors Amphitheatre in Chula Vista, a suburb of San Diego, stood practically stunned as Dre rapped once again with M.C. Ren and Ice Cube. Snoop Dogg stood in for Eazy-E, who died of complications from AIDS in 1995, and will rap with the reunited group throughout the tour.

"I can't believe I'm seeing this!" said George Murphy, 32, of

San Diego. "This is like a piece of history before my eyes. I

mean, these guys practically invented gangsta rap."

Though the reunited group only played one number at the end

of the show, "Chin Check" (

href="http://media.addict.com/music/N.W.A/Chin_Check.ram">RealAudio excerpt) from the "Next Friday" soundtrack,

the three-hour rap extravaganza, featuring Dr. Dre, Snoop

Dogg, Ice Cube, Eminem,

Nate Dogg and others, had

plenty of other highlights.

Take, for example, the slick five-minute-plus movie starring

Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg — with plenty of topless women

and a liquor store shootout — that aired on a giant

video screen right before the two rappers took the stage

together.

"Are you ready for us to come out and rock this mothaf---a?"

Snoop Dogg asked in the video. "Y'all think we should do this

thing?"

Apparently, the crowd, of all races and ages, was more than

ready to see the West Coast rappers in the flesh. Even before

the lights went out, eager fans rushed to the front of the

apocalyptic stage — complete with a giant skeleton head

and pictures of marijuana leaves — edging past the

beefed-up security.

The show opened with condensed but spirited sets by

color="#003163">Warren G and

color="#003163">Tha Eastsidaz.

Following their sets, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg stepped out,

cool and collected as ever, and opened with "The Next

Episode," off Dr. Dre's multimillion-selling record, Dr.

Dre 2001.

Dr. Dre's booming lyrics flowed naturally with Snoop Dogg's

more chilled-out raps as their trademark haunted house-style

beats were spun by San Diegan DJ

Jam.

"It feels good to be up here with my n---as again," Dr. Dre,

who wore a black T-shirt and jeans, said.

"Likewise," Snoop Dogg, wearing blue pants and jersey, said

before ripping into "Who Am I (What's My Name)?" from his

debut solo album, Doggystyle.

And if treating the audience to a radio favorite this early

on in the show wasn't enough of a highlight, the rappers

immediately followed with "Nothin' but a 'G' Thang" (RealAudio excerpt), voted as

Spin magazine's top single of the 1990s. As Dr. Dre

sang "Well, I'm creepin' and I'm creepin' and I'm creepin',"

Snoop Dogg danced in place in the corner, occasionally

flashing the West Coast hand sign.

The set continued with many references to pot smoking,

including a portion where the giant skeleton head lit up and

shot fire, managing to bug out those who brought some chronic

of their own.

"I liked the show, especially because I got f---ed up," 30-

year-old Melton Jones of Oceanside said. "I really liked

everything that had to do with smoking."

The Snoop Dogg/Dr. Dre set featured a nonstop barrage of

guest appearances by artists, including

color="#003163">Devin a.k.a. the Dude,

color="#003163">Xzibit, Warren G,

color="#003163">Nate Dogg,

color="#003163">The Truth and, of course, Eminem.

Already having performed a short set earlier in the evening,

when he did a strong version of his "The Real Slim Shady"

(

href="http://media.addict.com/music/Eminem/The_Real_Slim_Shad

y.ram">RealAudio excerpt), the Detroit rapper

returned to the stage for "Forgot About Dre" (

href="http://media.addict.com/music/Dr_Dre/Forgot_About_Dre.r

am">RealAudio excerpt) and "What's the Difference."

The artists, known for rapping about sex and street life,

weren't all tough, though. During a touching portion of the

concert, Dr. Dre and company took time to remember artists

who died, including Eazy-E, the

color="#003163">Notorious B.I.G.,

color="#003163">Roger Troutman and

color="#003163">Tupac Shakur.

The true highlight of the concert came when Dr. Dre sang the

chorus from "California Love," from Tupac's All Eyez on

Me, which featured Dr. Dre and Troutman. The crowd began

to sway their hands and flick on their lighters.

While the Dr. Dre set flowed easily and the musicians rapped

effortlessly, Ice Cube and the West

Side Connection performed an equally strong set.

Dressed in all white, Ice Cube pranced around on his Superman

ice cave-style stage as he performed many West Side

Connection songs with

color="#003163">W.C. and

color="#003163">Mac 10.

Ice Cube, sounding fierce and energetic, closed his 20-minute

set with the popular "You Can Do It" with rapper

color="#003163">Ms. Toi.

"I've been to three rap concerts and this is better than any

of the ones I've seen," said Nicola Davies, 20, of University

City. "Dr. Dre is my favorite rapper and he never comes to

San Diego; only in the past couple of years have artists

recognized San Diego as a rap town."