Master P. fought the Cincinnati Fire Department, and the loser was the crowd at the Lil' Romeo show at the Cincinnati Convention Center Thursday night.

        Lil' Romeo, the child rap star who has followed his father Master P. into the family business, was the headliner of the kiddie hip-hop package held in the convention center's Exhibit Hall C. A stage and rows of folding chairs were set up, but many of the concert attendants, apparentely overcome with the excitement the diminutive rapper brought forth, chose to ignore seating assignments and filled the aisles to get as close to the stage as possible.

        This displeased the fire and police departments. Stage announcers warned people several times to be seated or the show would be stopped, including three times during Lil' Romeo's set. If we had only been so lucky.

        Instead, what should have been the show's climax became its most boring stretch. After doing a couple songs on his own, the 11-year-old headliner said a special guest was on his way to the stage. Out came Master P., and the crowd went up for grabs.

        Father and son broke into a bit of the chant-along “Where They At” followed by the ballad “Little Souljas Need Love Too” when the show came to a halt. It didn't start again for another 15 minutes, which were filled with the repetitive ramblings of Master P.

        Make some noise for your parents, he urged. Make some noise for education. Make some noise for saying no to drugs. Make some noise for getting good grades. The crowd obliged, but the noise made was less noisy each time. Father and son would carry on the show despite the fire department's protests, Master P promised. Yes, whatever. Fifteen minutes of this, and all after the hour delay between Lil' Romeo's first song and kid R&B singer Lil' Corey's last one. They put the show out of its misery with Lil' Romeo's big hit “My Baby.”

        Corey and Romeo weren't the only lil' acts on the bill. Lil' Tykes, a foursome of sibling rappers from Dayton, played a 25-minute set that was a big hit with the crowd.

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