Review: J. Cole tour packs Susquehanna Center

The J. Cole crowd skews young. Jeremih, YG, and Big Sean didn't bring Cole's Forest Hills Drive tour audience's median age any higher Friday. The Susquehanna Bank Center overflowed with fans as the headliner performed pretty much all his December-released Forest Hills Drive, splicing sermons on determination, materialism and gratitude with hits like "Wet Dreamz" and "No Role Modelz."

Those are two Zs, yes. Cole, 30, is a hip-hop scholar in addition to being an up-and-coming name. The many Zs on his tour-named LP are said to be a nod to 2Pac's 1996 seminal opus, All Eyez On Me. He name-checks all over his records. He was a New York emigrant at 18 who gained attention from Jay Z with a MySpace page full of flows. He preaches about Instagram and Twitter. But his hip-hop is authentic, and his performance was impressive.

Big Sean whipped up the crowd with an impressive storefront set that paraded out all the hits: "Beware," "Clique," "Mercy," "Dance (A$)," and of course, the car-blaring hit with the unprintable title.

J. Cole started in on his conversational set, asking permission to perform all of his newest album and explaining that he'd be asking how "Philly" and "Jersey" are doing as a fair way to determine the crowd's geographical ties.

Before "St. Tropez," he admitted, "If I'm being honest, if I'm being 100 - I gotta tell y'all I don't know where it's at. It's a metaphor" for where rich people go to be seen on yachts and sip champagne.

The crowd went nuts for material off his 2009 mixtape The Warm Up, including "Nobody's Perfect," which features a Missy Elliot hook. "G.O.M.D." went off well before Cole asked for more energy and proclaimed "I need them to feel this Baltimore." The George W. Bush-muddled quote from No Role Modlez" - "Fool me once, shame on you. If you fool me, we can't get fooled again" - is powerfully successful. The song, to Cole, says "you can get way further with your mind than you can get with your body." He blasted through "Hello," "Apparently" and "Love Yourz," before walking off stage, then coming right back for an encore.

Cole brought out Jeremih to do his tour mate's "Planes," "Work Out" from his debut, and then closed with two gems from his acclaimed 2013 LP, Born Sinner, performing the TLC-guesting "Crooked Smile" and, of course, closing with his biggest hit to date, "Power Trip." Kids of all kinds stayed put to sing "We are, we are, we are" before the lights went out.