It seemed like something that could be a big deal for St. Joseph. Miami-based MC Rick Ross and Atlanta rapper Yung Joc both have platinum-selling albums under their belts (or around their neck). Both have smash singles, Yung Joc's southern snapper "It's Goin' Down" and Ross's yayo-anthem "Hustlin.'" Both were sharing the stage at the Civic Arena Thursday night in St. Joe, a city whose hip hop scene needs a good boost. But as big as these MCs are (or were), they brought out a dismally small crowd with a show that left a lot to be desired.

As the show started a little after 8 p.m., the crowd that showed up mainly consisted of Missouri Western Students with a few teenagers and thirty-somethings thrown in, the black and white audience split nearly 50/50. But what stood out most of all was the turnout, or lack thereof. The seats wrapping around the Civic Arena probably had a couple hundred people total and the floor was only about one-third full. This crowd may have looked impressive if it was packed into the Missouri Theater, but in the Civic Arena it was a sad sight.

Yung Joc's DJ got the crowd warmed up with a few club hits, including Soulja Boi's "Get Out My Face." Playing other artist's music would be a theme of Mr. Joc's show throughout the night.

When Yung Joc took the stage for his hour-and-ten-minute set, the baby-faced rapper kept the front half of the floor crowd bouncing with a string of songs like "Bottle Poppin'" and "Patron" with similar beats to his hit "It's Goin' Down.'" Unfortunately, the bass heavy mix's Tyrannosaurus thump drowned out most of the vocals. But the rhymes didn't really matter since the show turned into more of a platform for Joc's playful personality than his music.

To his credit, he had plenty of crowd interaction, pointing out hot girls, taking pictures of the crowd on his camera phone and splitting the crowd up into groups saying "we gonna see whose the crunkest tonight." He got a little too close to some female fans, one of which made a grab at his baggy shorts to see what was in Joc's jock, giving him the chance to do an overdramatic collapse on the stage.

He then proceeded to play a string of tracks from fellow ATL artists T.I., Soulja Boi, Usher and Florida hook-specialist T-Pain. The Dirty South playlist was received with excitement from some and boredom from others. For the Nick at Nite/old school moment of the evening, his DJ played theme songs from "Samford and Son" and "The Jeffersons," "The Addams Family" and Joan Jett's "I Love Rock N' Roll," which he "dedicated to all the white people in the building." He proceeded to play tracks that reflect his family's musical tastes by having his DJ spin Al Green's "Let's Stay Together," Bel Biv Devoe's "Poison" and singing a barely on-key version of "Go Tell It On the Mountain."

He eventually got back to his own music, playing his two biggest hits "I Know You See It" and his trademark hit "It's Goin Down'" which got the some of the crowd doing the video's uniform, side-to-side wrist flicking dance and giving out his phone number rapidly over the mic for some lucky fans who caught it. When he left the stage, it felt more like a cranked-up version of a dorm room playlist than a musical showcase of one rapper's work.

When Rick Ross took the stage for his 45-minute set, his DJ dropped the creepy-crunk of his new single "I'm A Boss," off his new album "Trilla." Ross's ample size, thick beard and thunderous bass voice made him a unique sight to see and hear on stage, but he didn't have the same crowd interplay as Joc or the sex-symbol status with the female crowd. He did make sure to remind the college kids to get their degrees and tell them that his "number one album in the world" was in stores now. While he was a lot less wordy, the variety of Ross's beats were a nice change to Yung Joc's monotonous bounce and hooks.

"Hustlin'" got the expected uproar and he mixed it up with a few head-bobbers that deviated from his usual slow-crawling rhythms. But the best track of Ross's set had to be "Push It," which cleverly samples Paul Engemann's cheesetastic '80s track "Scarface (Push It to the Limit)" from the classic 1983 cocaine epic "Scarface."

The crowd seemed more excited for Joc, as a good portion of the floor crowd filtered out after his performance. But at least Rick Ross made the effort to put on an actual show with his material, unlike Yung Joc, who appeared to suffer from some sort of A.D.D. not being able to make it all the way through a single song.

Neither artist seemed that thrilled to be there, which may have attributed to their lackluster performances. While part of the audience was amped (mainly those closest to the stage, others didn't seem to acknowledge the show as much as interact like they were in an oversized club. Even though both rappers may have been rocking bling-filled watches that could put an eye out like a Red Rider B.B. Gun, it was the only thing in either MC's performance that really got a chance to shine.