Skip to Content, Navigation, or Footer.
The Daily Cardinal Est. 1892
Thursday, March 28, 2024
Photo from Schoolboy Q show at The Door in Dallas in June 2012. 

Photo from Schoolboy Q show at The Door in Dallas in June 2012. 

ScHoolboy Q, Joey Bada$$ confidently consume Orpheum crowd

ScHoolboy Q, Top Dawg Entertainment’s second biggest star, visited the Orpheum with help from Joey Bada$$ on Friday night. The two MCs used their high-speed lyricism and infectious energy to command everyone in attendance to put their bodies in harm’s way in order to have the time of their lives.

Doors opened at 7 p.m. with the show scheduled to start at 8 p.m.. By the time 8:30 came around, the show still hadn’t started. Despite the fact that there was a DJ, who was doing his best of keeping the crowd excited for what was coming, anticipation for the main attractions continued to grow.

Eventually, the crowd erupted in applause and joy when the young Brooklyn MC Joey Bada$$ finally made his appearance.

The young rapper started his set by asking everyone to turn up as much as they could. His short set featured most of the highlights from his past projects and features. Tracks like “Christ Conscious” and “No. 99,” pulled from his last album B4.DA.$$, made the crowd go berserk. Joey rocked the crowd harder than most openers the Orpheum has seen.

Joey also decided to perform his verse from A$AP Rocky’s song “1Train,” which is a fan favorite. In closing, Joey mixed a bit of the old with the new. “Waves,” a Joey Bada$$ classic from his debut mixtape 1999, built up the crowd’s energy just in time for the ultimate finale of Joey’s set.

Taking advantage of the immense energy in the room after the punches delivered by “1Train” and “Waves,” Joey closed out his set with his glossy radio single, “Devastated.” Joey’s ability to bring out everyone’s desire to let loose showed that he could have easily headlined a show at the Orpheum.

ScHoolboy Q blew up the stage with his performance of “Gangsta,” shortly after Joey left the stage. The track’s booming drums and slow build up to Q’s raspy chorus built the tension in the room to an all-time high until the beat dropped. From that point on, the crowd was consumed in a mosh pit that would last the entire length of ScHoolboy Q’s extended set.

Song after song, Q’s aggressive lyrics forced the audience to fight for their lives in the pit. Elbows were thrown to fight for a better position in the crowd and people were pushed from side to side as the struggle to keep going continued.

Q’s entire performance was matched with an overarching sense of confidence. The rapper, once an underdog in the game, has reached new heights with the release of his latest album Blank Face LP. Roughly half of his set consisted of tracks from that same album.

Most notably, Q played the second single from the album, “THat Part.” As a single, the crowd had heard the song numerous times prior to the show and was able to rap along with Q as he bragged about his riches.

While Blank Face LP has a solid list of songs to choose from that may eventually reach extreme levels of popularity, a majority of Q’s most powerful and exciting songs were from his album Oxymoron. The songs “Break the Bank,” “Collard Greens” and “Studio” were some of the most popular songs based on the overwhelming screams and praise from the crowd.

ScHoolboy Q also took the time to perform some tracks for fans that had been following him from day one. Using the crowd’s already extremely high intensity, Q saw it as the right time to play throwbacks to his days of Habits & Contradictions. “Hands on the Wheel,” one of the first songs to give ScHoolboy Q a higher level of recognition, fired up the crowd, refueling the mosh pit that had begun to slightly taper off.

Enjoy what you're reading? Get content from The Daily Cardinal delivered to your inbox

Now in the second half of his set, the audience had slightly started to loose some of its energy. With a cover of Kendrick Lamar’s “m.A.A.d city,” enthusiasm soared to new heights.

Two of the most hard-hitting and exciting songs on Blank Face LP helped Q close out his official set. “John Muir” and “Tookie Knows II,” both painting pictures of Q’s life on the streets, allowed the fans to not only sing along, but also release whatever little bit of energy they had left.

ScHoolboy Q left the stage, only to reappear a minute later to answer deafening calls for an encore.

“Man of the Year,” a fast-paced party song let Q give his last bit of energy to the crowd. In addition to his final performance, he yelled for everyone to go as crazy as they possibly could. The mosh pit ended up as wild and rowdy as it was at the very beginning of the show.

Support your local paper
Donate Today
The Daily Cardinal has been covering the University and Madison community since 1892. Please consider giving today.
Comments


Powered by SNworks Solutions by The State News
All Content © 2024 The Daily Cardinal