Everyone's favorite cannabis and codeine-loving Academy Award-winning hip-hop artist Juicy J brought his month-long "The Hustle Continues" tour to Boston last night. On the first truly beautiful and warm day in Boston in at least two weeks, the Memphis-based rapper successfully turned the House of Blues into the most lively party spot in the city.
In typical hip-hop show fashion, the festivities did not get started on time. Out of the 90 or so non hip-hop shows I've been to only two or three have started late. Meanwhile every single one of the 10 hip-hop shows I've been to have started at least 30 minutes late. While it's commonplace for hip-hop shows to get going well after the listed start time, Juicy J is the new champion for concert tardiness, hitting the stage over 90 minutes after the show's scheduled 8:00 start time. Once Juicy finally came out, things did not start off smoothly as he barley even rapped any of set opener "Throw Dem Racks" from his new mixtape Blue Dream & Lean 2. After watching him mostly stand there and let the backing track play without actually rapping for most of the first song, I became really nervous that I had just wasted $40 to see Juicy J vibe out to and not actually perform his music. My fear that I wasted my money didn't last long as Juicy started rapping on the following track "Stoners Night" and only pulled the jam-out-to-the-backing-track-and-only sporadically chime-in-routine on a few other songs for the rest of the night. When Juicy was actually rapping, he was pretty impressive. He got through a majority of his verses without screwing up and his hard-hitting party songs were even more fun in a live setting. However, what really made the show was the level of showmanship he displayed. Juicy J has been in the game for over two decades and that level of experience shows in his stage show. He's an extremely charismatic and hilarious dude (I could honestly write a lengthy follow-up piece containing all of the brilliant one-liners and anecdotes he dropped during the show) and was able to create and maintain an electric atmosphere in the room, despite being in a walking boot from his recent ankle surgery that limited his ability to move around on stage. Juicy J is a born entertainer and that quality masked almost all of the flaws with his performance. While Juicy J is hardly near the top of best live acts I've ever seen, the man knows how to on a fun show. With his alleged impending retirement from rapping on the horizon after the release of his next album Pure THC: The Hustle Continues, I'm glad I got to see this hip-hop icon perform before he hangs up the mic.
Side notes:
-Because of his ankle injury, Juicy had a number of stools and a king's throne complete with colored strobe set up at various spots of the stage so he could sit in-between songs.
-I did not witness any twerking at any point of the show.
-The amount of hipsters at the show was nothing short of shocking. If you looked at a majority of the crowd, you could've easily mistaken this for an indie folk or art pop show.
Score:
Juicy J 8/10
Setlist (missing 3-5 songs. Songs listed are in correct order.):
Throw Dem Racks
Stoners Night
Low
For Everybody
All I Need
So Much Money
I'm Sicka
Bandz a Make Her Dance
Already
She Knows (Ne-Yo song)
I Don't Mind (Usher song)
Show Out
Whole Thang
420 Freestyle (play off of Drake's "Energy")
Bounce It
Three 6 Mafia medley (Poppin' My Collar/Sippin' on Some Syrup/Stay Fly/Slob on My Knob)
We Still in this Bitch (B.o.B song)
Scholarship
Stop It
A Zip and a Double Cup
Workin' Hard
Don't Trust
Pulled Up (Young Dolph song)
Riley
Stoners Night Pt. 2
No comments:
Post a Comment