SamSo last night I went to the Chiddy Bang show at the Highline ballroom, and I must say I was was really impressed with the show, and their fans. My man XV put me onto them awhile back, and every since their Air Swell mixtape I’ve been f*cking with them. Plus they were super cool when I interviewed them. So below is my rap up of the show. I also saw some group called The 2AM Club, but I’m going to have to no homo their entire existence.
XV was the first to hit the stage, and I thought it was whack that he went on before Donnis (but I’ll get into that later). Vizzy has been grinding for a minute, and it was nice to see that the crowd was feeling his music, and even knew a bunch of the words off some stand outs tracks on Everybody’s Nobody. He also did some cuts off his upcoming Vizzy’s Zone mixtape that sounded promising. He reitirated his newly signed deal with Warner Bros while remaining super humble. I’ve had the pleasure of gettng to know the dude through emails, interviews, and even phone calls. I can honestly say that Vizzy does it for the the love of the music and I can;t help but respect that. It was just nice to see that other people seemed to rescognize that as well. XV even brought some 10 year old kids to rock out with him on stage which was a funny moment.
Up next was Donnis. I gotta be honest. I’m not buying this kid. I got the vibe the people weren’t buying him either. I feel like Donnis is one of those rappers that is linked up with all the right music industry people as opposed to being substantially talented. While I think he may have the ability to make a hit, his mixtape cuts have been kind of whack. I mean the highlight of his set was when he brought out Jim Jones to do “Ballin” (shouts to Freekey Zekey for forcing himself as always). That’s just not a good look. Kid can pick good beats, he just just have the rhymes or charisma to back them up. Plus his presence on stage wasn’t noticable.
Finally Chiddy Bang hit the stage. First off I got to give these guys credit for having the hottest girls coming to their shows that I’ve ever scene at a hip-hop show (although it could be argued that they are more of a crossover act). Tons of 15-24 year old girls there, which is a good look considering that those are the people who actually pay for music. Plus they were going ham. That’s what I liked most about the show the energy. A lot of hip-hop shows in NYC tend to be attended by people who are too cool to be hyped by the show they paid to get into, which always dumbfounds me. This was not the case for Chiddy Bang. They mixed in some of their early suff, and also some stuff from Air Swell. I also really liked how they set up the performance. @XaphoonJoneshe played drums who is the phenomenal producer of the group, didn’t just hang out and DJ, while @RealChiddy held down the MC’ing. And hold down the MC’ing he did. They stopped the show for the fans to give them 5 “things” for him to freestyle off the dome about. New Jersey was one of the things they selected and it was heavily boo’de so shouts to the crowd for that look. I also believe “civil unions” was selected. All I know is that Chiddy killed it. Even though Chiddy Bang may not be the most “hip-hop” group their show certainly was. Finally they brought tons of people to jam out to “Opposite Of Adults” which was a awesome note to end on. I highly recommend that you get familiar with Chiddy Bang and scope them out if they come to a city near you. I also have some pics below courtesey of MetromixNewYork.
