Earlier tonight Macklemore and Ryan Lewis brought their 2016 tour to The Rave in Milwaukee, WI. Closing the U.S. leg of their “An Evening with Macklemore and Ryan Lewis” tour, Macklemore rocked the sold-out Milwaukee crowd with a memorable performance. While we can’t speak for the previous tour dates, you wouldn’t have guessed that it has been two years since the ‘Thrift Shop’ rapper has been on tour. If you went into tonight thinking that it would just be a rapper going over some of his instrumentals with a DJ in the background, you couldn’t have been more wrong!
The night kicked off as rapper Xperience (XP) hit the stage to warm up the crowd. Although XP was not billed on the lineup, the emerging rapper has been touring with Macklemore and company throughout the tour, introducing himself to city after city. And tonight’s crowd received a great introduction to the rapper, and although Milwaukee wasn’t rapping along word-for-word with XP this time around, he certainly set the great tone for the night and picked himself up some new Midwest fans.
However of course, the man (or men in this case) of the hour was Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. For this tour, the majority of the songs performed were off Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’ critically acclaimed 2012 album The Heist, but the Seattle rapper definitely made time to sprinkle in some new music. The crowd’s energy level were certainly at a climix during Macklemore’s performance of his 2015 single ‘Downtown’, which is expected on Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’ forthcoming LP This Unruly Mess I’ve Made, however ‘Growing Up’ and ‘White Privilege II’ were noticeably left out from the setlist. Although the latter may be because it’s a more political, less up-beat, and nine-minute song. However given the song’s recent popularity, and because it’s a great record, many fans would have loved to see a live performance.
In total, the performance was full of energy from start to finish. Contrasting from your average rap concert, Macklemore and company put a lot of production into the show, that looks like it was designed from an arena tour instead. All throughout the night Macklemore paid tribute to his Milwaukee fans, dubbing the crowd as the tour’s “best crowd yet”, and while this may be something he tells every crowd, because Milwaukee was the first show to completely sell out on the tour, he just may have meant it this time.
“An Evening with Macklemore and Ryan Lewis” isn’t your average show, in the same ways that Macklemore isn’t your average rapper and that Ryan Lewis isn’t your average producer. It’s almost impossible to pick one or two moments that stood out from tonight because the performance left fans consistently entertained throughout the night.
Check out our photos from Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’ Milwaukee tour stop below.
Last weekend we caught Alessia Cara’s sold out Chicago stop on her Know-It-All Tour. With a packed crowd at The Metro, just across from Chicago’s historic Wrigley Field, the night was set to be a memorable one. And despite worry that the show may get cancelled due to an illness that forced Alessia to postpone the previous night’s show, the show went on and Alessia found her voice and delivered! Saturday we posted some of our favorite photos from the show, and today we have our video recap of the awesome performance, shot by our photographer Dan Garcia.
Check out our video recap from Alessia Cara’s Chicago stop on her Know-It-All Tour below.
Last night singer Alessia Cara performed for a sold-out crowd at The Metro in Chicago. Despite canceling her tour performance the night below, as well as a couple radio appearances earlier in the day, Alessia fought off the loss of her voice and was able to still give a memorable performance. Still hitting all the notes that the ‘Here’ singer hits throughout her recordings, you could hardly tell that Cara lost her voice less than 24-hours before.
Opening the night for the Windy City crowd was rapper Leaf. One of the most entertaining female rapper/singers out there, Leaf kept the crowd entertained and definitely set the mood for the rest of the night. The new emerging queen of New York, Leaf is certainly an artist to watch in 2016.
Next up was singer Craig Stickland, a member of Alessia’s band but a man with a sound of his own. With his guitar in hand, and the screams of the crowd guiding him on, the highlight of Stickland’s set came when the sold-out crowdspontaneously brought out their cell phone lights to set the mood for one of Stickland’s slower records, a first on this tour Stickland told the crowd.
Following Stickland and Leaf was singer Kevin Garrett, a critical favorite when it comes to emerging artists in the new year. An indie pop musician out of Pittsburg, PA, Garrett performed a few tracks from his acclaimed 2015 EP, Mellow Drama, which was released in April of last year. Garrett’s electronic sounds and soothing vocals foreshadow Garrett’s eventual takeover of his share of the indie pop world.
After three great opening performances, the crowd could not wait for Alessia’s headlining set. You could tell that the standing room crowd was at the edge of their seat, so to speak of course, anxious about Alessia’s appearance for the night. The crowd was well aware that Cara was forced to cancel the night before, so when she finally hit the stage, Chicago felt more than lucky. And throughout the show, you could not have guessed that Cara’s beautiful voice wasn’t at it’s absolute best. Even at 90%, 95%, wherever she was last night, Cara’s vocals carried through The Metro like no other artist could. Throughout the night she performed some of her best records, off her 2014 Four Pink Walls EP and her debut album, Know-It-All, where the North American tour gets its name. Highlights of her set included her softer ballads, her energetic performance of ‘Seventeen’, and of course her performance of her #1 hit single, ‘Here’.
Photo by Dan Garcia/The Early Registration
Check out our photos from Alessia Cara’s Know-It-All tour below.
It is anybody’s guess every year when it comes to asking which artists will be at Summerfest. In the past they’ve thrown out enough curveballs to leave anyone excited. From The Rolling Stones and Kendrick Lamar last year to Outkast and the Dave Mathews Band the year prior, it has always been one of the best festivals when it comes to representing all genres and tastes. Spanning 11-days and boasting over 800 bands and artists, you’d be ignorant to think there would be nothing there for you.Tickets are extremely reasonable typically and even better if you buy them early. I know it is a bit soon to know for sure if your favorite band is going to be there this year and if the rest of the lineup warrants you forking over your credit card digits online, but we are expecting a pretty good show this year. To perhaps help assist you in your decision, we have put together a list consisting of 10 of our top guesses for who may be walking out onto those stages this Summer.
All rap empires must come to an end. This truth might be that of a bitter pill to swallow for rap fans still clinging on to the spitting superheroes of yesterday, but it’s a cyclical motif that makes itself evident era by era. In 2016, Future not only finds himself at the top of the rap game, but he also finds himself at such a height where onlookers can’t help but clamour more frequently about his eventual demise. When will it no longer be cool to like Future? It might seem like a pessimistic view, but it’s truly just logical. Human nature and common sense work in tandem to tell us that when something blows up really fast, it runs the risk of expiring and evaporating from culture just as quickly.
In October of 2014, Future pivoted from verging on pop-stardom with a lukewarm debut and a failing relationship with beloved pop songstress Ciara to becoming a rap entity that embraced his flaws in both facets. If you had chose to write Future off based on his flat-footed, sing-songy debut, Honest, you now had to endure Future’s creative direction 180° in Monster, featuring obscure synth arrangements, deafening drum patterns, and monotonous, yet infectious hooks and verses from the same guy. Similarly, if you found yourself to be a critic of sorts re: Future’s personal life, you were gifted with Future not only using the savagery of his alleged infidelity as ammunition and inspiration in his raps, but you were also exposed to Future’s audacious move to emotionally mourn and retrospectively reflect in particular tracks about the same relationship he allegedly ruined. And, you had to admit you were moved by it.
Future went on to release poignant art and cultivate the entirety of hip-hop culture in 2015 with this groupie-fucking, lean-drinking, pill-popping savage image to the universe through a series of mixtape releases starting with the aforementioned Metro Boomin produced Monster, followed by the Zaytoven helmed Beast Mode and the DJ Esco tribute project of sorts, 56 Nights. Of course, Future’s year was punctuated by his stellar album release DS2, and then his victory lap with comrade and frequent collaborator Drake in What A Time To Be Alive. Once you really sit down and spell out all his releases and think about the impact each and every one of them have had, you realize that Future as launched himself on such a dominant run in releasing five projects all in the span of one year.
Not only does this effectively bend the supposed notion of over saturation in music and how too much quantity will only dilute your art, but it restored power to the random mixtape, and placed the final nail in the coffin to the traditional project-rollout. With such a dominant year now in the books for Future, the hardest part, of course, is remaining consistent. Future’s latest release and first offering of 2016, Purple Reign, does just that just by virtue of it being another batch of new Future music, but it fails to really offer any real ante-upping or innovation in the process.
However, with recent developments, the real issue at hand with Future’s music really has nothing to do specifically with his latest tape at all. Sitting down with the popular French video-interview channel Clique, Future explained to the host that the drug-abuse and lifestyle his entire career is based around is facetious and is really an act. As the interviewer prodded as to why he would rap about a lifestyle he doesn’t actually live, Future went on to explain, “Because I feel like that’s the number one thing everybody likes to talk about…It’s the number one seller.”
After watching this interview and pretending like this wasn’t a big deal, I honestly found that listening to Future’s sob-stories about falling down the wormholes of addiction and the pain that comes with it much less compelling. And how could I not? This is the same guy who was constantly chanting things like “Drownin’ in actavais, suicide” or “I’m an addict and I can’t even hide it”—bars that at one point were perceived as brave and transparent, but now are just convincing modes of applying this genius marketing scheme. In fact, Future’s breakout tape that thrusted him into being the supreme tastemaker in hip-hop was Monster, sporting incessant bars glorifying his drug-induced lifestyle and his absolute savagery. Yet, in the same interview with Clique, Future says the following: “When I did Monster, I was sober.”
So, in summary, not only is Future preying on the very real disease of addiction as inspiration for his ‘shtick’ and his entire marketing scheme, but he’s also admitted to this very fact, and is facing no repercussions or any dialogue at all from peers, gatekeepers, and most major publications.
This confirms a few things. One, it supports the very real truth that most music publications today carry themselves as a brand first before being a source of honest journalism. As Donald Glover (Childish Gambino) put it to Noisey writer Slava Patsuk regarding his infamous 1.6 rating from music giant Pitchfork, he said, “Pitchfork helped me a lot. There’s no way I can make something worse than that. It would be impossible. But I’m not worried about them because they’re a brand, and I didn’t fit their brand. If I worked for Pitchfork, I wouldn’t give myself a 9.0 either. They’re a brand; they sell tickets to a show they put on every year. They’re not going to give a 1.6 to someone who can be at their show and sell tickets.”
Of course, Pitchfork is also a publication that has reviewed 10 Future projects, and the lowest score they’ve given to a Future project is a 6.9 for his Streetz Calling mixtape released in 2011 (Side note: every Future project they’ve ever reviewed has gotten a higher score than Gambino’s magnum opus, Because the Internet. Hmm.) Sites that are constantly praising Future’s accomplishments and even embellishing his successes have now fallen completely silent following the revelation that Future’s music is based on lifestyle he does not live. Why? Because if they were to speak out, it would hurt their brand and their credibility. Why would they attempt to hold Future accountable if they’ve already established him as a huge part of their respective brands?
Complex, similarly, is constantly publishing pieces praising Future’s successes and specifically highlighting his incredible run in 2015. This piece in particular sees writer Justin Charity proclaiming Future as the best rapper alive, highlighting his raw vulnerability as Future’s greatest strength. But if Future’s narratives and stories told within his music are entirely fabricated, is that still being vulnerable? No. It’s the same thing as if Macklemore were to music about being this street dude or dealing drugs with incredible emotional contexts, and then admitting he doesn’t actually live that life at all. He’d get ripped apart for being disingenuous in seconds, not praised for being ‘vulnerable’ when he doesn’t actually live what he’s rapping.
Secondly, it poses a greater contradiction within the music industry about content and what is and isn’t “too far”. Tyler, The Creator has been banned from the United Kingdom and Australia as recently as last year, with the powers that be citing Tyler’s misogynistic and rape-glorifying lyrics he wrote six years ago when he was trying to be a creative 18-year old artist writing music from the perspective of psychopaths and serial killers. Tyler’s music of this nature did not incite or move his audience to participate or condone these acts in themselves, and Tyler hasn’t made music touching on these subjects in years.
Future, on the other hand, is very actively preying on and promoting a lifestyle that genuinely ruins lives and harms people, because, as he puts it himself, “It’s the number one seller”. Yet, when he steps out and says things like this acknowledging this hoax and this lifestyle that doesn’t really represent him, nobody in this culture wants to even bat an eyelash, let alone hold him accountable? Isn’t hip-hop supposed to be the realest and rawest genre of music? Since when did truth and honesty in music become irrelevant?
Of course, fabrication in music and especially hip-hop is not a new concept. But with the position Future holds within the culture right now, it’s hard to not be discouraged with this new context. Future’s music had always glorified drug use, but it was also always seen as safe under the circumstances that he was being real, and his transparency about his drug abuse is less of a glorification and more of just a reality. But it’s hard to be as invested in this character now that’s confirmed to be completely fictional. This is not a call to bring down all things Future. It’s simply a call to start a conversation that major music brands are apparently too cowardice to engage in. It’s easy for writers who sit behind their laptop screens to dismiss this or act like they’ve known this the whole time, but the truth is, they don’t brush shoulders with youth who are actually poisoning themselves and using Future’s music as inspiration and the bar for all things ‘lit’ or ‘cool’.
Not only are there mass amounts of Future fans who believe him, there’s also a large portion of youth who use his lyrics as social media captions and his songs as the soundtrack to their own lean-drinking and xan-poppin’ lifestyles, meaning that these same kids who used Future’s music as a medium to relate and aspire now have to comprehend that it’s all in the name of marketing. To bring it back to Future’s most recent output of music, his brand new mixtape Purple Reign is truly the first instance of Future treading water. Not only is it sonically monotonous, it’s thematically dry as ever with Future still pushing the same (and, fictional) character traits song after song after song. Sure, the music still slaps, but how long is that going to be enough?
Last night singer Vance Joy brought The Fire and Flood tour to Chicago for a second sold-out night at The Riviera Theatre. Accompanied by alternative LA/Austin based duo, Armstrong Leigh, and alt-rock’s Reuben and the Dark, Vance Joy and company gave their all for the Windy City crowd.
Opening the night was Armstrong Leigh, made up of singer Michelle Armstrong and guitarist Cristopher Leigh. Although this was the first time that much of the crowd was introduced to the talented duo, Amstrong Leigh definitely set a great tone for the rest of the night. The highlight of their set came when the duo performed their newest single, ‘Is This Love?’, which released earlier this year.
Next up for the night were Calgary, Alberta natives, Reuben and the Dark. Led by singer and guitarist Reuben Bullock, and supported by Shea Alain, Kaelen Ohm and Brock Geiger, RATD performed a set that was made up of a selection of there 2013 LP, Funeral Sky. Mixing in some new music throughout their performance, including their new single ‘Heart In Two’, Reuben had the girls screaming and the crowd entertained. If their live show is any indication of what the band has to offer the music world, don’t be surprised if Reuben and the Dark makes some major waves in the new year.
Photo by Dan Garcia/The Early Registration
To follow the awesome sets of Reuben and the Dark and Armstrong Leigh was the man of the night, Vance Joy. Hailing from the land down under, you could tell that the Australian native was excited to return to Chicago for his 2-night residency at The Riv. While Vance Joy performed for tens of thousands in Chicago earlier this year, opening for Taylor Swift’s 1989 World Tour, tonight’s crowd was all for Vance. The screams could be heard from the Aragon Ballroom blocks away, Vance’s voice carried beautifully through the venue, and the night couldn’t have gone better.
Performing a 15-song set list, Vance started the performance on a high note, yet the show managed to get better as his set went on. From the hit singles, to the B-sides, to the entertaining covers, Vance Joy’s set had everything we could have asked for. And closing the night with records like ‘Fire and the Flood’ (where the tour gets its name of course) and his uber-successful hit ‘Riptide’, there couldn’t have been a better way to close the show.
Check out our photos from Vance Joy’s The Fire and the Flood tour below.
For many it’s easy to hate on Macklemore, even if not for good reason. Whether it’s because of his text apology to Kendrick Lamar for winning the “Best Rap Album” Grammy, that came off cheesy to many when Macklemore made the private messages public on social media, or whether it’s because he is a rapper that makes (what many people consider) pop music, or even simply because he is a white rapper who doesn’t rap like Eminem raps, many find a way to dislike an artist who genuinely comes off as one of the nicest people in music. No matter the levels that his commercial and critical success has reached (or will continue to reach), rap fans andpublications alike have found a way to poke fun at Macklemore.
Now I’m not trying to be the hero that stops the bully from picking on the nice kid, but it’s time that those who haven’t yet jumped on the Macklemore & Ryan Lewis bandwagon hop aboard (something that I admittedly jumped on far too late). He may not come from a broken home, he may not have the lyrical fire of a J. Cole or Kendrick Lamar, and yes… he isn’t black, but he isn’t acting like it either. Macklemore has consistently stayed true to himself, making music from a perspective that is 100% his own. However being real isn’t enough, if an artist’s music isn’t relatable in one way or another, then what’s the point? Or if your music doesn’t have a message, then why make music at all? Fortunately for Macklemore though, his music and his new record especially is not only true to Macklemore but it carries a great message, that music fans across all different races and genres can relate to.
‘White Privilege II’ is another great record to tackle a huge social issue on a bigger platform than anyone before him has. On his last LP, The Heist, Macklemore broke ground with his record ‘Same Love’, rapping about same-sex relationships. Although Macklemore himself is not gay, and in fact is a new father to a baby girl with his wife Tricia Davis, he spoke from his own perspective, a straight person who supports equality and with loved ones who are gay. Even though it wasn’t “his fight to fight”, Macklemore spoke up for equality instead of sitting on the sidelines.
Macklemore takes a same approach as in ‘Same Love’ with his new record ‘White Privilege II’, dedicating nearly 9-minutes to tackle issues of race. Like in ‘Same Love’, this one isn’t Macklemore’s fight to fight, but as Jamila Woods sings in the new track, “silence is a luxury.” Music aside, if you ask many different people “what can white people do to help the Black Lives Matter movement”, they will tell you first to be aware of white privilege. And that is just what Macklemore does throughout the entire record.
In his opening verse, Macklemore vividly tells a story of when he joined the protests and march in support of Michael Brown, where a police officer )(Officer Darren Wilson) was not indicted for the death of another unarmed black man. Immediately Macklemore acknowledges the uncomfortable situation one finds themself in when supporting a cause that they aren’t directly part of. “In my head like, ‘Is this awkward, should I even be here marching?’ Thinking if they can’t, how can I breathe”?, Macklemore raps.
In the second verse, Macklemore aggressively battles the voices and demons inside him, for stealing from black culture. A common critique of many white artists who cross over into black genres, whether it’s Macklemore, Iggy Azalea, Elvis, Justin Timberlake (pretty much anyone J. Cole mentions in his track ‘Fire Squad’), Macklemore raps “You’ve taken the drums and the accent you rapped in. You’re branded hip-hop, it’s so fascist and backwards.” Throughout the verse, Macklemore shows that he is his biggest critic, that he isn’t immune to the blogs and tweets and ‘Fire Squads’ of the world. Although Macklemore’s inner thoughts are far too hard on himself, the humility he shows is remarkable and the overwhelming amount of “white guilt” (for lack of better words) he shows is almost depressing.
In his third verse, Macklemore switches from the voice of his inner demons to the voice of his fans that just don’t get it. The first half of the verse starts out positive, where a mother of two approaches Macklemore and commends him on the positivity and social awareness of his music. Soon after, the mom’s inner racist comes out, labeling rap music as nothing but “guns, drugs and hos”, and then speaking on the protests she says “if a cop pulls you over, it’s your fault if you run.” After the verse ends, the track transitions into a power montage of racist sound bites of people denying their white privilege.
Perhaps the most powerful verse of the record, Macklemore builds off the verses prior to come to an eventual realization of his role in our modern day civil rights movement:
“I can book a whole tour, sell out the tickets,
Rap entrepreneur, built his own business.
If I’m only in this for my own self-interest, not the culture that gave me a voice to begin with,
Then this isn’t authentic, it is just a gimmick.
The DIY underdog, so independent,
But the one thing the American dream fails to mention,
Is I was many steps ahead to begin with.”
Fully acknowledging his white privilege, being many steps ahead of the game because of the color of his skin, Macklemore continues to rap “my success is the product of the same system that let off Darren Wilson”, and then ending the fourth and final verse by repeating the lines, “we take all we want from black culture, but will we show up for black lives.”
‘White Privilege II’ perhaps isn’t just the best Macklemore record to date, but it is also his realist. Beautifully articulating what it’s like to be white person in 2016 who is conscious of their white privilege, and someone who wants to support causes which they otherwise could easily ignore, Macklemore again proves that he is a rapper with substance far beyond the popular fun tracks like ‘Downtown’ and ‘Thrift Shop’. It will be interesting to see what J. Cole says about this one…
The Bonnaroo lineup dropped this week and the lineup is stacked from top to bottom. Taking place this year from June 9th to June 12th, fans will see some awesome sets for The Farm’s 15th anniversary! Performing this year will be Pearl Jam, LCD Soundsystem, Dead & Company (John Mayer and The Grateful Dead), Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, J. Cole, Ellie Goulding, Halsey, Tame Impala, HAIM, Judd Apatow, Miguel, Tyler The Creator and many many more. As we did with Coachella’s 2016 lineup, we had to break down Bonnaroo’s new lineup, again by category.
Check out our complete ranking of Bonnaroo’s 2016 lineup by category, below!
Last weekend we caught G-Eazy’s sold out Chicago stop on his When It’s Dark Out Tour. With 4,500 G-Eazy fans packed in the historic Aragon Ballroom, the night was set to be a memorable one, and sure enough, G gave a hell of a performance that his Windy City fans will certainly not forget. That night we posted some of our favorite photos from the show, and today we have our video recap of the energetic performance, shot by our photographer Dan Garcia.
Check out our video recap from G-Eazy’s Chicago stop on his When It’s Dark Out Tour below.
Tonight rapper G-Eazy brought his When It’s Dark Out Tour to the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago, IL. With a wild and crazy sell out crowd on hand, G-Eazy brought A$AP Ferg, Marc E. Bassy and more to the Windy City. While his 2014 and 2015 From The Bay To The Universe Tour was one of our favorites last year, G stepped up all aspects of his tour this time around. From its production value to the upgrades in venues, the When It’s Dark Out Tour is G-Eazy’s best yet, by far.
Opening the night was rapper Nef The Pharaoh, with singer Marc E. Bassy (formerly of 2AM Club) soon to follow. Nef and Marc both held their own, and while most fans were familiar with the two from their affiliation with G-Eazy, don’t be surprised if soon enough both artists are headlining tours of their own. Just last year, fans were introduced to the talents of Kehlani on G-Eazy’s last tour, and today Kehlani is a Grammy nominated artist and one of the top emerging singers in the R&B and rap worlds.
Photo by Dan Garcia/The Early Registration
Next up was A$AP Ferg, the second biggest member of the A$AP Mob. While A$AP Rocky is still the face of the A$AP Mob, Ferg is no longer in the shadows of Rocky. In his set tonight alone, Chicago fans were reminded of the many Ferg hits that we have all bumped in the past couple years. And despite the great energy that A$AP Ferg brought to his set, the highlight of his performance came when he slowed things down to pay tribute to the late A$AP Yams.
Despite the talents of all of those before him, there was just one artist on the bill that gave reason to the huge sell out crowd, and that of course was none other than the Bay Area’s G-Eazy. As the screams began to amplify, G-Eazy emerged with his track ‘Random’ from his latest LP, the similarly titled, When It’s Dark Out. Kicking the night off with a number of records from his new album, things did not stop there. G-Eazy performed a 90-minute set, full of the new and the old, singles and B-sides, all-in-all something for everyone.
Photo by Dan Garcia/The Early Registration
Show-by-show, tour-by-tour, G-Eazy’s fan base and following seems to grow exponentially. A rapper with a James Dean appeal, who spits personal lyrics that reach a variety of listeners. Like rappers do, G-Eazy will rap about fucking your bitch (a warning shot to any guy who brings his girlfriend to a G-Eazy concert), but with the next song G will break things down and give you a raw and emotional look into his darkest moments.
From the moment G got on stage until he said goodbye to the Chicago crowd after his memorable encore, the night’s energy never dropped off. And unless you’re at the after party with G-Eazy right now, it’s time to recover… after what was an amazing and wild performance.
Check out our photos from G-Eazy Chicago stop on his When It’s Dark Out Tour below.
The Early Registration 