“The rap game will never be the same.”

2/19/14 – Lil Dicky with Fixyn

8:00 PM @ Theatre of the Living Arts, Philadelphia, PA

Before I start, some thoughts:

• I don’t know the difference between “theater” and “theatre”. Other than the latter seems  like the version snobs would prefer.
• Didn’t go into the venue until 9, don’t know shit about Fixyn.
• The sound in the place sucked, unfortunately.  Took away from a pretty good concert.

By now, everyone show know the story of Lil Dicky.  For the uninformed, the about page of his website sums it up better than I could.  Selected quotes:

Lil Dicky is the voice of the voiceless. In an era where rap is dominated by racial, social, and economic minorities, LD decided to put the upper-middle class on his frail, Jewish shoulders.

…

A non-traditional rapper, Lil Dicky uses a mix of comedy, lyrical ingenuity, and self-deprecation to spew out entertaining and relatable content.

…

At night, he’ll pee sitting down, due to fatigue.

Originally a Philly guy who lived out in the Bay Area doing an office job. He quit and started his rapping career about 9 months ago.  Now he’s touring the Northeast and this was his first show ever.

The main act started shortly after we got in and got drinks.  He started off with what is arguably his anthem:

The place blew the fuck up.  I’d never been to a rap show before, and Lil D had never performed in one either so I didn’t know what to expect. It was a happy surprise to find LD had a tremendous stage presence. He was great with the crowd, full of energy, and in an Iverson jersey.  Really the perfect start to the show.

LD had smooth transitions betweens all of his songs.  First, he hearkened back to his business degree to display some charts portraying market share in the rap game.  He was able to have the crowd provide the beat for a freestyle, and also got the crowd to chant “precum”.

He also gained some key street cred.  He introduced his hypeman, the archetypical cool black guy that everyone who doesn’t have black friends wishes they had as a friend. There may have been less than 10 black people in the audience so he asked all the white guys in the venue to cheer.  There were a lot of cheers.

He got Nerlens Noel to show up, which further endeared him to Philadelphians.

A heroic performance throughout the night.  Really makes me wish I could hear half the shit he said. Hat’s off to this dude not liking whatever he was doing, taking life by the balls, and becoming a rapper.  Grabbing his 20s by the balls.  Living the dream.

Solid 8.5/10, sound in the TLA was so shitty.

Follow the guy on Twitter and Youtube before he makes it big.