Last Friday, Joey Bada$$ and much of his Pro Era rap group came to BU Central. And man, did they have a show. I got to the venue at around 7:45, and I didn’t leave until 12:30. Pro Era was onstage for about an hour and a half of those four or so hours. That’s a long time.
But I’ll get to that in a minute. The show started at around 8:45, upon which two local openers played a set. The first was rapper Second Nature, the second was a group of two MCs, and for the life of me I can’t remember their name. They both gave solid performances.
But the real opener was Chicago based Chance the Rapper, who has been garnering a ton of positive buzz based on his 10 Day mixtape. I hadn’t had to time to familiarize myself with Chance’s work before the show, and I wish I had. He was fantastic. He mixes singing and rapping, not unlike Drake, but he’s able to separate himself with his incredibly unique style. He has a distinct, squelched flow that often threatens to drop of into manic insanity. But he keeps it just above that, and this balancing act is completely mesmerizing. The biggest reaction Chance got was for a truncated cover of Kanye West’s “All Falls Down,” which was really too bad. Hopefully, after this show, Chance will get the reaction he deserves.
And finally, at around 10:40 or so, came Pro Era. Billing this show as Joey Bada$$ and Pro Era turned out to be kind of a misnomer. Joey performed quite a few songs, but this was a group show through and through. The show started with Joey and CJ Fly, and eventually grew to expand at least eight members of the group, so many that I honestly couldn’t keep track of who was who–not that it mattered. While Joey is definitely the most talented guy of the ensemble, none of the other members are slouches, and they were all able to carry a song.
The show had an off the cuff, unplanned nature to it. It was clear that the group had no setlist beyond a general idea of what songs they might want to play, but it was mostly ad-libbed These guys gel so well together that whether they’re working together on a Joey Bada$$ track, or just freestyling and trading verses, they captive the audience. It’s weird to watch a group of kids come on stage, and then do what I’d imagine when they’re hanging out in someone’s basement. It’s great.
It’s also a little exhausting. As I said earlier, they performed for something like an hour and a half. That’s a long time, even for someone who attends a ton of shows. Seeing as some of the crowd had been there for going on five hours–there was a sizable line when I arrived–I can’t blame some of them for leaving. The crowd, which was at capacity way before the show even started, had thinned out by the time Joey finally got to his two biggest songs, “Survival Tactics” and “Hardknock.” Saving these songs for the end was definitely a bold choice–Pro Era are a talented group, but they also don’t have many official releases or notable songs to feed the crowd–but it’s one I think payed off. When Joey finally did perform “Hardknock,” the crowd jumped back to life.
And then came “Survival Tactics,” one of the best hip hop songs of last year and easily the groups best known track. I had wondered how the group was going to deal with this one, seeing as its second verse was performed by the sadly deceased Capital STEEZ. I thought they might simply not play it out of respect. I was wrong. When they kicked into that track, the crowd exploded, waking up from their slumber to yell every last word back at Joey. When the second verse came, I hesitated a bit. Then I realized that Pro Era were just gonna let us rap the verse for them. It was wonderful, and put an incredible cap on a night that was totally worth the aching feet.
