Photo Credit: The Rave/Eagles Club; Rob Miller
Even in a rap game crowded with colorful characters, Riff Raff stands out like a sore thumb. While it’s easy to chalk that up to his DayGlo attire, his ludicrous hairstyles and his somewhat whacked-out, party-starter persona, such an oversimplification would be selling the Houston MC short. Sure, the zany fashion sense and outsized attitude certainly helped him go viral, as did the controversy over to what extent James Franco borrowed those things for his role in Harmony Korine’s 2012 cult comedy Spring Breakers, but underneath that psychedelic, couldn’t-give-a-shit surface is a driven and savvy performer, just one who’s utterly unafraid to take risks with his aesthetic, which, in a pop landscape dominated by calculated marketing schemes and carefully cultivated ideas of what’s cool, is reason enough to like him right there.
Of course, parsing his appeal was the last thing on the mind of the very young, very Caucasian crowd assembled at the Rave Friday night; they were simply there to get weird with Jody Highroller. Before they could though, there was a pair of openers, starting with Milwaukee’s own rising star WebsterX, whose impassioned set, drawn partly from his excellent Desperate Youth, was unfortunately marred by slipshod sound. Curiously enough though, those issues cleared up as soon as Chanel West Coast took the mic, not that it made her banal music any more enjoyable. You don’t necessarily need depth to be a good rapper, but you do need originality, and tracks like “Bass in the Trunk” and “I Love Money” prove to be as cliché as their titles would have them appear.
When the lights dimmed again, the crowd shifted into high gear, which turned out to be premature, since only his DJ appeared, spending the next 30 minutes incessantly asking the audience if they were ready for Riff Raff. Each time he inquired, the response was less enthusiastic, but when the man himself finally emerged, the fans instantly snapped back to attention. Despite the absurdly huge entourage crowding the stage, Riff Raff’s strange charisma kept him the center of attention throughout the hyperactive, hour-long set, mostly consisting of highlights from his new Mad Decent debut Neon Icon, including “Tip Toe Wing in My Jawwdinz,” interspersed with surreal, stream-of-consciousness freestyles. It became a bit silly at points, but ultimately you’ve got to respect Riff Raff; love him or hate him, there’s nobody else quite like him.
|
|
