Photo credit: Katelyn Winski
Last time Young Thug was scheduled to play Milwaukee he didn't. The Atlanta rapper had been booked to perform at The Eight nightclub in September, but he never showed, leaving the packed club waiting until 1:30 a.m. for a show that never happened. He probably remembers the date: It was the day he released his highest profile mixtape yet, the Birdman-sanctioned Rich Gang: Tha Tour Pt. 1. Eccentric even by the standards of Atlanta's unencumbered rap scene, Thug had spent 2014 proving himself on the national stage, working his way into hourly rotation on rap radio with several inescapable singles. This tape, presented by one of the most powerful tastemakers in rap history, was his coronation, the project that officially declared his promotion from next big thing to big thing. As shitty as it is to bail on a club full of fans, you can almost understand why he didn't want to spend the night in Milwaukee.
Thug's current tour gives him equal billing with Texas rapper Travis Scott, whose own career rise has been far different from Thug's. Where Thug spent years crawling his way out of obscurity, building his own momentum in spite of lax management, Scott was born an industry favorite. He signed to Epic Records and then to Kanye West's prestigious GOOD Music seemingly before anybody had ever heard of him. He's since moved to yet another powerful label, T.I.' s Grand Hustle, but he still subscribes to the GOOD Music notion of the rapper as an Artist with a capital A. His production rattles with industrial menace, like Kanye West's Yeezus. His tracks halt and pivot where Kanye's would. He raps about being a monster, because Kanye does that. The buzz surrounding Scott's artistry, however recycled that artistry may be, has won him a loyal college fanbase, but buzz alone doesn't buy hits. Where radio has been irresistibly drawn to Young Thug, the wily outsider, it's outright neglected Scott, the A&R golden child.
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Beyond a few verses Thug has lent Scott, the two rappers really don’t have much to do with each other, so they’re unlikely co-headliners, especially on a tour that has them share the stage all night. Nonetheless, they made it work. After a warm-up spin from Metro Boomin, the brilliant Atlanta producer behind some of Thug’s best tracks, Thug and Scott spent their Friday concert at the Rave alternating between brief, four- or five-song sets, Scott chasing Thug's spastic trap-pop with his own angry art-school kid music. That format kept the music fresh; whenever the thrill of seeing one take the stage wore off the other made a crisp reentrance.
Inevitably, the show took on an air of oneupsmanship, with each rapper trying to elicit the loudest response, especially the validation-hungry Scott, who despite wanting it more had neither the hits nor the star power to upstage his sparring partner. They compounded each other’s energy. By the end of the night, after a generous hour and 45 minutes between them, everybody was into it, both the crowd and the headliners, by that point each shirtless, sweaty and radiating accomplishment. It's hard to imagine this odd couple crossing paths too often once their tour ends at the end of the month, but for the time being they’re bringing out the best in each other.
