21 Savage
The truth is expectations are pretty low for rappers touring the club circuit. All they have to do is show up, perform a few songs for a crowd that’s been very much primed to enjoy them, then enjoy a fairly generous paycheck—it’s possible to be in and out in less than an hour. Rap shows, especially club shows, are rarely really about the performance on stage anyway; they’re about the shared experience of hearing music you love with a bunch of other people who really love it, too.
Occasionally an artist comes along who somehow manages to fail to live up to the incredibly low expectations of these club shows, though, and judging from social media comments this weekend, Atlanta’s 21 Savage is one of them.
Like a lot of young trap rappers, 21 Savage's records prioritize presence over energy, but in the recorded footage from his show at the Downtown Milwaukee nightclub The Eight Saturday night, he didn’t have either. Early Sunday morning a Facebook user posted this drowsy video of 21 Savage sleepwalking through his biggest hit, “X,” for a mostly forgiving but visibly underwhelmed crowd. The clip has since been shared more than 250 times and generated hundreds of comments, many of them hilarious and predictably, well, savage.
A YouTube user also posted this longer video of the show that confirms, at the very least, that 21 Savage is not a natural born performer.
