Yung Gravy Sticks to the Plan at Generac Power Stage

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With one of the biggest ground stage crowds of the festival thus far, it wasn’t going to take a lot to get Yung Gravy’s fans at the Generac Power Stage going. The night was humid, but that didn’t stop a swarm of concertgoers to lose their minds at every beat drop from the current frat rap king, who has achieved a status not seen since Asher Roth’s run at the top, Lil Dicky, or perhaps an earlier iteration of Machine Gun Kelly. While slacker personas like Yung Gravy certainly been done before, his unique flavor was still compelling to a crowd that mainly looked and dressed like younger versions of the star, who knew every word of a solid 80-minute set on Friday.

Introductory schtick from DJ Tiiiiiiiiiip, which included throwing Gravy’s turkey sandwich from Saz’s Catering to the crowd and a singalong of John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” set the tone for the night. There’s a tongue-in-cheek swagger about what Gravy and his team do that really gets to the heart of his appeal. There’s a level of not taking themselves too seriously that may play as immature to one generation, but connects with his core audience, and that’s all that the rapper and DJ really need. By the time Yung Gravy walked out with his trademark wavy blonde hair, donning a UW-Madison t-shirt just past 9:30 p.m., things were at a fever pitch.

Gravy was quick to remind the crowd of his time in college, attending Wisconsin for three years, and also mentioned a brief three-week residence in the Third Ward before moving forward with his rap career. He also detailed to the crowd that he wrote a love song based on an encounter on Mifflin Street in Madison, before dropping into “Cheryl,” a song about picking up a mom in a grocery store. Just about every track was accompanied by visuals of vintage bikini models on a screen behind the rapper, and hooking up with mothers or someone else’s girlfriend was certainly a central theme of the night.

Yung Gravy didn’t really exert himself too much on Friday, but again, that’s sort of his whole thing. To his credit, he performed without the aid of backing vocals, which is becoming more of a rarity in modern rap. He and DJ Tiiiiiiiiiip have the formula down, knowing just how to keep the fans hyped up for the duration of their live show. At one point, Gravy pulled a stuffed animal, and later a sex doll out of the crowd. Towards the back half of the show, they began throwing signed Lunchables boxes out into the sea of sweaty bodies. Add in the collection of tracks spanning the many releases over his five-year career, and you’ve got the recipe for a concert that can get over big with a young crowd.

There’s also a formula to Gravy’s biggest tracks, which includes starting with a well-known song from a previous decade, and then flipping that sample into a beat while he raps about stealing someone’s significant other. Formula can be fine, when executed properly like it was on Friday night. However, several tracks (“Mr. Clean,” “Buttered Up,” “Gravy Train”) in quick succession made it hard to ignore that there was a pattern to the potency. While it sounds like a nightmare for a label to get clearances, it certainly is working to Gravy’s advantage. That’s also the composition of “Betty (Get Money),” his biggest hit that closed out the main portion of his set. A quick break led to the bbno$-assisted “C’est La Vie” upon his return to the stage, and then to close the night out, he threw roses out into the crowd, before walking down into the VIP area and the center aisle before departing the stage.

It would be easy to dismiss what Yung Gravy does as an act that has been seen before in hip hop. However, Friday night’s set proved that it can be done to the utmost effectiveness, and that’s exactly what the rapper and DJ combo did at the Generac Power Stage. Whether or not Yung Gravy evolves as his career progresses is yet to be seen, but for the night, he certainly did what he needed to do, to great results.