Walking into the American Airlines Arena, I saw so many custom designed shirts and hoodies that I had only ever seen online. I wouldn’t think I’d be this excited for nosebleed seats before. Running into random fans and discussing our favorite albums, lyrics and guessing what songs he would he would perform tonight made me feel like we were family, instead of a rabid fanbase or some cult following.
By the time I was in my seat with my large margarita and tour hoodie waiting for the show to start, I had already met three new people and one of them even went to OU. (I would say it’s a small world, but not really considering OU mostly looks like Texas campus). All the time I spent replaying the album in my head at work, outside in the backyard, before I slept, when I went to the gym, and here I was, high in the cheap seats waiting to hear it live for the first time.
Before Cole came out, Druski, a social media influencer comedian (or whatever influencers call themselves nowadays), did his routine. He engaged the crowd well, played the most obscure songs just for fun such as "A Thousand Miles” by Vanessa Carlton, just to get the white people in the arena jumping. Getting to see him live on his own was a refreshing surprise. I was used to seeing his skits with Jack Harlow on Twitter. He held his own well. I found his act quite funny.
Next was 21 Savage. I only really got into him around the release of his 2018 album I am > I was. The only song I had even heard of from that album was “A lot” featuring Cole. However, over the past few months leading up to this concert, I took time to listen to songs from his latest album Savage Mode II. His style of rap fell into the mumbling phase that I feel didn’t have much substance to it. I was partially wrong though. There were some questionable lines and bars that didn’t hit as heavy, however, he had bangers too which I knew such as “Runnin, Said N Done” and others. His set piece was a reference to his recent album cover, a sword implanted in stone, reminiscent of King Arthur.
The guys next to me clearly knew more Savage music than I did, this is when instead of trying to catch bars and follow everything, I was understanding that nobody here knew every single lyric of every song that was going to play tonight. I enjoyed the feeling of just observing others having so much fun with the music and passionately giving it their all to go bar for bar, even catching every adlib in between. By the time 21 had left the stage, the guys next to me were out of breath and desperately needed the intermission to recover before the real show began.
Alright, I can’t lie to you guys about the experience. I pretty much knew what songs I was in store for. I had spent days before the concert watching him on tour on YouTube from other people videotaping his performances from across the other states he toured. By the time he was in Dallas, he had already been to ten other venues across the nation. He had plenty of time to get into his rhythm of what he wanted the tour to look like. He had a SportsCenter style opening with the theme song and his stats and highlights of him playing basketball in the African basketball league.
The track “punchin’ the clock” played as spoken word as he started from the Maverick's locker room and made his way through the arena to the front stage. He took off running and the screen went black. I took my phone out, already hyped, just taking in the thunderous crowd as the giant drape over his set with the logo of The Off-Season fell to the ground.
There he was, just standing there, watching the crowd cheer uncontrollably for him. His opening track of the album 95. south played, and that’s when I knew I was in store for one of the greatest nights of my life. I forgot who I even was. I wasn’t just rapping along with him, but audibly screaming the lyrics like a madman. I loved it. It wasn’t hearing it in my headphones as I took walks after getting off a long day from work or popping it in when I needed to finish a tough set at the gym anymore. This was live, blaring loud, and most of all, sounded even better because it was him going beat for beat with it. When he would allow us to finish some of his lines, it felt like a genuine connection with the crowd. After the opening track of the song ended, he ran through Amari, then went Applying Pressure, and almost proceeded to go through his whole album.
After he finished with some songs from his recent album, he hit classics from Forest Hills Drive. To finally hear GOMD, A Tale of Two Citiez and of course Wet Dreamz was transcendent. In the middle of the concert, I took time to look around to the sides of the arena where people were recording, screaming, and jumping crazily with their friends and family knowing we all shared the same love for his craft. I thought about all the posts I saw of my friends who went to plenty of concerts before me. The looks on their faces, the scenery of the artist in the back and their snapchats flooded with clips of them singing alongside the tracks. Now that was me. I smiled, looked at the recording button on my camera, and put it down to just enjoy parts of the show knowing others would capture it anyways.
When Cole would return to his current catalog from The Off Season, he gave us words of wisdom. He told us to never lose that love, and that passion that’s gotten us where we are no matter what circumstances may come about. He told us to stay hungry for as long as we can to be something greater than ourselves. He followed his wisdom up with playing 100mil. The title of the track he used as 'rap-cap' as a means of inspiring his own self, while still boasting that he’s got money to make a song like that.
By the time the show was closing, my voice had been lost completely. One thing was that I wasn’t embarrassed by how loud I was. I realized this when he was leaving the stage and wishing us to get home safe. There were parts in the concert where I was rapping line for line with him and the people around me started recording me. It made remember the parties I went to in college where I didn’t know the songs or didn’t feel comfortable being a bit louder and expressive, but still resonated with the music. In the arena for this concert was no exception. That’s the purpose of going to them, paying money to lose yourself in the music and feel like nobody is judging you on anything because the artist is right there giving it their all too. It felt almost like an out of body experience finally hearing the songs I’ve loved in person. I wish for everyone to experience this feeling at least once in their life.
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