After last year’s debacle that saw someone pulling the fire alarm at the rapper’s Palace show, resulting in half the crowd not being allowed into the venue, punters arrived nice and early this year to see the lyricist of every rap fan’s fantasy.
The man in question is 19-year-old Thebe Neruda Kgositsile, aka Earl Sweatshirt, who uses his music to speak for himself, his friends, and kids from bad neighborhoods and grim lives the world over. Not even breaking a sweat after a few capital city Laneway Festival shows during the week, Sweatshirt was joined by Danny Brown, Run The Jewels, and Australia’s own Citizen Kay.
After Kay warmed the crowd up with his big grin and positive energy, Run The Jewels, aka rappers El-P from Brooklyn and Killer Mike from Atlanta, cranked the audience into delirium as they moved about the stage like two boxers in a ring. During the song ‘A Christmas F*ucking Miracle’, both performers got the whole crowd to throw up their gun-shaped fingers and fists one last time before the duo left the stage. Those who couldn’t handle the heat left the moshpit, while those who stayed had no idea how much hotter things would get.
The scene was thick with anticipation. Blunts were pulled out and friends were sent off for cups of water and ice as the chant of “Danny Brown! Danny Brown!” began. When his DJ took the stage and started playing Waka Flocka Flames’ ‘Hard In The Paint’, time stopped. The moshpit surged and jumped while Brown emerged on stage looking like a grinning cactus. From that moment on, it was every man for himself.
There were rat-tailed boys on top of other rat-tailed boys, and the crowd were so crazy that you would’ve broken your neck if you needed to tie your shoelace. Everyone became trapped in a haze of sweat, weed smoke, and the Detroit rapper’s perfect laugh.
“Who’s got a blunt?” shouted Brown, “I want you to pass that shit around. Pass that shit to me and then we’ll all be in a ‘Kush Coma’.” The crowd erupted in appreciation of the song ‘Kush Coma’ as bright green lights shone out from the stage like a UFO about to lift off.
With a nasal tone reminiscent of B-Real from Cypress Hill, Brown was appealing for his nastiness. One minute he was crudely rapping and the next he was sticking his signature tongue out, prompting the crowd to erupt in hysterics. In fact, if someone got pregnant during ‘Dip’, there’d be no surprises there.
After barely enough time to shake the sweat off, Mr Sweatshirt himself took the stage. The Californian’s lyrics in particular are dangerous, and for entirely different reasons than what his group Odd Future are known for.
Going by his swagger on stage, the teenager does not care a single bit about anything he’s supposed to care about – yet he is acutely aware of everything he knows he should have had. Whether it was a secure home life, role models who weren’t phonies, or friends he could trust, the performer lets every other kid out there know that they’re not alone in their disappointment.
Judging by the sea of nodding heads during the songs ‘Hive’, ‘Sunday’, and ‘Molasses’, there’s a whole generation waking up to this ‘odd future’.
The rapper could probably lead his generation anywhere. With a swelling crowd that looked like the belly of a beast from the safe distance of the high stalls, it was safe to say that Sweatshirt’s chilled stage presence left his fans in awe.
