berklee hip hop showcase

thursday oct 24th, berklee red room cafe 939. hip hop showcase 2024

A spontaneous event that i had learned about a day prior contained some of the upcoming talent in the hip-hop sphere at berklee. ru(se) met someone performing named “kylos” and he invited the club to come review the showcase. After hearing about it, i enthusiastically volunteered, having to see the talent in one of my favorite music genres. 

this was actually my second time in the red room, first being julius rodriguez, the jazz musician who has done a tiny desk concert in july. I was slightly late, around five minutes, but i was lucky because they were preparing to start. The venue was mostly full, almost all college students, with enough space to have a conversation with someone to your left and right. I was able to scoot in the front without having to bother too many people. Looking back, it was one of the most diverse shows i've seen, from not only the performers but also the crowd.

Ok now onto the performers, i don't rlly know a bird to a squawk, i'm really just going to comment on my experiences and how much fun the crowd had! Also everyone except the last few performers only had one song each which didn't show all of their potential. 

it all started with @dakari_david. he was wearing a crewneck with an american flag on it which i loved instantly. Since this was the first artist, i feel like the crowd wasn't as hype as they should've been but nonetheless everyone enjoyed his energetic performance. He later joined the crowd to hype everyone up.

The second act @iam_lkfmusic did rlly well! He seemed a bit nervous at first but he had very good crowd control and had us singing the lyrics of his song. also it kinda looked like he was wearing minecraft sunglasses at first but the shadow on his face makes it up for me.

The third artist was actually a duo/dual performance with @kalebren_ and @amiritakeover. I think out of all the performances this night, they had the crowd jumpin the most! They rlly had so much energy, feeding off of each other and the crowd’s reactions, much respect. Also kaleb did something rlly funny at the end where he turned around and pointed at the number 1 on the back of his shirt. 

Fourth there was @t_reyspitz who was definitely in the competition for the best dressed that night, or it was jus his aura. T rey had a soundcloud rap sound to him with his autotuned vocals and funky beat. After checking his insta i can def confirm that he makes all of his beats which is super admirable seeing a project from start to finish like that. He should've gotten another song, but you can't change the flow of the river.

Number 5 was @steviix.nkc. Steviix was all dripped out as well, completely different vibe though. It's obvious he had stage presence and made it seem like the stage was completely natural for him. He rapped fast and had a unique flow, really using the pen as poetry. The crowd was super hype for him.

Number 6 was the only female rapper of the night, @pyonnmyathwe. The host said before she performed that she was a part of the Hip Hop Showcase since he was hosting the show, so at least a few semesters! Poppy’s performance was super bubbly and full of energy, i thought she was going to be nervous being the only woman rapper, but she proved me wrong, she popped off ;). Also, she had great crowd control, having us do a little chant of her name for a music video she said she was working on.

It caught me off guard when i saw a group of guys plugging in a bunch of instruments but to my disbelief, there ended up being a small band playing a r&b fusion song. I don't have any of their social medias but i remember the lead guitarist and singer having a real unique way of singing into the mic where he completely inverted his body, singing the highest notes that could ever be registered.

After he was done unplugging his guitar, i found it was a tiny bit strange that the drummer and bass player stayed on stage with their instruments. The host then came out and brought out a girl from backstage, and they ended up doing a song together! I didn't know the host performs, but it ended up being rlly good with the two of them singing. It only included a tiny but of hip-hop aspects with one verse being rapped, the other parts were rlly just singing. Super enjoyable though, two very talented singers!

The next artist was @kyxlos himself!!! This was the start of the stage where the artists were playing more than one song. Kylos killed it in terms of stage presence, he was walking back and forth on that stage, exuding so much aura it was insane. Before i came, i had no idea who kylos was so i had 0 impression of what his music was like. He had two fans in the front taking photos of him while the sound guy was singing along to his tracks. I love the thing where he would look at people in the audience and wink or point at them while he was jammin out. We ended up talking after the show, and he was a great stand out guy.

At number 10 we had the second to last artist, @neo_r3tro. Neo came in with a puffy blue jacket with some dark denim. All the songs he played he said he produced, and it made sense he was confident about his own sound. To get the crowd hyped up he even took a step off of the stage and created a pit of his own. This is where i saw a bunch of the previous rappers dance in the middle of the pit with Neo. he took off his jacket in the middle of the set cuz it was v hot in there, i don't know how he even lasted a song. 

The final artist of the night, also the one that was the “headline” was @ras.mmi. U could tell ras had an entire discography on his back, i didn't sense a single hint of nervousness, he was just doing his thing. I think out of everyone there that night, ras had the best technical skill of rapping, it just felt like he has the practice of putting it there. Amazing performance to end off an amazing night.

Hip hop showcase was amazing and i am so glad i got the opportunity to see rising talent like this. Shoutout to cliff notes and dan cantor for setting up the entire experience and special thanks to berklee for hosting an event like it.