By Jesse Johnson
On Wednesday March 30th, Yelawolf made his return to First Avenue in Minneapolis. Oh what a few months can change! A few months ago Yelawolf was here at the same building but played at the 7th street entry room (250 capacity). Fast forward a couple months and he returns to the main room at First Ave and sells it out (1500 capacity)! There are a few reasons for such a big change: his buzz has been getting stronger over the last year from his releases on the label Ghetto Vision, His live shows have been getting amazing reviews from all across the country, and last but not least he just signed to one of the biggest labels in music. That’s right his lyrical skills had caught the attention of arguably the best lyrical mc out there Marshall Mathers, Slim Shady, or Eminem whatever you want to call him. Last month Yelawolf got the biggest career boost you could ask for when Eminem signed him to Shady Records. I have liked Yela’s music since the moment I heard it but now after seeing him live I understand why Eminem gave him contract he had been looking for.
This show was 100% raw hip hop from front to back. The first opener was Muja Messiah. I had heard of him but never heard his music before this show. I would say he is a very polished live mc. He can rock the mic, get the fans moving and he repped MN well. I will definitely be checking out his back catalog for sure.
Next up before Yelawolf hit the stage we had the veteran MPLS rapper Prof. I had heard some of his songs but never really heard full albums but after his live show he had me sold. I downloaded 2 albums the next day. This man tore up the stage and brought such diversity to a hip hop show when he busted out a full blown blues song. I know you may think that sounds weird but Prof rocked the blues like he grew up down in the Delta. I won’t detail too much of his show since Jonnyc612 already reviewed his set. I will say during his final song “I’m an animal” he had that crowd bouncing harder than most rock shows I have been to.
Then came the moment we were all there for. After a drawn out intermission between sets the house lights went down and the stage lights went up. The DJ hit the intro for the song “Trunk Music” and the crowd went nuts. He ripped this track very well live, lots of energy and they sold out crowd was locked in. After this I am a little fuzzy on the order of songs but will try to go over the standouts. Yelawolf talked to the crowd and said thank you to all of us for being his biggest crowd yet and then asked if we were “Good to Go?” Good to go was by far one of my favorites of the night and judging by crowd reaction I was not alone. He then played the single “I just want a party” and the crowd ate it up. 1500 people singing the chorus together must have been even a surprise to Yela. Then the place really erupted when the bells hit for the intro to “Daddy’s Lambo.” This song had the entire sea of people on the floor bouncing and dancing the whole 4 minutes and was also amazing live and I swear he even sped up the flow which was impressive.
He then slowed it down a little bit for a couple songs. First he played a song dedicated to an ex girlfriend ( I won’t quote his intro but does not seem like it ended well) called “Love is not enough.” This was the song that had everyone in the building holding up either a lighter or a cell phone (see pics attached). He also played the slower song but with quick flows “My Box Chevy.” This one was another song where the crowd was singing the chorus back to him and he seemed to love it. Yelawolf threw in “Mixin up the medicine”, “F.U.”, “Billy Crystal” and “Marijuana” before winding the show down. Then came the announcement of the last song. We all knew what it was but the build up of the snare intro to “Pop the Trunk” was sick. Yelawolf went out in style rocking his biggest hit with a passion you only see from certain artist. The breakdown on the end of the song with the piano had everyone chanting the last lyrics back to him all before he jumped off the stage and finished the song crowd surfing. He then thanked everyone for coming and disappeared. It was only briefly though he was back out to play one final song called “In this Club.” It was the shortest encore I have ever seen but the rest of the show was so amazing that it really did not matter.
Overall this was a great show for many reasons. All these artist are rising stars who have paid there dues and it was great to see the success. Another great part was that tickets were only $15 for 4 hours of some of the best hip hop you could find anywhere on a Wednesday night. If you ever get a chance to check out Yelawolf do it. Same goes for Prof and Muja Messiah.
Peace,
Jesse Johnson
The author, Jonny, Mike and Kenny check out Yela at First Ave!
Tags: First Avenue, Minneapolis, yelawolf
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