Denzel Curry at Liquidroom, January 19th 2019

Personally I think that hip hop is the avant-garde of mainstream. That’s not to say that there is no hip hop outside the mainstream, because there obviously is. It’s more of an acknowledgment of the fact that the new beat-electronic-based pattern has replaced the old drums-guitar-bass one. It doesn’t matter if you’re Ariana Grande or Justin Bieber, if you add a solid beat to your song you’ll be adding an atmospheric layer that will be worthwhile. 

Trap Rap, with its nihilistic and gritty lyrical themes, have struck a chord with a young audience growing up within the confines of virtual societies courtesy of Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and many other platforms that will certainly appear by the time this post reach you. Its bleak and ominous presence could be interpreted as a view of that void left by the slow fade out of our real world. The -pardon the pun- entrapping nature of this ubiquitousness is described by Travis Scott in one of the best songs of the genre: “I gotta breakout, I’m on a stakeout, on your farm or your lake house”.

One of the mainstays at the front lines of the genre is definitely Denzel Curry. In 2018 he released his third album -second with a wide release- Taboo. It was a critically acclaimed effort that found its way to many Top 10 lists by the end of the year. After selling out most shows of his European tour, the Floridian rapper made a stop at Tokyo’s Liquidroom. Unfortunately it seems like when it comes to trap rap’s transcendence, Japan hasn’t gotten the memo yet. The venue was scarcely attended. By the time Curry hit the stage it was just a bit over halfway full.

These unfavorable circumstances didn’t face him. He delivered a blistering and intense performance that night. He opened the show joined by his DJ in the back. Still, behind the mic stand, Curry started the procedures with a soulful rendition of his latest album’s title track. Worth mentioning are the images projected behind him; a series of dark, distorted vignettes that included a really funny one with a vintage anime of a deranged salary man chasing a little girl. Black Balloons followed the set opener and by then the energy reached a peak that was constant throughout the following hour.

Sumo, which includes one of the best metaphors in hip hop from recent years (“pockets too big they sumo”) was the one song that got almost everyone reach for their cellphones.  Haven’t seen that much video taping, photo snapping action at a show in Japan ever. Curry sang the chorus of Switch It Up at the top of his lungs, which justified a cool down from behind the mic stand with a song he described as his favorite from his latest album: Sirens. 

Not long after that, Clout Cobain made an appearance and with its hit single status prompted a bounce-off between performer and audience. The same happened with Vengeance, than, even in its truncated form, with the obvious absence of Jpegmafia’s and Zillakami’s killer verses, was able to elicit an enthusiastic response from the audience. When I say enthusiastic I mean that people were bouncing from beginning to end, with the occasionally stage diver, one of them dressed as the characters in the Clout Cobain video.

Denzel Curry’s energy was infectious. His stage presence and charisma was fully appreciated by the attendees which reciprocated with mosh pits on command. After an XXXTentacion tribute, he performed Taboo’s closer Black Metal Terrorist and went full circle closing the show with a song he released when he was seventeen years old: Threatz.

The show, with its communal vibe wrapped with a psychedelic soundtrack and relatively brief length, just a bit over an hour, felt like a textbook example of what a counterculture is.

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