I don’t know if it was because of the nature of NXNE and people don’t know that they could pre-purchase tickets for the Danforth Music Hall or if the fact that after appearing on the cover of NOW Magazine built up such a large buzz, but Danforth reported that Rae Sremmurd’s show now held the record for the most walk up purchases in the venue’s history. Maybe it was just the sheer curiosity of these two young party MC’s that caught the attention of people, but whatever it was he Hall was packed and bumping. The duo’s DJ came out before the set started and threw out a bunch of band tees to the crowd and even took off his own branded hoodie giving it a fan up in the front (I heard him ask a girl next to him to smell it and remark on how it had a very noticeable ‘stench’ to it).
The duo consists of that go by the names of Swae Lee and Slim Jimmy, two brothers from Mississippi that take the trap and crunk music styles they grew up around and turned into easily digestible party pop rap. It is a genre unto itself it seems, because no one else really sounds like them. They ran onstage (well in the case of Swae Lee, he came out on some sort of electric one wheeled skateboard) and didn’t stop running for the full set. Unfortunately right from the get go Swae Lee had mic problems that caused no sound to come out, which its always nice to see definitive proof that performers aren’t lip syncing, even if you have no concerns about it to begin with. Once Swae Lee got a new microphone he was off to the races with his brother. It seemed odd that on the second song they played their biggest hit No Flex Zone, but maybe it was done on purpose to fully energize the crowd. If that was the reasoning, it worked as the crowd almost matched the intensity of the performers themselves.
It was only a few songs in when Slim Jimmy ripped off his shirt and threw it into the crowd as well, allowing the opportunity to show off his ‘SREMMLIFE’ tattoo that goes across his abdomen, much like Tupac’s ‘Thug Life’ that adorned his stomach. The boys worked as each other’s hype men by finishing the lines in each of the other one’s bars giving the illusion that someone like Flavor Flav was on stage with them. Throughout the show they emptied bottles of water over the crowd and even showered hundreds condoms on people during the song Safe Sex Pays Checks. When performing My X, a song about an “ex-bitch” the crowd all crossed the arms in the air making large ‘X’s’ and inducing a large sing along for the chorus. Near the end of the set the boys claimed that Toronto was now family to them as we all lived the Sremm Life. The venue turned into a club for the night as everyone was dancing as each song had an increase in energy.
As the set winded down a beer can was unjustly tossed on stage with their body guards standing at either end of the stage looking like they would personally lay a beat down to whomever was that juvenile to do something like that. For the last verse of No Type the guys actually performed a capella showing off their rhyming skills. They ended the night off by asking all the “bad bitches” to get on stage with them and dance as progressively the stage got packed with scantily clad females (and a few guys) to shake it and grind up against the two MC’s and one DJ. Even though the set was only about 45 minutes they seemed to work through almost all the songs on their album, and the crowd couldn’t have left happier.
