What happened last night?
While Queensland lost the 2024 State of Origin on an unusually brisk Brisbane evening on home turf (17 July), Baby Gravy – the collaboration of Canada's 'Gen Z Eminem' BBNO$ and Minnesota's 'Mr. Clean' Yung Gravy – kept their near sell-out crowd warm with their fiery performance.Opening the evening's festivities was undeniable up-and-comer Lil Bubblegum. Hailing from Auckland, New Zealand, the 20-year-old rapper has stamped his signature style across the globe over the last several years, becoming New Zealand's highest-streaming rapper (with over half a billion streams across the usual platforms).
Taking cues from the SoundCloud rap heyday era, Lil Bubblegum delivered some hard beats that sent the crowd into a rage on more than one occasion, setting the tone for the high-energy evening ahead.
In a new-to-me experience, bridging the gap between opener Lil Bubblegum and the headlining duo, DJ to Yung Gravy, DJ Tiiiiiiiiiip took to the stage with an eclectic mix of sound bites, memes or otherwise.
To draw comparison or paint a picture of this unusual experience, it almost felt like a live For You Page being shared with hundreds upon hundreds of people. While odd (and somewhat disconcerting, is this where we're heading in the future?), the fans loved it.
Shared choruses – and I mean choruses, with 30-second increments – of incredibly zealous punters rang through the walls of The Fortitude Music Hall. Regardless of personal opinion on this approach, it was entertaining, unique, engaging, and fun.
Cue the cutesy, rubber-hose animations across the big screen telling the story of BBNO$ and Yung Gravy waking, checking themselves, and getting to business.
The duo burst onto the stage to the cheers and screams of their fans, kicking straight into 'Welcome To Chilis'. Both BBNO$ and Yung Gravy delivered high-energy and very sound performances of their first run of collaborative songs, including 'Touch Grass', 'You Need Jesus', and 'Rotisserie'.
For the unaware, this dynamic duo has approached a shared-headliner tour slightly differently than what we're used to. Having released collaborative songs under the Baby Gravy moniker since 2017, both BBNO$ and Gravy shared the stage for their joint ventures, then one would disappear side stage while the other delivered their solo material.
Consistent throughout the evening, the structure was a half-dozen songs of the duo before about the same from each rapper's solo catalog, before reconvening to continue their dual delivery.
This approach worked wonders, and other acts should take note. The shifting and varying approaches between the three separate acts, all performing relatively in unison, kept the energy exceptionally high and truly engaging.
Playing a set of just shy of two-and-a-half hours, to discuss each and every hit performed would be exhaustive and redundant. Both BBNO$ and Yung Gravy have extensive solo catalogs filled to the brim with viral hits, and I'm struggling to find any of their individual (or collective) bangers that didn't make the cut.
However, highlights of the evening were BBNO$'s spirited, meme-ish, and charismatic deliveries of 'Mememe', 'Mathematics', 'Sriracha', 'It Boy', and 'Pogo'. Fans were also treated to a teaser of BBNO$'s new song 'I Put The Sex In Sexy', which presented an infectious beat reminiscent of COBRAH.
Gravy, while opting for his more signature, sultry, often country-inspired takes on rap, met the challenge presented by BBNO$ and delivered vivacious renditions of hits such as 'The Boys Are Back in Town', '1 Thot 2 Thot Red Thot Blue Thot', 'Tampa Bay Bustdown', 'Yung Gravity', 'Mr. Clean', 'Isn't It Just Marvelous?', 'Cheryl', 'AF1 2.0' (pulling Lil Bubblegum back onstage to perform this collaborative piece together), and 'Gravy Train'.
See what I mean? They played a lot, and every moment felt genuine, meaningful to the show holistically, and buckets of fun. Beyond the stellar deliveries of their extensive catalogs, the never-too-serious pair engaged with their fans in truly quintessential ways.
What began as Gravy asking who's winning the Origin game led to him tearing a NSW Blues jersey off his back to unveil a QLD Maroons one underneath (this was the last mention of the football – I suspect not long after this, the game concluded not in the home team's favour, and the man was smart enough not to talk football with a freshly losing QLD fans).
Chants of "Queenslander" erupted throughout the night (because of course they did). They took time to hand out water (alongside "Australian lunchables") to those cramped and confined at the front of the room and to those on the mezzanines, hand-delivering roses to lucky fans, and even taking a moment for Gravy to FaceTime his mum (in the middle of her night), which just felt so wholesome.
Rounding out their set, the pair launched into their biggest hits to close the evening: 'Edamame', 'Oops!!', 'Lalala' (which broke out into a very cool drum & bass section outside of the normal delivery), 'Betty' (featuring the iconic 'Never Gonna Give You Up' sample – more A-grade meme-material), and finally, closing the show with 'C'est La Vie'.
Having never seen Yung Gravy (or Baby Gravy as a collective) before, and only seeing BBNO$ at 2023's Listen Out festival, where audio issues hindered (and frustrated) the rapper's capabilities to perform to what I now know to be his full potential, to say I was impressed would be an understatement.
Both artists ooze fun, silliness, and vibes, and I highly recommend that if the opportunity to experience this zany and eclectic show arises, you should do it.
Oh, and of course, there was a shoey (please stop this, Australia – we're all collectively embarrassed, and it's not funny).
