Standing at the Palace Foreshore stage, with palms rising up behind us and a pink-purple sunset sky (2 March), it almost felt like we were being transported to rapper Denzel Curry's home state, Florida, as we awaited his Melbourne show as part of the Mischievous South 2025 world tour.
Curry is touring to promote his most recent album, 'King Of The Mischievous South', which was released last November.The first support act, punk-rap artist Mudrat and his band The Mischief, provided a raucous opening to the night's events. Chosen as the Melbourne support for Curry via a triple j competition, Mudrat and The Mischief were clearly able to take on the responsibility of supporting a global rap headliner.
With a standard rock line-up plus keys, the band laid down a solid wall of sound for Mudrat to regale us with his political rap. Wearing a t-shirt that said 'Do You Wanna Break Free?', and announcing they were "not afraid to be a political band", Mudrat and The Mischief performed a great set of punk songs, the crowd favourite entitled 'I Hate Rich C....'.
Guest artist Boler Mani came out for his feature on the track '2nas' with its strutting tempo; another highlight was when the drummer sang an emotional introduction to one of their songs. He had a beautiful voice and it contrasted really well with the rest of the high-octane set.
Ending with their most recent single, the slow and aggressive metal-rap track 'Year Of The Rat', was a great choice and left us with a clear sense of the band's image and ethos.
Mudrat - image © Danielle Annetts
After a pause of about 30 minutes, the next support came on – Indigenous rap supergroup 3%. Made up of rappers Nooky and Dallas Woods and singer Angus Field, 3% has a razor-sharp political focus, with songs about issues such as youth incarceration and land rights struggles.
Their debut album 'Kill The Dead' won two ARIAs in 2024 for Best Hip/Hop Rap Release and Best Cover Art. Kicking off their set with the tune 'BNP' (short for Black N Proud), 3% played mostly tunes from the 'Kill The Dead' album, such as 'Land Back' and the trap tune 'Pay The Rent', featuring Field's beautiful vocals.
A bizarre interlude in the performance involved Nooky ceremoniously spraying cans of beer over himself and some of the audience, but my favourite moment was Dallas Woods' solo performance of his original tune 'Grime', an obvious throwback to the grime sound of 2000s England.
The group ended the set with their triple j Unearthed version of 5 Seconds Of Summer's 'Youngblood'. This was a great way to leave the crowd buzzing as Field encouraged everyone to sing-along with the chorus.
3% - image © Danielle Annetts
Throughout their set, 3% had worked hard to bring the crowd vibe up and play their role as an energetic support. While both the support acts did put in a lot of energy, the crowd felt a little flat, possibly because it was still light outside and the space hadn't properly filled up yet.
In addition, the audience seemed to be mainly young white men, people who probably haven't had to spend much time thinking about the issues Mudrat and 3% were engaging with. I think Denzel Curry's choice of support acts was commendable and shows he has maintained a political edge rather than softening his image as he becomes more well known.
At exactly 8:45pm on the dot, the stage went dark and a silver skull and crossbones appeared on the screens. Denzel Curry's DJ came out and introduced him through a hilariously deep vocal effects mic.
Denzel Curry - image © Danielle Annetts
Kicking off the set with a track from his new album, Denzel jumped into 'Act A Damn Fool', with its signature Deep South trap feel. While the crowd was clearly pumped for Denzel, the bass and the vocals were not as loud and as punchy as they could have been.
This may have been the unavoidable outcome of holding an outdoors rap show in an area that probably has residential noise restrictions. However, Curry was still able to work the stage and get the crowd hyped, moving onto the fan-favourite 'Ricky', a tune off his 2019 album 'ZUU'.
Describing the new album as "dedicated. . . to everything in the south", Curry performed two of the album's hard-hitting anthemic tracks, 'Hit The Floor' and 'G'Z Up'. By the time he played the 2023 single 'Goated.', the crowd had really warmed up and were singing along with passion.
Denzel Curry - image © Danielle Annetts
This track was a chance for Curry to show off his fast and rhythmically nuanced rapping skills, the DJ fading in and out to provide space for us to appreciate Curry's lyrical prowess. After performing a crowd favourite, the braggadocious 'Sumo | Zumo' from the 'TA1300' album, Curry and his DJ exited the stage, leaving us to consider the skeleton visualiser once more.
Just when people were starting to get a bit confused, Curry was back onstage and better than ever, picking up where he had left off with another track from the new album, 'Sked'.
Now that he had the crowd's attention, Curry moved onto some slower tracks off the album, the melodic and laid-back 'Got Me Geeked' and 'Cole Pimp', a tune that features lush strings and the inimitable vocals of Ty Dolla $ign (on the album version). Heading back into the signature Curry sound, we heard 'Hot One', and then Denzel performed his verse from 'First Night', a single from Lyrical Lemonade's 2024 'All Is Yellow' album.
With its signature intro sample, the next tune caused a lot of excitement in the audience. It was 'Ultimate', one of Curry's breakout tunes that became very popular online in meme videos in the mid 2010s. Despite its potential for cringe, it was received well, and once again displayed Curry's genuine talent for writing and performing complex raps.
Denzel Curry - image © Danielle Annetts
Curry chose to end the set with 'Clout Cobain' off the 'TA13OO' album, a tune that features a dragging trap beat and musings on mental health.
As Curry ran off stage, it was clear there would be an encore, and with a little encouragement from the audience, the rapper was back on, performing his feature verse from the track 'JPEGULTRA!' off JPEGMAFIA's most recent album.
Denzel Curry is clearly an old hand and pulled the show off without a hitch. While he wasn't big on crowd interaction he was still present and performed a well chosen set that both showcased the new album and gave fans a chance to hear some of the popular older tunes.
My only wish is the whole show could have been louder, so we could have really felt that signature Southern bass!
More photos from the concert.
