Young Thug Shows Why He's the Most Talked-About Man in Hip-Hop at Roseland Theater

Great rap acts are characterized by their ability to take you on a tour of their own mind, and at the Roseland Theater Saturday night, the tour we got from Young Thug far exceeded expectations. The 23-year-old mixtape phenom has matured to the level of a conductor, dynamically belting and whispering vocals and orchestrating the audience as a literal chorus to complement the cult figure-as-legend idolatry on stage.

Fellow ATLien Lil Yachty was one of several opening acts, sliding right in after 17-year-old Rich the Kid fired up the crowd with a mix of air horns and gunshots. With a style as confounding as his name, Yachty was clearly stoked to be there, beaming and pogoing while wearing a Clyde Drexler jersey to complement his trademark red braids and singing AutoTuned falsetto hooks. Though his recordings come off like a tranq'd-out Lil B, with wandering lyrical streams and syrupy keys, Yachty live is all about the turn-up. The crowd was clearly woke to his viral Internet hit "1Night" and chanted along to his icy banger "Minnesota."

Thug took the stage to his trap-ballad "Power," from Slime Season 3, the psychedelic video playing in the background an ode to having full agency over his own self-proclaimed extraterrestrial celebrity. Thug and the crowd hit their stride with "Check," the refrain reminding them "yeah I gotta check" in his future-focused world of perpetual bankroll.

He kept it focused on the Slime Season series and hits from the Barter 6 before closing it out with "old-school" Young Thug—chart toppers like Rich Homie Quan collab "Lifestyle" and "Stoner" from the Black Portland mixtape. With occasional Prince imagery flashing on the background screen, the rapper started and ended each track a capella, somehow making the beats purely auxiliary, with the audience's call-and-response backtracking his vocals as he posed his lanky figure in front of the adulating fans. Where last year his star was blurred by the pressure of having his support act on his first headlining tour act drop off last minute, this time around Young Thug took control of the Roseland with a cast of colorful supporting characters from the Soundcloud underground, fueled and steadily guided by the momentum of his incoming major label debut.

All photos by Henry Cromett.

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