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FRIDAY, Oct. 3
If people thought of artists like Karma Rivera when they thought of Portland rap, the city might get a little more respect on the global hip-hop scene. The Afro-Latina singer and rapper was clearly something else even on early songs like “Down 2 Ride,” whose video pairs beach-party fashions with the reality of Pacific Northwest weather. But since coming out as queer a few years ago and signing on to Portland’s Marmoset Music as an in-house songwriter, she’s honed her pop chops while finding a fearsome new purpose in her art. Alberta Abbey, 126 NE Alberta St. 8 pm. $17.86. All ages.
SUNDAY, Oct. 5
Rail-thin, bedazzled and communicating in a pout of the purest petulance, Playboi Carti is the Tutankhamen of rap, a boy king decreeing that the genre rewrite itself in his image. His new album, Music, features some of the most extreme sounds ever to become arena-level popular, with his small voice fighting to stay aloft above beats that tap into his Atlanta hometown’s rap traditions while imbuing them with harsh noise, vampire theatrics, and the thrilling sense that everything could fall apart at any moment. Moda Center, 1 N Center Court St. 7 pm. $53.20. All ages.
TUESDAY, Oct. 7
Lucinda Williams finds ways to jerk the heartstrings that seem almost inconceivable, from the image of a lover’s soul running across the water in “Lake Charles” (named for her Louisiana hometown) to the devastating moment in “The Night’s Too Long” in which she breaks the wall dividing writers and their characters to beg one to treat the other one right. In these moments, and many others in her catalog, the Louisiana alt-country legend is like the voice of God, hidden in the static on some Deep South radio station. Roseland Theater, 8 NW 6th Ave. 7 pm. $48. 21+.
