Kasia Ostrowski | Detroit Music Magazine
Fans may well have needed to take shelter at several points during Schoolboy Q’s sold-out show Friday night at Saint Andrew’s Hall. As the concert came to its climax with the rapper’s highest-charting single “Man of the Year,” the crowd literally executed the lyrics’ exhortations to “bounce.”
With each thud of the beat, the floor seemed to buckle underneath with the weight of hundreds of amped-up showgoers leaping in unison. It not only made for a riveting end to the rousing, seventy-minute set, but it also served as a coronation song for Q, who — with the release of sophomore LP Oxymoron — may become 2014 rap game’s “Man of the Year.”
The crowd’s adoration for Schoolboy Q could be felt right from the jump: throngs of male attendees sported the bucket hat that’s become Q’s sartorial calling card, while the sweet smell of ganja and a general sense of rowdiness permeated the atmosphere.
It’s this latter piece that’s most separated Q from the most famous of his Top Dawg Entertainment brethren, Kendrick Lamar, who has visited Detroit no less than four times in the past year. Whereas Lamar’s contemplative demeanor can be felt even in his most turnt-up jams, for Q life is a party (“just weed and brews”), which set up the night’s proceedings in a celebratory vain.
Each track received an appropriate live rendition, whether it was the tongue-in-cheek posturing of “Gangsta,” the balls-to-the-walls electro-rap thrills of “Hell of a Night”, the snap-crackling pop of crack anthem “What They Want”, the cocksure swagger of non-album single “Yay Yay,” or the heartrending introspection of “Prescription.”
Schoolboy Q tackled all these and more with gusto and guns blazing, his brightly-colored tie-dye shirt reflecting both the set’s variety and its convivial vibe. When he served up fan favorites like “Collard Greens” or “Hands on the Wheel,” the enthusiastic cheers and makeshift mosh pit let him know he was on point.
Vince Staples and Isaiah Rashad opened for Schoolboy Q. Rashad, a recent signee to TDE with a promising new EP Cilvia Demo, balanced the relative sobriety of Kendrick Lamar with the manic intensity of the night’s headliner. Hedonism may have been the theme of the evening, but if there’s one thing Schoolboy Q and Detroit share in common, it’s the cold taste of reality.
It’s this combination of bliss and blight that Q gets so right, and if he continues to do so, there will be no term limit on his Man of the Year status.