The saying goes, better late than never, but in this case being late was better. No long line entering the venue just picking up the tickets from will call at the Filmore in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, then heading through security, and up the stairs into the venue’s Foundry room where the vibe was River Tiber. The melodic sound of him playing the guitar and singing the lyrics of West was reminiscence of a scene in a movie. You know the one where the boy finally realizes he is in love with his best friend, while they both dance with other people (Love & Basketball reference). But really it’s hard to imagine a better opening entrance when arriving at a concert. The way River put the crowd in a trance with his mellow tone, added to everyone’s cool warming the packed Philly crowd up for Ari Lennox & Big Baby D.R.A.M.
After River left the stage, the DJ kept the crowd motivated, playing some of today’s hottest tunes. The intimate setting was full of couples and college students, who all went berserk when Ari Lennox arrived on stage. “Purple in the sky” the crowd song the opening lyrics to Night Drive, as some began to bring the lyrics to reality, cough cough. As the charismatic brown beauty awed her many fans with her jazzy vibe, what most stood out was her interactions with the audience.
“My mom is here tonight, so forgive me for this comment. Anybody ever fucked in the backseat of a car?” – Ari Lennox
She knew exactly what she was doing, causing the crowd once again to go into hysteria, before performing Backseat. She revealed how comfortable she was directing the spectators with her every word as she grooved all over the stage. Ari created magical moments with her sidebar dialogue on stage, saying things like “I really like your glasses” having fans debating each other after the show on rather or not she was talking to them (Battling for the rights of the story to tell the grandchildren one day). She teased everyone by giving thanks to the audience for coming out to the event before the crowd screamed out “Yuengling”. Once again she made a magical moment for the crowd, which is what concerts are all about. Thursday night Ari showed her fearfulness.
After Ari left the stage the crowd was full of energy. D.R.A.M’s DJ came out which kept the elevation at a steady increase playing A-list music. The metropolitan scenery four-played the five senses with dope lighting bouncing off of the brick wall in the venue, the smell of tasty quick bites, along with the vibrations of chants from the crowd singing every song. Some people could not stop dancing; others fell into a dreamy daze as some guys were spotted twirling their fingers through their date’s hair. At that moment the cozy show needed nothing further except and explanation point from it’s headliner D.R.A.M.
“I had to tell myself to go and get it myself” – Big Baby D.R.A.M.
D.R.A.M.’s powerful voice walking out singing Get it Myself triggered everyone to pull out there phone and record. It was an enormous moment; all that anticipation of the night and Big Baby finally arrived to the stage. This is just his 5th tour date and you can tell from the magnetic smile he carries, that he has been enjoying every moment of it. When you see D.R.A.M. you see nothing but pureness. “Big Baby D.R.A.M. got a band now!” he shouted, making you soak in his gratefulness. Like Ari he also crowd controlled, getting all the ladies to sing Erykah Badu’s lyrics for the song Wifi. D.R.A.M. will definitely make you want to take bae or new bae home, as he goes through sequences of his slower paced songs, but you know he always has to turn up. Again dominating the crowd, giving a church sermon like speech on how people flex on Instagram and owe you money, created a direct correlation with the crowd who shouted back at him “Preach” all while his band meddled with their instruments leading them into Cash Machine followed by ChaCha. The show ended with Big Baby performing the fan favorite Broccoli making everybody get lit one more last time on the memorable night.
