Huge masses of Wiz Khalifa and Rae Sremmurd fans gathered at Isleta Amphitheater, which hosted the Albuquerque tour stop for the artists performing on Aug. 29.
Lil Skies opened for a night of exciting performances, and a quote where he encouraged others to follow their dreams fostered a sense of youth pride throughout the audience. At just twenty years old, the rapper set the electrifying tone for the night. The crowd stood on their feet throughout the entirety of his performance, and got into the groove of the intense beats.
Towards the end of his performance, Lil Skies honored late rapper XXXTentacion by performing “Look At Me,” and encouraged the crowd to form their arms in an ‘X’ formation to honor the young rapper’s death.
Lil Skies may have performed when the sun was beginning to fall, but as soon as dusk set, Rae Sremmurd broke out onto the stage. The stage setup matched the summer vibes of the duo’s latest album, “SR3MM.” The album features solo tracks from both Swae Lee and Slim Jxmmi, and as a duo featuring other artists.
The pair started off their performance with their hit song “No Type.” With the bright lights beaming around the stage and booming bass, along with images of flames on the big screen behind the performers, the duo made it known Rae Sremmurd was here to make their mark on Albuquerque.
Throughout Sremmurd’s performance, there was lighting to match the mood of each track they carried out on stage, along with excellent videography on the big screens of the stage to match the beats of each song performed.
To close, the group performed their hit “Powerglide” off of their latest album, and with one echo of “SR3MM Life” through the sea of people in the audience, Rae Sremmurd exited the stage and left everyone to remember their heart-thumping performance.
Now everyone in the audience was awaiting the final act of the night — Wiz Khalifa. Taking a sweeping panoramic view of the crowd, a whopping number of fans stood in anticipation for the recording artist to begin his performance.
To signal the beginning of his performance, the lights on the stage blacked out, and our attention was directed towards the main big screen for a mini-film of Wiz Khalifa showing off his martial arts and acting skills. After the film ended, Wiz made a dramatic entrance with an epic soundtrack, and a grand entrance through a gate on stage. Emphasizing his confidence, Khalifa opened with “King,” which is off his latest album “Rolling Papers 2.”
Another tribute was in store in the night of action-packed performances for the late rapper Jimmy Wopo. A brief film was shown to reveal about the kind of person Wopo was, one that just wanted to be the best man he could be.
Both Hardo and Chevy Woods joined Wiz on stage to perform with him for a couple songs. Lil Skies, and Swae Lee from Rae Sremmurd returned to the stage to perform “Hopeless Romantic,” which comes off of Wiz’s latest album.
During Wiz Khalifa’s performance, the stage lighting and images were almost that of a “Blade Runner” Tokyo nights scene. Influences from asian culture were definitely present, and were creatively incorporated throughout sequences of his performance.
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Closing his truly excellent performance, Khalifa proved that performing live is something he has nailed down, and finished the night with the song “Gin and Drugs.” All the performers from the night came onto the stage during the show’s finale, and fans got to enjoy a song to dance to as confetti rained down from cannons on the stage.
To keep the sense of youth pride going, Wiz told the fans in the crowd, “I believe in every one of you guys, you can make all your dreams come true.” He then called for a call and response of “peace and love” before exiting the stage with a big grin and wave to the crowd. The night was then over, and fans left with many exciting and inspiring performances to look back on.
Macey Rose is a freelance reporter with the Daily Lobo. She can be contacted by email at culture@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @maceyrae9.
