Self-anointed “Prince of the City,” Jazz Cartier made a worthy contender for Drake’s hip-hop throne at the Cirrus Logic stage at noon on Saturday. The crowd was small, but his “Talk of the Town” saw the Toronto rapper demonstrating unwavering confidence: “Man, I’m a downtown legend, everybody feels threatened/ You aren’t worthy of my presence.”
Sporting braided locks and a black Nike shirt, the 23-year-old Jaye Adams seemed to levitate as he stood atop the outstretched hands of the crowd. Consistent with his Polaris Prize-nominated mixtapes, Marauding in Paradise and bragging rights Hotel Paranoia, the MC drew the audience in through sheer intensity. The braggadocio roundabout of “100 Roses” flickered darkly cinematic in particular. No question, Cartier’s loose-cannon punkness serves as an antithesis to Drake’s lush, mainstream Billboard baiting.
Never was this more apparent than in his gritty testament “Save Me From Myself,” when he growled, “I can never be six God. I am the sixth sense.”
His earnest delivery ricocheted between the heavy-lidded lothario in “Illuminati Love Song,” party cacophony in “Red Alert,” and the unabashed miscreant of “Stick & Move.” The crowd checked to the rapper’s impassioned performance with hands in the air to set highlight “Dead or Alive,” whose jarring electronics and erratic trap beats warped a somber recitation:
“They want me dead or alive/ I’m just trying to survive.”
This article appears in September 30 • 2016.