“Let’s take ’em back to that 1999 shit one time,” Joey Bada$$ instructed his DJ. For most performers, that would mean cuing up an old school hit, but the 20-year-old rapper was barely out of diapers that year. Instead, it was a nod to his debut mixtape, which doubles as a love letter to the the golden era of hip-hop.
A supremely talented MC with the brash swagger only the young possess, the Brooklyn native arrived as a perfect fit for Fun Fun Fun Fest. He reveres the same older acts that typically headline the fest – different generation, same ethos.
By design or destiny, Bada$$ nodded to the top billed hip-hop acts of this year and last on his two opening tracks, spitting Nas-inspired ether flow on “Big Dusty” and churning “C.R.E.A.M” on the DJ Premier-produced “Paper Trail$.” Its line “Cash ruined everything around me” arrived with a knowing bite.
These historical footnotes dot debut LP B4.DA.$$ same as they did the late-afternoon set, a trail of lyrical breadcrumbs leading from Biggie Smalls and Das EFX to Missy Elliot and Souls of Mischief. Still, there’s nothing stuffy about Joey’s super fresh and nimble flow. He’s easy to love even if cross-checking lyrics in the hip-hop encyclopedia sounds as dull as algebra homework.
“I thought y’all was here to have fun fun fun, but y’all look sleep sleep sleep,” he chided the crowd before instigating a mosh pit on the dancehall-tinged “No. 99.”
The surname’s no empty boast, either. Bada$$ remains a beast with bars. By set’s end, he was wearing a golden crown a fan had tossed onstage.
Call it a coronation. The kid’s aiming for rap royalty.
This article appears in November 6 • 2015.
