Locked in and unstoppable, Denzel Curry and a crowd of a thousand danced seismic shockwaves felt throughout the mischievous South.
The Ritz in Raleigh, NC, is a mid-sized venue that has hosted an impressive list of artists from all genres. The Ritz welcomed the Mischievous South 2025 World Tour through its doors, headlined by Denzel Curry. The 18 – 23-year-old audience showed up ready to go, wearing a variety of heavy metal t-shirts, anime-inspired hair color, and costumes ranging from Garfield to hot dogs. Those in attendance knew what they were getting into and their commitment to having a fantastic time never wavered from start to finish.
23-year-old New York-based artist Clip opened the show to a very full audience. Hitting the scene during the pandemic, Clip was aware very few in attendance knew her music but that fact only seemed to empower the performance. Clip’s youthful exuberance and huge smile were immediately endearing, moving the audience to start the party right away. Clip’s DJ heavily supported as hype-man, rallying The Ritz into action as Clip danced and glided across the stage. The 2020 hit, “Sad Bitch,” closed Clip’s short six-song set.
Next on stage was 454, a fellow Florida rapper along with the evening’s headliner. With a singing voice reminiscent of Playboi Carti and the fashion sense of Andre 3000, 454 took his set through his wide stylistic range of singing and unique rap style. 454 is a verbal athlete, using no vocal backing tracks and losing not an ounce of power throughout his set. 454’s sound is a psychedelic journey through words and rhythm, cool and laid back but with purpose and precision. Constantly moving slowly across the stage, 454 was the calm before the storm that was about to start. When support artist Kenny Mason hit the stage, The Ritz blew up into a wild and loud frenzy. Launching himself immediately into high energy mode, Kenny became a nuclear reactor barely able to contain the white-hot chain reaction raging within. Outfitted with very necessary football grip gloves to keep hold of the microphone, Kenny Mason jumped and prowled constantly across the stage as he continually demanded the audience into movement. Also not reliant on backing tracks to fill his vocal sound, Kenny’s rapid delivery over rock-inspired beats created a hard, aggressive mood for the room that launched the center of The Ritz into a sweaty, shirtless mosh pit. By the time the first few notes of Kenny’s smash hit “Stick” rang through the venue, the audience was electrified, clearly waiting for this moment to go fully unhinged. Beats can be a powerful weapon and Kenny Mason showed The Ritz how it’s done. Beginning his growling hype hidden in the stage wings, Denzel Curry launched himself onto the stage to a thunderous response. There was no such thing as an innocent bystander at this performance, for it was impossible to not be swept up in the mayhem and become one huge organism rippling across the dance floor. When Denzel jumped, the audience jumped higher. When Denzel sang, the audience sang louder. Every ounce of power emitted from Denzel’s stage became magnified a thousand times until exploding and filling The Ritz with raw youthful power.Denzel needed only ask once for everyone to sing along with “Walkin.” The crowd had been singing every verse up until then anyway, without provocation and without restraint. “BLACK FLAG FREESTYLE” was the moment in the set when the heat in the room hit the tipping point, forcing Denzel to strip out of his sweatshirt before cranking the audience up another ten levels in intensity and raising the heat up even higher.
Denzel brought out Kenny Mason to join him on the moody and slinky “SKED” but even with both feet on the floor, the temperature in the room and the emotional energy in the room refused to drop. 454 and Clip later joined Denzel on stage along with an all too short and surprise appearance of TiaCorine from nearby Winston-Salem, NC. Adorned in a long, flowing Pikachu headpiece, TiaCorine dazzled with her verse on “HOT ONE” and disappeared as quickly as she appeared. Although completely and thoroughly exhausted, the audience had just a little bit left to launch themselves into the air for the closing song “STILL IN THE PAINT” before Denzel enthusiastically thanked and interacted with the still-ranging fans.
Denzel Curry continues to tour around the world through early July with shows in Portugal, Ireland, and finishing in Germany.DENZEL CURRY
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