On April 28, 2022, famous Bay Area rapper, “Daboii” stopped by the SJSU campus for a meet and greet. The event was set up by KSJS Hip Hop Director Alex Pena along with some KSJS students, in which Daboii and rapper “Clyde the Mack”, stood near the San Jose State’s Student Union to greet fans. There was a pretty solid turnout of students that hopped in line to snag a picture with the man himself. As for myself, it was quite an enjoyable experience.
I am someone that was a big fan of SOB X RBE, the original rap group that Daboii was a part of which made him a known figure. The group being Vallejo-Natives, not only had the Bay Area on lock, but also much of the West Coast Hip Hop scene. It started with an underground following, leading to a featured song with Kendrick Lamar for the Black Panther soundtrack. Fast forward to now, although the group has been split apart for about two years, Daboii continues to release solo projects. His aggressive lyrics regarding street life, consistent flow, and raspy voice is what sets him apart from other artist. His style always stuck out even back when he was part of his old group. I was excited to meet him on campus, in which I was able to get his autobiography inside of my hat, get some clean flicks, and even ask him about his recording process. Daboii explained how he freestyles most of his recent music, and one of his bigger hits on Youtube, “Bananas” which samples Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl”, was entirely a freestyle. That is extremely impressive. Daboii was very humble and had no issues hanging out for a couple hours, while showing love to his fans. Big ups to our KSJS Hip Hop Director, Alex Pena and BLAPDRE for coordinating the meet and greet. Overall, it is fair to say this event was a success, and I think the timing was perfect as that same week, Daboii held a concert in Santa Cruz and the weekend after he released his project “Can’t Tame Us”. The song features late LA icon, Drakeo the Ruler, and other buzzing California artists such as Ralfy the Plug and Young Slo-Be.
Later this week, I decided to go with a couple of friends to the Santa Cruz show at the Catalyst Club. We were able to enter the venue pretty quickly into the Atrium Room which was smaller. We were able to see Daboii better. The show started with the opener, “Kai Bandz”, a young upcoming rapper from Fairfield, California, who has been releasing tracks for the past couple of years, but is now starting to gain more recognition in the NorCal Hip Hop scene. What stood out to me the most during his performance was his solid, bouncy flows along with his cartoon-like voice and beats. After his performance, Daboii went up, in which he rapped songs off his latest project “House Arrest ”, including the song “It Don’t Matter” (which features LA rapper Remble). Personally, this was one of my favorite Daboii songs. Along with this, he was energetic and performed his hard hitting track “Detriot Flow”, and “Too Hard 4 the Radio”, a song that features an old school Bay Area type instrumental. To top things off, rapper “Slimmy B” who was a part of the original SOB X RBE group, made a guest appearance, and performed his verse to the group’s “Anti”, the track that caught the attention of millions back in 2016. Lots of entourage and artists joined Daboii on stage.
While I had a good time watching him perform his hit songs, I will say the crowd was definitely a little weak at times. The energy felt sort of dead at the start of the show, as they didn’t really want to get into the music of any of the opener’s, and only a couple people were throwing their hands up. This even continued into Daboii’s performance, in which personally, I think he deserved a way better and appreciative crowd. However, I enjoyed myself at this show and the music that was played.
Written by Julian Velez
This Post Has 0 Comments