Rae Sremmurd

Empire Garage, Austin TX, March 18

Photo: Ellie Pritts

BY Stephen CarlickPublished Mar 19, 2015

7
As the Boiler Room's hosts and artists tried to decide whether Kaytranada or Rae Sremmurd would come on next, the crowd started to get antsy as Artistic Director Sophie Hunter tried to kill time, getting the crowd shouting "Ray Ban!" And yet still, the tension shattered like glass when Rae Sremmurd's DJ dropped a beat to introduce the young duo.

Wasting no time of their short set, Swae Lee and Slim Jimmy came flailing onto the stage and started right into their gargantuan hit, "No Flex Zone." All pumped arms and pogoing, the duo got the Empire Garage going again, and hard; by just the second song, "Up Like Trump," a mosh pit had formed around the front of the stage.

After hyping the Austin crowd up by asking a show of hands from locals, they segued into yet another hit, "Throw Sum Mo." Although it felt a little lacking without Nicki Minaj (as tends to happen when she features on a song), they quickly made up for it: "No Type" was a return to hyped-up form, and they were joined by Mike WiLL Made It and Freddie Gibbs, who played earlier, for a last song before making way for Kaytranada. It was a short but emphatic set played to a crowd that seemed mostly there for Rae Sremmurd — a coup, considering that Gibbs, J.Rocc, BADBADNOTGOOD & Ghostface and Kaytranada were on the bill too. 
 

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