$UICIDEBOY$
7th May 2017
Studio, Auckland, New Zealand.
Review by Sarah Kidd. Photography by Connor Crawford.
Sunday evening in the infamous K’Rd area is usually pretty quiet but tonight there is a sense of urgency as groups of mainly young guys stand around near cars and in alleyways waiting for the doors of The Studio to open. When it was announced that $UICIDEBOY$ were coming to play Auckland, those in the know scrambled to get tickets, the show selling out in mere hours. However hope is not all lost with a second and final show being held this coming Tuesday (but you better be quick as tickets are disappearing fast!).
$UICIDEBOY$ are comprised of the duo Ruby Da Cherry and $lick $loth aka Oddy Nuff & $crim aka Yung Mutt & Yung Christ aka Yung $carecrow & Snow Leopard. By what name you know them doesn’t matter – it’s whether you do that is important. Exploding onto the stage Ruby and $lick immediately start to spit out their rhymes, the crowd in front of them looking like a seething mass of souls trapped in purgatory. Pressed against each other, they shift and sway like a singular beast, drenched in sweat and loving every single second of it.
$UICIDEBOY$ isn’t for the faint hearted, their lyrics cover everything from murder, to self-mutilation, drugs, hallucinations, depression and occult like themes. And no they aren’t always that complimentary to females either. But to understand and appreciate the genius [double imagery] behind them you have to know a bit of the back story to the boys themselves. First cousins born a year apart in New Orleans they grew up in a poor area where guns and drugs were the norm. Ruby sick of being rejected by girls and the cool kids took the avenue of punk rock (influenced heavily by the likes of The Misfits and Minor Threat). $lick on the other hand went down the tech route honing his skills in the realm of songwriting and DJ-ing. After years of not really getting anywhere in their respective fields and sick of working shitty 9-5 jobs, Ruby convinced $lick to rap with him and $UICIDEBOY$ was born. Everything they did was gold and they have done it all themselves mainly self-producing until eventually signing up with G*59 Records (named after highway 59 that seperates the two areas from where they come from).
“Check out everyone” Ruby declares after signalling the house lights to be raised, “Holy shit there are people all the way down there too!” he exclaims pointing to the very back of the venue. Indeed he is right; every available space is taken up with a body.
“Can I get a shout out to Pouya?” $lick yells – the crowd screaming out his name. Pouya (aka Baby Bone) being a 19yr old rapper from Miami that is quickly climbing the ranks with his Stunna mixtape and tracks like ‘Get Buck’. He has also worked with $B on the song they play next that being ‘Runnin thru the 7th with my Woadies’ the juxtaposition of the sweet female backing vocals and hard rap making for the perfect storm. $UICIDEBOY$ take elements of glitch-trap, cloud-rap, hip-hop southern and punk and melt it all together to come up with something that is uniquely theirs. Just don’t call them horrorcore. Prolific recorders and known for their very short songs they have an amazing back catalogue, DIRTIERNASTIER$UICIDE being their 31st and most recent release since just 2014.
Ruby stalks the edge of the stage, constantly crouching down and pouring water into the mouths of the people in the front row. “Open that pit uuupp” he suddenly shouts at the audience pointing to the centre of the room. Immediately a chasm opens, a few bare chested guys standing in the centre of it challenging those around them. As quickly as it opens up the beat drops and the pit consumes itself again in a flurry of arms and torso’s. $B are obviously impressed as they jump around the stage, rapping harder and faster; leaning out and smacking the outstretched hands of fans. “Who wants some water? Open your mouths! Gotta stay hydrated, stay hydrated” Ruby’s concern for the audience commendable.
Ruby and $lick work well on stage together, often crossing back and forth and hanging off the corners; other times acting out their lyrics as they pretend to shoot each other in the head. “Y’all wanna go home? Y’all wanna go home ay? Hahaha I’m fucked up in my head that I’m in NZ right now” $lick holds his head and laughs flashing his grillz at the audience. $B ask everyone to hold their cell phones up in the air for more ballad style hits and then the next minute they are separating the venue straight down the middle telling each side to yell “fuck that side” while flipping the bird. Flipping the bird is a common theme throughout the night, especially when $B talk about guys that have been cheated on by their girl and vice versa. “Do you know what a circle pit is?” Ruby hollers at the audience “Yeah? I wanna see one” once again he gestures towards the middle of the room, although by this point he doesn’t even need to give instructions as the pit opens up and swallows itself continuously throughout the night.
A support crew member drags a small bar fridge into the middle of the stage so that each of the boys can take turns sitting on it as they sing ‘Kill Yourself Part III’, every single person in attendance singing the words of the intro. A confronting track it is also a form of therapy for many; looking down there are faces raised towards the ceiling, lost in the moment. At one point during the set Ruby buckles in half and death metal screams the lyrics into the mic, all those years of punk rock coming through as his vocals send delicious shivers down the spine. Then, all of a sudden, (some 30 songs later) we are at the end of the set; “This is our last song so make it count” Ruby tells the fans as they break into ‘Antarctica’. “Thank you all – you are all my brothers and sisters – love all of you guys” Ruby and $lick wave to the audience and walk off stage. Immediately chants of “encore” and “one more song” start being screamed out, blending together as the crowd’s desperation to not have to leave just yet builds. “Aright – guess we got one more!” Ruby announces as they stomp back out onto the stage and deliver their final track ‘Planting the Roots only to fall out the tree’.
The stunned looks on the faces of the patrons as they slowly shuffled out the door said it all. $UICIDEBOY$ being one of those acts that can only truly be experienced live and loud.
Were you there at Studio for this chaotic display of Hip Hop brilliance? Or have you seen $UICIDEBOY$ live somewhere else? Tell us about it in the comments below!
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