NIGO has made lots of buddies all through his historic profession in music and trend, and people connections have culminated with I Know NIGO—a collaborative album that displays the multi-hyphenate’s elite ear and powerful relationships. These friendships had been on full show at ComplexCon on Sunday night time as NIGO, Teriyaki Boyz, the Clipse, Lil Uzi Vert, Kodak Black, and Ski Masks the Hunch God graced the stage collectively to carry out a few of Nigo’s album (and a few of their very own necessities) stay for the primary time.
“We’re making an attempt to place collectively a live performance now,” Steven Victor, who helped orchestrate the album, told us across the time the album was launched. Victor and NIGO had been profitable in doing that—which turned out to be ComplexCon—with a number of collaborators on the venture and others coming collectively to carry I Know NIGO to life.
Earlier than the night time of music acquired began, 1000’s poured into the Lengthy Seaside Conference Middle after an extended day of procuring and hypebeast-ing to get pleasure from a various lineup of artists. The power within the constructing felt like an enormous highschool reunion as the gang acquired more and more extra engaged as every new act got here on stage.
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NIGO linked up with a few of his buddies in rap to launch I Know NIGO again in March. With standout acts like Pharrell, ASAP Rocky, Teriyaki Boyz, Tyler, the Creator, Lil Uzi Vert, and extra concerned, the venture felt like a healthful Friendsgiving; the entire fam was again collectively. Tyler and Rocky hopped on the identical monitor for the primary time since their 2018 music “Potato Salad,” the Clipse joined forces as soon as extra on “Punch Bowl.” All in all, the album is particular as a result of NIGO naturally brings folks collectively; that chemistry carried over into the Conference Middle as effectively.
The present opened with a tribute sizzle reel of various culture-shifters discussing how NIGO impacted their life and the area all of us function in. “For me, there was nobody like NIGO,” the late Virgil Abloh says in one of many clips within the video, which additionally included phrases from ASAP Rocky, Pharrell, Pusha-T, and extra. “He helped us perceive how luxurious can relate to a brand new era.”
As soon as the reel concluded, “The Common” rose from the smoke behind his cloud-shaped DJ sales space and started spinning a few of his most traditional tracks. The Teriyaki Boyz then adopted him and delivered a few of their staples like “Tokyo Drift.”
After the seasoned group gave NIGO his flowers and left the stage, the producer continued to play tracks from his iconic discography earlier than Ski Masks the Hunch God took over. Although Ski Masks wasn’t part of the venture, he nonetheless made himself at house in the course of the present and carried out fan-favorite songs like “Catch Me Exterior” and even previewed a brand new monitor.
Pusha-T and No Malice arrived shortly after and placed on an absolute clinic in stay performing. Push kicked off the duo’s time by working among the most deadly cuts off his Grammy-nominated album, It’s Nearly Dry, together with “Brambleton,” “Open Air,” and “Hear Me Clearly” earlier than his brother joined him.
The Clipse haven’t misplaced a step regardless of not releasing an album collectively in over a decade. After celebrating 20 years of Lord Willin and one other venture hopefully on the way in which, the duo carried out “Punch Bowl” off I Know NIGO, in addition to traditional cuts for the OG followers like “What Occurred To That Man,” “Mr. Me Too,” and “Grindin,” after all—all whereas sweating profusely, as actual spitters do.
Their familial chemistry remains to be as palpable because it was when the group fashioned three many years in the past, with the 2 showmen bouncing off of one another and feeding the gang with their power and emphatic supply.
With the gang primed, Kodak Black bopped onto the stage and was within the temper to work together with the gang as he made positive each attendee within the viewers knew easy methods to “slide” to “Tremendous Gremlin.” Regardless of the stark distinction between Kodak and Clipse’s music, the transition from one to the opposite felt pure. Placing a brand new chain on mid-performance, Yak made positive everybody felt at house, even dapping up followers and signing issues that had been being tossed on stage—together with a $100 greenback invoice that somebody gave him for some motive.
I Know NIGO additionally featured a posthumous music from the late nice Pop Smoke, and NIGO and Steven Victor made positive to pay homage to the New York drill legend by taking part in a tribute video between performances. The video acted as Pop Smoke’s set, with the music movies for “Bought It On Me” and “Dior” taking part in in full on the massive display screen. “Lengthy Stay Pop Smoke” sprawled the large monitor behind the DJ sales space to finish the second.
Then, it was time to rock as Lil Uzi Vert electrified the ComplexCon stage. After working via his necessities like “XO Tour Lif3” and his I Know NIGO minimize “Heavy,” he shook the sector together with his new smash hit, “Simply Wanna Rock.” Uzi has clearly been spending time in Jersey as we heard the Philly rapper bust out his greatest Jersey membership dance strikes. He then ran the music again 3 times in a row like he was performing “N***as in Paris” on the Watch The Throne Tour. Uzi was dialed in and delivered probably the greatest performances of the night time—Jheri curl and all.
It’s normally tough to juggle the egos of a number of large artists on an album, not to mention have all of them carry out on the identical stage in sooner or later, however that’s considered one of NIGO’s superpowers. He’s capable of carry out the most effective in each artist he works with whereas nonetheless with the ability to stability their strengths and be sure that everybody will get their time within the solar. All through your entire I Know NIGO ComplexCon present, it by no means felt like one artist was overpowering one other with their successive performances. They had been all headliners tonight—and that’s, largely, due to NIGO. And after that present, it seems like we all know NIGO, too.
