Concert Review: Denzel Curry Melts Eyez at 713 Music Hall

By Kenlie Golleher
Rap Music Director

Earlier this year, Florida rapper Denzel Curry released his highly anticipated fifth studio album Melt My Eyez See Your Future, an introspective record that Curry himself described as “the end of an era”. Curry finds himself moving past his previous alter egos and bodies of work and instead embraces his authentic self. “I’m not trying to be Zeltron. I’m not trying to be Aquarius Killa. I’m not trying to be Raven Miyagi,” said Curry. “I’m not trying to be any of those personalities or any of those people. I’m Denzel. I’m a human being. I have feelings.” This record showed a more reflective and mellow side of Curry, proving his versatility as an artist.

After the album dropped, Curry soon released tour dates for his Melt My Eyez USA 2022 Tour with supporting acts redveil, Skiifall, and PlayThatBoiZay. Originally, Atlanta-rapper Kenny Mason was included in Curry’s supporting acts lineup for this tour before having to ultimately pull out. This was devastating news to me since Mason was honestly the most significant catalyst in my decision to finalize my purchase of these tickets, but I still had a blast, nonetheless.

The night’s first opener was PlayThatBoyZai, a Florida rapper that Curry has been working with and promoting since 2019. I was unfamiliar with his work prior to this show, but I really enjoyed the energy he brought with his set. His high energy set the tone for how the rest of the night was going to go. Although this was the first time many of us in the audience had heard of him, he made sure to keep everyone moving and cheering throughout the whole set and everyone seemed to enjoy him, including myself.

The second act of the night was Skiifall, a Montreal-based rapper that is known for his drill-infused hip-hop beats and Caribbean-esque flow. Although I’m not the biggest fan of drill, I still enjoyed what he had to offer. He was very engaged with the crowd the whole time he was on stage which is what made his set fun and energetic.

The last supportive act to perform was redveil, an 18-year-old rapper-producer from Maryland that has been making waves in the hip-hop scene for the past few years. He was who I was most excited about on the supportive acts lineup because I actively listen to his music and keep tabs on projects he’s working on.

With only a few years in the game, he has already accumulated over 1 million monthly listeners on Spotify, proving himself to be a rising force with a fanbase growing in numbers by the day. The release of his sophomore album earlier this year, learn 2 swim, garnered a lot of praise from the hip-hop community and was on my list of top hip-hop records that have come out this year. If there are any up-and-coming rappers that you want to keep on your radar, redveil is definitely someone to look out for.

After these three acts, it was finally time for Curry to come out. The lights dimmed low, and the crowd’s energy raised high. Chants of “Denzel! Denzel! Denzel!” filled the auditorium as “Melt Session #1”, the intro track off Curry’s latest album, started playing. Curry performed about three more tracks from that album before he threw it back to his first album, Imperial. He continued to pull fan-favorite tracks from his catalog which kept the crowd moshing and dancing throughout the whole duration of his performance.

Towards the end, he teased a DJ Screw tribute, but unfortunately, a fight broke out in the audience and he decided to scratch that and instead perform “Diet”, which is usually his encore track. While it seemed the concert ended on a sour note, Curry proceeded to pull two fans from the audience to do this funny “super Saiyan charge up” skit with him for the crowd. This was a perfectly in-character ending to a Denzel Curry concert, and it definitely helped to raise the energy back up.

Another notable and admiral point about Curry is that he is very attentive to crowd safety. During the first song of his set, someone passed out and he immediately stopped the performance until they got the proper help that they needed. He was also quick to try to stop the fight that occurred towards the end of the show.

I have to say this was a concert unlike any other I’ve been to. The crowd was super hype and energetic and it seemed like most of the fans there were truly devout seeing as though they knew almost all the lyrics to the songs he performed. The love that the fans emit for Curry is so deserved. Everything about him was genuine and passionate and it was truly an honor to hear and see him perform live.

Featured Image by Kenlie Golleher.