Fangirling on a Friday with Jack Harlow

The week was over and it was finally Friday night. Instead of going to a house party, frat house, or SF club, my two friends and I decided to send Oakland. My roommate had gone to The New Parish the week before to see Omar Apollo and raved about the intimacy of the venue. I was excited, as my trek to the spot was to see up-and-coming rapper Jack Harlow. I can’t even remember how I discovered him, it was sometime last year I think he popped up on my Spotify after my queue had finished. I soon fell hard fangirling over him, and mutual love for him solidified my friendship with a girl I went with to the show. We bought our tickets during the summer, and created extensive plans to interview Jack and make him think we were cool enough to invite to his after-party. My friend writes for Spoon, the food magazine, and so during our hypothetical interview we were going to rate a bunch of munchie snacks. Our extensive plan, however, was thrown awry when my friend’s chemistry professor decided to have a 7-9 pm midterm right during Jack Harlow’s show. 

My +1 for the night was B-Side photographer Alisha Pandya, and so we made the trip to Oakland together while our third friend killed her chemistry test. We arrived in the middle of the opener’s set. There was a curling line outside of the venue, and I’ve never felt more intimidated by the outfits of others in the crowd. We finally walked inside the venue and I immediately loved it for its little courtyard. Then, I was happy to see that my roommate was right — the venue has a small floor area, but is encircled by a balcony above for more people to watch. We were immediately hit by the passion of the night. The opener, ALLBLACK, is an Oakland native who continuously brought fellow Bay Area rappers up on stage with him, such as P-Lo. The opening act brought a lot of energy to the stage, and ALLBLACK would engage with the crowd through the locals he personally knew. I’ve experienced many poor openers, but ALLBLACK had Alisha and I dancing, singing along to familiar songs he’d cover. He would often lead “Jack Harlow” chants to hype the crowd up for the main show, successfully fulfilling the role of an opener. 

Soon after ALLBLACK, Jack Harlow stepped on stage with a look of astonishment and excitement. Although a relatively small venue, I think the feeling of selling out a crowd must have hit him hard. From Louisville, Kentucky, the rapper has spent the past two years in Atlanta developing his style and growing around the influence of Diddy and other rappers. The show incorporated a good mix from his past two albums, Loose (2018) and his latest release Confetti (2019). Of course, he performed “Thru the Night,” his most popular song featuring Bryson Tiller who was unfortunately not present at the show. During his slower song, “Rain,” he brought out a stool to sit on that he as he dove into lyrics about his paternal relationship. He seemed to really connect with the crowd, seeing how excited everyone got when he played his older songs “Sylvia” and “Cody Banks.” The crowd knew all his lyrics, which he noted and used to fuel him back into classics such as “Sundown.” 

Jack Harlow brought together people of all backgrounds, and waiting in line I was surprised that I felt young for the crowd. After my friend Ubered from VLSB to The New Parish after her test, she noted how the crowd was either full of teenage girls heart-throbbing for him, or mid-20 year olds who probably had a social connection to him of some sort. The icons of the night, however, were these two 65+ year old couples observing from the balcony right above the stage. With smiles plastered on their faces from ALLBLACK to Jack Harlow, I found inspiration for date nights when I’m a retired grandmother. I was thoroughly pleased with the show, and although our interview plan did not work out, I left feeling like I’d been given everything out of the show I could’ve asked for. 

Although Jack Harlow has some songs I will forever hold close to my heart, much of his music sounds relatively similar. Although what he’s producing is different than something like YBN Cordae’s A Lost Boy (2019) album, with Cordae’s album I felt especially moved by how well it exposed his talent as an artist and ability to bring together multiple sounds and moods into one album. While I think Harlow attempted to do this by incorporating slower songs such as “River Road” with harder songs like “Rotten” together on Confetti, he needs to polish his sound. Moving to Atlanta was a big move for Harlow, I believe, as it’s allowed for him to experiment more with his music and meet artists such as Diddy who should help guide him through the process.  I believe Harlow needs to be featured by other, bigger artists to get more exposure. A good first step is having Bryson Tiller on his song, and only time will tell if he continues to make such connections to continue his development.

Article by Claire Winthrop

Photos by Alisha Pandya