In light of the recent election, the people of Oakland that weren’t protesting on the night of November 9th, gathered in The Fox Theater to hear Mac Miller on his Divine Feminine tour. The once child rapper of Pittsburgh gave us a glimpse into his most recent project, The Divine Feminine, which surfaced in late July.
Mac Miller is a performer. He understands how to play the crowd. Every song had adifferent feeling he wanted to evoke within the audience, and there was a beautiful sense of diversity within his set list. Each one of his albums has a thematic goal to it that widely differs from the previous one, and by alternating between albums, Miller was able to bring out his sensitive side while quickly switching back to foolishness and debauchery. Crossing between classics like “Nike’s on My Feet” and “Congratulations” back to back introduced an interesting dynamic persona of the man on stage that felt refreshing. He bordered on emulating some of the golden age performances of Slim Shady with hard cutting rhymes, rageful, sentimental lyrics, and a classic ballcap peering up just above his eyes.
Still, however, one could never really escape the reality outside the doors. Mac Miller spent the first interlude between songs expressing his condolences for the outcome of the US Presidential Election and assuring us all that he will no longer be performing his famous single “Donald Trump.” Of course, there’s no way that we can avoid the state of the country. Things were quite literally falling apart outside the doors of The Fox Theater. When coming out for his encore, Mac Miller announced to the crowd that there were violent riots along Telegraph Ave and that he was going to perform until it was safe to leave the venue. He pulled out freestyles, speeches, and mixtape classics to keep the night going. After another half hour, the audience was directed out into an alley and the night ended.
Mac Miller’s Divine Feminine tour will continue into the end of December as he travels from coast to coast, ending in Maryland just before Christmas.
Photos by Michelle Cho
Article by Arnav Chaturvedi