Not to be mistaken with your favorite Thanksgiving food, Yung Gravy is a rapper whose catchy short songs wowed high schoolers in 2017. His songs often feature samples of early music like his most widely known song “Mr. Clean” which samples the song “Mr. Sandman” by The Chordettes.

On February 3, Yung Gravy co-headlined a show at Stage AE with DJ Dillon Francis. The show featured opening act DJs Selecta and Top Gun along with a set from Yung Gravy’s DJ, DJ Tiiiiiiiiiip. The show was amazing, there is no denying that. However, by saying the show is amazing, I mean just Yung Gravy and DJ Tiiiiiiiiiip.

The night opened with DJ Selecta, who for some reason, cannot make a good beat drop. Every time he would build up the beat, the drop would be disappointing and had a discount from the build-up. Another issue with Selecta is that one of the most important jobs that a DJ has is to read the crowd. While a lot of DJ material is decided prior to the show, if a crowd is really vibing with a song, you don’t change it. But in Selecta’s mind, whenever the crowd is into a song is apparently whenever you cut the song off.

After that trainwreck, I had hope that the next DJ would actually be able to make a beat drop. With Top Gun, his overall DJ skills were better but there was the same issue that he wasn’t paying attention to the crowd. Whenever he started to play “Mr. Brightside” by The Killers which the previous DJ had played, the entire crowd groaned and didn’t even sing along. Instead of changing that song, he let it play almost all the way through as the crowd just stood there.

But then, finally, the crowd’s saving grace, DJ Tiiiiiiiiiip appeared with his pants sagging and Gucci backpack filled with Zebra Cakes. I have never seen a DJ ever get a crowd so hyped up. Before his set even began he had the crowd jumping and responding to his every word. His set was even better than his crowd presence. Who would’ve thought that basic school dance music is the perfect music for a Yung Gravy crowd? Apparently, DJ Tiiiiiiiiiip knows this because he had the crowd jumping and screaming to “Take On Me” as he and the photographer danced up by the DJ table. I have never had more fun than the moment whenever I was screaming along to “You’re The One That I Want” from Grease with a bunch of rap fans.

I don’t know if this was intended but the fact that the first two DJs were terrible and then right before Yung Gravy’s set everyone got into the show and it made his set all the better. The interesting thing about Yung Gravy is that he looks like just a regular guy you’d see on the street. However he is one of the most entertaining artists I’ve ever seen live. His voice is so smooth even live and his stage presence controls the every whim of the crowd.

The only complaint there is about Yung Gravy’s set is that the mixing between his vocals and the music wasn’t great. Often times his voice was overshadowed by his backing track played by his DJ. But he made up for this by keeping his energy up the entire time. The show was even better because he would always interact with the audience. Whether this was talking to audience members, giving out water bottles, throwing cereal into the crowd (yes I ended up with five pieces of cereal in my shirt), and even handing out roses to those at the barricade, he made sure to keep the audiences’ eyes on him.

Yung Gravy played a number of his top hits like “Mr. Clean,” “Magic,” and “Whip a Tesla” but he also played some songs that aren’t normally on his set since they ended up with extra set time. A lot of these songs were old tracks that he doesn’t normally get to play out live. It was a memorable show that had me engaged fully, the entire time.

However, a set that didn’t have me engaged was Francis’ which relied heavily on strobe lights for the entire hour. Francis played his DJ set after Yung Gravy and Yung Gravy was to return after Francis’ set to play some unreleased music with him. So, if you’re a fan of Yung Gravy, looks like you’re sitting through an hour DJ set that consists mostly of EDM music.

Francis is pretty mediocre when it comes to DJing, he plays a number of odd remixes and songs that basically no one knows. Not to mention, Francis’ fans are some of the meanest concert go-ers I’ve ever met. They kept yelling at people near the barricade for not dancing and yelling to Francis’ set. They went as far as to bully these people and tried to start confrontations that didn’t need to happen. I try not to judge a musician by their fans but when it comes to concerts, that’s a main factor of how the show plays out.

But through the bad fans, terrible strobes, and loud beat drops, it was worth it to see Yung Gravy come back and play through his new EP with Francis titled, “Cake and Cognac” that actually combines their two styles really well.

While the entirety of the show had its ups and downs, Yung Gravy’s set did not disappoint and he truly saved the entire show along with his DJ Tiiiiiiiiiip. This man just has a way with winning the audience over through his charm that puts fans in a trance, it’s truly a sight to see. Needless to say, while Yung Gravy’s overall relevance may have gone down on the music charts, he hasn’t lost the hold on fans that he’s had since 2017.