Yung Gravy returns to former dwelling state an enormous star in Milwaukee present

A good variety of famous musicians have called Wisconsin home. Les Paul. Al Jarreau. Steve Miller. Justin Vernon.

Matthew Hauri didn’t truly develop up in Wisconsin; he was born in Rochester, Minn. However the now 26-year-old was a pupil on the College of Wisconsin in Madison when he uploaded his first Yung Gravy EP to SoundCloud in 2016. A 12 months later, he signed a take care of Common Music Group’s Republic Information (the label behind Taylor Swift, the Weeknd and different A-listers), earlier than graduating in December 2017.

“I’m proud to have spent a part of my life in Wisconsin,” Gravy advised about 3,500 followers on the Rave’s Eagles Ballroom Saturday, a cease on his “Child Gravy” co-headlining tour with bbno$. He additionally revealed on the sold-out present that he as soon as lived within the Third Ward for about three months.

Yung Gravy performs at a sold-out Eagles Ballroom at the Rave in Milwaukee on Saturday, Nov. 26, 2022.

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Extra:What did Yung Gravy, a UW-Madison alum, wear when he performed in Wisconsin? Kwik Trip merch, of course.

Anybody who’s following Yung Gravy — some of the fashionable artists with Wisconsin ties proper now — would not be shocked to be taught he graduated with a advertising and marketing diploma. He could also be extra expert at self-promotion than he’s at making songs — producing headlines by taking TikTok star Addison Rae’s mother Sherri Easterling as his date to the MTV Video Music Awards in August, and amassing seven million TikTok followers and two million Instagram followers with tongue-in-cheek movies that play up his woman’s man persona with low-key, amusing absurdity.

Equally, his deliberately dumb music is well calculated to seize consideration, his vocal supply dry as firewood, and the humor of his gimmicky, goofy samples and punchlines burning brighter consequently. That was very true on the Eagles Ballroom Saturday.

For his breakout single “Mr. Clear” — which, by the way, samples “Mr. Sandman” from Wisconsin ’50s group the Chordettes — Gravy casually dropped ridiculous double-entendres as classic commercials for cleansing merchandise splashed on the screens behind him. (Alas, he did not carry out one other music with a Wisconsin tie, “Sugar Mama” from his newest album “Marvelous,” on Saturday. It could have been cool to see the visitor on the monitor, Milwaukee rapper IshDARR, make an look.)

Newer music “Contact Grass” positioned a Gravy U.S. Senate marketing campaign (with an Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez endorsement) as the last word flex, a ridiculous notion made much more laughable given his Miami-Vice-at-the-frat-house get-up Saturday.

And for his greatest hit, this 12 months’s “Betty (Get Cash)” — which owes numerous its enchantment to a pattern and interpolation of Rick Astley’s unabashedly tacky “By no means Gonna Give You Up” — Gravy and bbno$ launched faux greenback payments into the group, as did a number of girls up within the ballroom’s balcony.

Nothing about Child could be taken significantly — which, given these critical instances, has discovered widespread enchantment. Even when it got here time to make sure the packed crowd keep hydrated, Gravy saved the temper gentle, dropping the preposterous rhymes to his flirty “Charlene” as he, safety and members of his group tossed out water bottles. (He additionally practically negated the aim, encouraging everybody to spray the remaining water round for subsequent music “Dancing within the Rain.”)

And the between-song moments Saturday appeared simply as essential to Gravy because the songs themselves, designed to create social media chatter and video sharing. He incessantly showcased his favorites among the many bras tossed on stage, went into the group at hand out roses, and autographed packing containers of Lunchables that he threw out to followers.

Time will inform how precious these autographs will turn into, if Gravy can keep the momentum and proceed rising the fan base. (Even the artist Gravy is clearly emulating, Lil Dicky, finally pivoted to TV with the well-acclaimed FXX comedy sequence “Dave.”)

However Saturday’s present additionally made it clear that Gravy’s recognition will prolong past these Lunchables’ sell-by dates.

5 takeaways from Yung Gravy’s Milwaukee present, together with co-headliner bbno$; openers Terror Reid, DJ Tiiiiiiiiiip

Yung Gravy’s rising recognition, particularly in his sort-of dwelling state, naturally helped promote numerous tickets for Saturday’s present. However the truth that fellow tongue-in-cheek rapper and frequent collaborator bbno$ (pronounced “Child no cash”) was co-headlining was a robust promoting level as nicely. The 2 shared the stage at first, center and finish of the hour-and-50-minute set, with the 2 every holding their very own on two events (for bbno$, 10 songs whole). The power by no means faltered when Yung Gravy left the stage. Actually, bbno$ (hailing from Vancouver, and enjoying his first Milwaukee present) was the higher performer Saturday, buying and selling Gravy’s straight-man swagger for animated geekiness, and backed by a extra fascinating visible aesthetic (animated sketches versus Gravy’s jittery previous film clips and commercials). The between-song comedy bits had been funnier, too, from conducting crowd screams over the “Jurassic Park” theme music to a studying of a spaghetti recipe from his personal cookbook that elicited louder cheers with every talked about ingredient. (He finally gave it to a fan, who in flip gave the duo a child doll.) And one surprisingly tender broken-hearted ballad, “Assist Herself” (set to animation impressed by Pablo Picasso’s “The Previous Guitarist”) recommended bbno$ has the expertise to strive one thing new ought to his wink-and-nudge hip-hop ever lose steam (and its following).
Few issues are extra intimidating for an opener than listening to individuals within the crowd cheering the headliner’s title. However when cries for “Gravy” began rising from the group throughout Terror Reid’s set, the opener performed it cool, encouraging extra individuals to hitch the mantra. To be truthful, Reid (actual title Tanner Petulla) didn’t deserve the “get off the stage” shade, however he wasn’t all that exceptional both. From the beats to the backward baseball cap he wore Saturday, he was channeling early Eminem vibes — minus the cutting-edge darkness, humor and move (and, fortunately, the homophobia). There aren’t many new rappers reflecting that aesthetic proper now, which may benefit Reid as soon as nostalgia for that period roars in. If not, Reid can give attention to the sound that began his profession, dubstep, as EDM star Getter.
Too usually, DJ units come throughout as hole time-fillers, however Yung Gravy and bbno$’s DJ, DJ Tiiiiiiiiiip, undoubtedly deserves a shout-out. His was the closest I’ve seen a DJ set come to the enjoyable, chaotic randomness of scrolling by way of TikTok. Welcoming reside options over Instagram, and at one level flashing cute photos of raccoons kissing on the massive screens, Tiiiiiiiiiip (Taylor Madrigal, from Minneapolis) touched on the whole lot from Paramore’s “Distress Enterprise” to Gotye’s “Anyone That I Used to Know” to John Denver’s “Take Me Residence, Nation Roads,” and the excessive schoolers and early twenty-somethings passionately sang alongside to all of it.
I used to be not in the least shocked to see a celebration projector shining rainbow-color lights from the within of Yung Gravy and bbno$’s tour bus within the Rave parking zone.
The vacation decorations are up on the Rave — however not the entire Halloween decorations are down, which provides the venue a enjoyable, creepy Christmas vibe, from eerie, animatronic children on a see-saw in entrance of a Christmas tree, to an enormous clown on the balcony overlooking the entrance entrance holding a gift.