A$AP Rocky’s concert wild for Thursday night

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A$AP Rocky brought his Mob with him Thursday Oct. 8 at Champions Square. Other acts for the concert included Vince Staples, Danny Brown and Tyler the Creator.

Michael Ossorguine, Staff Reporter

Lord Flacko of Harlem, New York brought a banger of a court with him to Champions Square on Thursday, Oct. 8.

The action was nonstop at A$AP Rocky’s headlining concert. The amorphous mob jumping to the heavy, bone-rattling bass never even thinned out, the trippy light direction never ceased and the prominent rappers each performed well to give their fans what they came for: a hazy mosh pit of dancing and jamming out to favorite songs in a grandiose venue.

The concert featured Long Beach native Vince Staples, Chicago party rapper Danny Brown, Tyler, The Creator from the Los Angeles hip-hop collective Odd Future and New York City “cloud rapper” A$AP Rocky. All delivered energetic acts, playing all their most recent hits, as well as some fan-favorites from previous records.

Danny Brown, known for his wild ecstasy and EDM-influenced party tracks kicked it off around 6:45 p.m., injecting the crowd with his signature energy using his weirdly-accented voice and impeccably crafted beats from his two major projects: “XXX” and “Old.” Closing his set with the psychedelic and club-friendly “Dip,” the concert was well underway and the anticipation for Tyler began to mount.

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The waits between the sets were sometimes longer than the acts, which left the crowd wanting more, but Tyler, The Creator made the wait worthwhile. Of the three acts, he was the artist who relied least on his hype-men, though some Odd Future buddies such as Taco were backing him up. Tyler’s aggressive and rebellious attitude kept the set lively, while relatively safe compared to the riotous affairs he is known for.

“Are y’all sweating back there?” Tyler said at the end of his set. “‘Cause I ain’t.”

Like Tyler’s studio productions, the shock value and wild abandon of his hits from “Goblin,” “Wolf,” and his most recent “Cherry Bomb” seemed effortlessly reproduced live.

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After another excruciatingly long wait, the man of the night took the stage with his typical swagger. Backed by his crew from A$AP Mob, Rocky spared no expense, playing songs from his critically acclaimed “At.Long.Last.A$AP.” Some of the highlights of the set were when he brought back the comical and infectious “Shabba,” from A$AP Ferg’s “Trap Lord” album, and A$AP Mob’s gritty urban single “Hella Hoes.”

Amplified by extravagant explosions of confetti, and some smoothly crafted visuals to back up the mood of his songs, A$AP (an acronym for “Always Strive And Prosper”) was at the top of his game. The action never subsided, even during a fitting sober moment for recently deceased crew member A$AP Yams. The partying of the mob reached a peak just as Rocky’s set was ending with Skrillex-produced “Wild For The Night.”

“My crew is going to be really mad at me for this, ’cause my time is running short, but I got time for one more,” Rocky said before diving into a final fan-favorite “Canal St.”

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