By Imani Wj Wright
Special to the AFRO
Downtown Silver Spring had some extra electricity in the air as Chicago native, G Herbo, took to the stage at The Fillmore. This was G Herbo’s third stop on his Monster Energy Outbreak Tour.
Monster Energy started their Outbreak Tours in 2011, focusing on artists who are quickly rising in popularity. G Herbo’s latest album “25” charted at No. 5 on Billboard.
“We had a great experience working with G Herbo for our Monster Energy Live On Location virtual series last year, and we’re excited about the idea of translating virtual to the stage in front of sold-out crowds,” said Monster Energy Outbreak Tour Founder/Producer Steve Glazer.
A line wrapped around the venue several times as fans waited their turn for entry. Even through the cold weather and masked up faces, one could feel and hear the excitement exuding from the eager crowd. Once the line began to move, the floor started to fill up quickly. From just a glance, the place seemed to be sold out.
Several openers included Chicago native, Lil Zay Osama and Los Angeles native, Shaun Sloan, who added their own particular style and soundscape to the atmosphere.
Sloan slowed things down a bit as his music was introspective, heartfelt, and focused on struggle. He was very transparent and vulnerable while taking moments to speak to the audience. Sloan described his near death experiences with Sickle Cell Anemia, and some of the hardships he experienced back home in Los Angeles. This all seemed to reciprocate with the crowd as he received a grand applause from the audience as his set concluded.
G Herbo made a grand entrance, as he came rising from the floor through smoke and a brightly lit Monster Energy logo. It would be an understatement to say the crowd “went crazy.” The screams coming from the crowd were deafening for what seemed to be an eternity. The moment was quite captivating. G Herbo performed for about an hour with very few breaks in between. His dedicated fan base didn’t seem to miss a beat either. As he performed his top hits, you could hear what seemed to be a majority of the audience rapping with the artist word for word.
With a year of no performances and face to face interactions due to COVID-19, the {AFRO} had a chance to ask G Herbo about his thoughts on performing.
“Engaging with your audience is super important because you never know. I’m so humble and modest, I don’t know who really listens to my music for real. Everything I do is genuine,” G Herbo said. “I just try to be myself and speak through my music, so you never know how many relate to you until you’re actually in front of them,” said the platinum selling artist.
He also discussed the significance of his new album, “25.”
“The importance of ‘25’ is the importance of being alive. Being alive and reaching milestones, and goals that I set for myself that I really didn’t see myself accomplishing, and achieving a lot of things that I achieved at a young age- and I still have so much more to go,” G Herbo explained.
G Herbo’s 25 is available on all streaming platforms.
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