Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul, Jay Rock, Stalley at the Fillmore Miami Beach, September 27

Photo by Marta Xochilt Perez

Black Hippy boss Kendrick Lamar.

Kendrick Lamar
With Ab-Soul, Jay Rock, Stalley, Fly Union, and others
Fillmore Miami Beach
September 27, 2012

Better Than: Sitting at home reading other people's Tweets about BET's Music Matters Tour with Black Hippy boss Kendrick Lamar.

We arrived at the Fillmore Miami Beach about 30 minutes after the advertised start-time to find an incredibly punctual mass of sweaty and buzzed young adults. A duo called Fly Union was warming up the ready-to-rage crowd.

See also:
-Kendrick Lamar's Recipe: Black Hippy, Lady Gaga, "Pussy and Patron"
-Stalley on Sharing Beard Picks with Rick Ross, Beating 2 Chainz in One-on-One

One MC sounded like Jay-Z, the other Eminem, and the production occupied that curious crossover between Cash Money belligerence and neo-classical "old-school" Blackstar-style backpack rap.

Despite the openers' relative anonymity, especially compared to the rest of the acts on the tour, the party's revelers clearly asserted early in the night that it gave not a fuck about Thursdays or if they even knew who they were watching: These kids came to rage.

Photo by Marta Xochilt Perez

Fly Union jumping 'round.

In between acts, the majority of the crowd would remain parked in front of the stage, puffin' Swishers and chuggin' $11 plastic sippy cups of Rum Punch, while the host cracked rap jokes and demanded people follow him and his DJ on Twitter.

In fact, every single person that held a microphone last night not only plugged their digital avatars - a reasonable, contemporary means of promotion - but sternly demanded that the audience whip out their Everything Boxes and methodically subscribe to every last Tumblr or drip-drip-drop of Facebook diarrhea.

Photo by Marta Xochilt Perez

Suddenly, the lights started flickering, gunshots blasted and a siren whined. The lady who says "Maybach Music" came over the speakers and everyone on stage started freaking out like Rick Ross was about to show up. But it was Stalley.

Following two rappers with a highly similar style (the aforementioned non-Swag gangsta-pack fusion), Stalley's performance came off redundant and bare. The Bawse's protégé knows how to lay it down in the studio. But last night, we weren't quite convinced that the MC had separated himself from the mob when it comes to his live performance.

Photo by Marta Xochilt Perez

Stalley: Maybach Music Group's second-best beard.

Jay Rock was just as monotonous as Stalley. But Ab-Soul provided the evening's biggest deviation from form and one of the night's most engaging sets, looking like Snoop when he still went by Dogg, sippin' "Gin and Juice" with Kendrick Lamar's Grand Poobah sensei: Dr. Dre.