IN PICS: J.I.D. @ O2 Manchester/Birmingham
The start of the month saw ATL rapper, J.I.D begin the UK leg of his 'Catch Me If You Can’ Euro tour, which saw 7 dates (including Dublin, Ireland) starting in Bristol before making his way throughout the British Isles and continuing onto the rest of Europe.
Coming out of the city that gave birth to legends such as Future, Young Thug & Gucci Mane, new generation talent like Lil Baby, 21 Savage and The Migos to name a few, Atlanta certainly has no shortage of talent and yet we've seen J.I.D pave his own unique path into stardom from humble beginnings right back in 2010 which saw the release off his debut mixtape, ‘Cakewalk’, before he’d go onto to form Hip-Hop collective ’Spillage Village’ along with Earthgang, Hollywood JB & JordxnBryant.
We’d see several more projects throughout the coming years before the release of his debut album, ‘The Never Story’ back in 2017 which was released under no other than J.Cole’s own Dreamville label. Ever since, J.I.D has gained international recognition for his rap artistry, surprising many with his ability to fuse conscious rap with the many harsh realities that his peers in society face on a daily basis, meanwhile still maintaining that mainstream appeal that you could hear in a club or on the radio.
Before hitting UK soil, the ATL rapper had already played 47 North America dates and is currently continuing his tour throughout Europe and eventually Australia & New Zealand in the new year - talk about ‘Catch Me If You Can’ - if this doesn’t prove the buzz that the Atlanta rapper is carrying then we’re not sure what does
Last week, we were fortunate enough to capture the events of two of his UK shows at the O2 Ritz in Manchester & the O2 Institute in Birmingham.
Both shows were packed with a vibrant crowd, effortlessly expressing their love and passion for the music as they chanted along to hits such as ’Never’, ‘Off Deez’ (featuring J.Cole), tracks from his most recent album ‘DiCaprio 2’ and he even some unreleased tracks, in which he asked fans to refrain from filming, these should hopefully bless our streaming platforms very soon.
Showing love for his city, along for the ride and supporting J.I.D on his Europe tour we see 18 year old, Domani, son to Atlanta rap legend, T.I & East Atlanta rapper, Grip, who treated the crowd with tracks from his most recent album ‘Snubnose’.
Production at both shows was certainly a sight for sore eyes. Amongst vibrant colours we see lights made out to look like stars and a moon with the words ‘East Atlanta Playboy’, quoted from the track ‘Off Deez’ - also down the front, a light board on the DJ stand quotes the words “DiCaprio 2, a film written by J.I.D” - DiCaprio 2 of course being the forefront of the tour.
Following his phenomenal, hour long sets, J.I.D took the time to greeting fans and signing their merchandise, shoes, tickets, along with everything else before making his way to the tour bus where he took the time to make sure everybody could get a photo with him - we saw fellow Dreamville rap-duo, Earthgang do the same thing after their show at Electric Brixton a few months back - it goes without saying that Dreamville is definitely for the fans.
We’d like to thank the guys at Live Nation UK for arranging this opportunity for us and invite you to indulge in some of our favourite photos from both shows by photographer Dan Griffiths | Visualati.
