Denzel Curry at Uptown Theater, Kansas City MO (2025-04-28)

Things were getting mischievous in Kansas City as hard hip-hop rapper Denzel Curry brought his Mischievous South World Tour into midtown Kansas City at the Uptown, for a loaded and rowdy four-act evening of some of the best current underground rap today.

===

CLIP is aka Shania McBean known for her "sad girl rap" sound, blending elements of cloud rap, digicore, and alternative music. Known initially online with songs like "Sad B!tch" and "2 The FACE", she lists influences as diverse as Playboi Carti, The 1975, and Arctic Monkeys.

Her 2022 debut EP, Perception, was followed by a more confident EP, Appetizer the following year and a recent collab single with Ayesha Erotica on “pack u”.

She ended with her biggest hit-to-date and also played some yet-to-be-released songs during the short set; so has a lot more to say, with new music dropping soon.

====

454 is aka Willie Wilson from Florida (his sister raps as well under the alias Pig the Gemini), known for his distinctive psychedelic rap and plugg sound. He has released three mixtapes including last October’s “Casts of a Dreamer”, and has previously provided production on songs by Denzel Curry, Freddie Gibbs, Zelooperz, and Tony Shhnow.

His rap name actually comes from a Chevrolet big-block engine (454 horsepower) which is also a tribute to his car-tinkering father. As well as working on Curry’s 2022 album, “Melt My Eyez See Your Future” he opened on the following tour, along with Aminé.

His set started a little rockily, getting his own laptop set up and going over after each track to cue up the next, but after a few songs things were banging, and the crowd was really responding to the pitched-up tracks and rapid vocals.

====

Kenny Mason is aka Kenneth Green Jr. (we thought he used his real name) and is as skilled behind the scenes in the studio, as on stage performing with a style that is a fusion of grunge, hip hop, and even a bit of shoegaze.

His breakout single was 2019’s "Hit" in 2019 with the debut album, Angelic Hoodrat that would follow, and a sequel album was next. Latest releases have been last year’s “9” and “Angel Eyes”.

We knew the Atlanta rapper loves dogs so weren’t surprised to hear some barking sounds here and there and the set kept gaining momentum and may have hit its apex with 2022’s “Stick”, a collab on the Dreamville label with JID, J. Cole, and Sheck Wes.

===

Florida rapper Denzel Curry has been in the game for a decade-and-a-half now, still building an increasing fan base, and keeping those loyal who are already along for the ride. The new record is actually a mixtape with extra tracks turned into an album, “King of the Mischievous South Vol. 2” (out via PR / Loma Vista Recordings), which works as a sequel of sorts to the Volume 1 version he issued back in 2012 and features singles, “Hot One” and “Black Flag Freestyle”, both of which he performed live.

Unfortunately, due to schedules running a little late, we didn’t see Curry inviting up a female from the crowd during “Hot One” as he typically has been doing (and we lost the one-song encore as well, due to the main set ending just past the usual venue's curfew time.

Curry does care deeply for his fans, as evidenced by calling out too rough behavior in the pit and even issuing an online tutorial video clip on basic hygiene, which is both hilarious and appreciated.

Hands were up and heads bobbed for most of the set, with the center mosh pit increasing and decreasing, but usually in some kind of motion and spread out enough that it wasn’t elbow-to-elbow. There were a few brief taped segments between tracks, but it was mostly Curry going hard in da paint, stalking the stage from one end to the other and inciting the crowd, while managing the chaos.

We always love any on-stage collaborations (and are usually disappointed when it seems obvious and doesn’t happen) and Curry did not let us down, collaborating with Kenny Mason as he raced out on the later verses of “SKED” and with 454 on the slight trippy “ANOTHA LATE NIGHT.”

Though Kansas City didn’t get the usual encore song, 2018’s “CLOUT COBAIN | CLOUT CO13A1N” was enough of a grunge-laden banger, to put an exclamation on things and end a very full evening.

Denzel Curry and friends are only on tour for just over a week, before heading over the Atlantic for a Europe/UK summer run of shows, with a return in October for a Miami festival date, and what should be a memorable Halloween night show at Red Rocks in Colorado.

(click on any image to enlarge and to see in full)

DENZEL CURRY TOUR DATES Apr 30 The Complex Salt Lake City, UT May 2 Showbox SoDo Seattle, WA May 3 PNE Forum Vancouver, BC, Canada May 4 McMenamins Crystal Ballroom Portland, OR May 6 Fox Theater Oakland, CA May 7 Channel 24 Sacramento, CA May 9 Shrine Expo Hall Los Angeles, CA Jun 3 Melkweg Amsterdam, Netherlands Jun 5 Parc del Fòrum Barcelona, Spain Jun 9 Roxy Praha 1, Czechia Jun 10 Theaterfabrik München, Germany Jun 11 Huxleys Neue Welt Berlin, Germany Jun 12 Primavera Porto, Portugal Jun 13 Primavera Sound Porto, Portugal Jun 14 Outbreak Fest Sale, United Kingdom Jun 18 O2 Academy Brixton London, United Kingdom Jun 20 O2 Academy Glasgow Glasgow, United Kingdom Jun 21 Milton Keynes, United Kingdom Jun 23 The National Stadium Dublin, Ireland Jul 1 Zoom Frankfurt Frankfurt, Germany Jul 2 Carlswerk Victoria Köln, Germany Jul 3 Raiffeisen Halle im Gasometer Vienna, Austria Jul 7 Lukiškių kalėjimas 2.0 Vilnius, Liania Jul 9 Grosse Freiheit 36 Hamburg, Germany Jul 10 Openair Frauenfeld Frauenfeld, Switzerland Oct 17 III Points Miami, FL Oct 31 Red Rocks Amphitheatre Morrison, CO

KENNY MASON at Uptown Theater, Kansas City MO (2025-04-28)

454 at Uptown Theater, Kansas City MO (2025-04-28)

CLIP at Uptown Theater, Kansas City MO (2025-04-28)