A tall, brolic white kid with full-sleeve tattoos, saggy jeans, baseball cap and gold grill in his mouth anxiously paces back and forth on a darkened sidewalk, looking for trouble. Seconds later, in a twisted bit of fate, he's knocked out cold on the concrete, the victim of a devastating right hand sucker punch and a punishing stomp to his face. His assailant runs off, camera phones pop out and a crowd of twenty-somethings silently wonder if he's dead. "Will this be on Worldstar tomorrow?" one mutters. People laugh, the kid finally wakes up and the party continues.
iLoveMakonnen Releases New 'Drink More Water 5' Mixtape
This is the deceptively-dangerous vibe that the accompanies an ILoveMakonnen concert. In October the Atlanta-bred hybrid singer/rapper was attacked on stage at the nightclub S.O.B.'s while performing his hit song "Tuesday," and though someone else was clearly the victim outside the venue Tuesday night -- the first stop on the Loudest of the Loud tour -- maybe the music had something to do with it. New York's Bowery Ballroom is a 575-person capacity venue and it can often seem even smaller than it actually is, because under the booming assault of skittering 808 drums and catchy shout-along choruses, it occasionally felt like it was being shook by the hand of God. ILoveMakonnen gets the people going.