Last night, Riz La Vie made a pitstop to Buffalo’s The Rec Room on his The Dinner Date Tour bringing along whiterosemoxie as a special guest and Buffalo’s own, Jaali Cypher.
In a world of digitalized music, of autotune and mixing and mastering of the sorts — today, you never know an artist’s true sound until you see them live.
And, I can say that all of the artists that performed last night exceeded my expectations.
First up was Buffalo native, Jaali Cypher. The up-and-coming rapper grew up listening to a variety of genres like heavy metal, hip-hop & pop. His music bio states that he ‘writes from the heart,’ with lyrics that bring light to real-life experiences on topics like overcoming trauma and fighting poverty.
Cypher has been featured on a number of works including Mark L33’s “Veinz” and ANICA’s “Vacation,” but is an independent artist in his own right, diving into music around the age of 13 and starting as a frontman for a heavy metal band at the age of 14.
Today, the influence of heavy metal hovers within his music as he intertwines the likes of hip-hop and pop. On stage, you can tell how passionate he is about his music, about his message. He’s a natural performer that knows how to get the audiences attention. Despite a smaller attendance at The Rec Room, Cypher managed to stage dive and start a mini-mosh pit. And, if that doesn’t get the party started, I’m not sure what would.
Whiterosemoxie’s performance soon followed. The artist found his way into music around the age of eight after suffering from a near-tragic asthma attack leaving him in a coma for a few days.
In a recent interview with DJBOOTH, the rapper comments, ’I never actually wrote music or anything before, but as soon as I woke up from that coma, I just wanted to make music.’
Although moxie is only 19 years old, his talent is raw and iconic. His on-stage energy is invigorating, especially when he brings in his hype crew to perform alongside him. During last night’s performance, moxie was sure to perform top tracks like “Trix” and “whitegold.”
“You can roll through / Just for the night though / Careful when I move / Know that they might fold.”
The rapper recently released his 12-song EP titled Trojan right before heading out on tour with Riz La Vie. Take a listen to the body of work here.
Last, but not least, we have Riz La Vie. La Vie started his set with “Darling” and soon performed hits like “Go Again,” and “Tesla.” A fan in the crowd tells me that he became a started listening to La Vie’s music during the pandemic and hasn’t stopped since. Another fan chimed in later saying that they drove almost 3 hours to see La Vie’s performance that night.
During his set, La Vie was sweet enough to take a break from the music, walk the floor and have a seat on stage to express his gratitude for his fans and thank them for coming. His positive vibes were contagious and his sound felt undiscovered.
To close out the show, La Vie played his infamous “Napkins,” a song that currently has over thirty-two million streams on Spotify. The crowd was also lucky enough to get a performance of a song dropped just that day known as “Hot Rod.”
On the song, La Vie comments, “[We] stacked ad-libs in crazy ways and made it textural in a lot of different ways… it felt really fun to explore.”
Whether you’ve followed La Vie in the past or are just following his music, you’ll quickly learn that soul & spirituality play a key role in this performer’s presence on and off the stage. His lyrics run deep — taking listeners to places of self-discovery and self-worth. His recent showcase at Lollapalooza and future performance at The Governor’s Ball are only glimpses of what this artist is capable of.
Stay tuned for our exclusive interview with Riz La Vie coming soon. In the meantime, be sure to take a listen to all of last night’s performers.
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Article Written By: Ashley F.
