Kamaiyah played Baby's, brought out YG at Warm Up, playing Central Park tonight

July 25, 2016

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Oakland rapper Kamaiyah landed in NYC a few days ago for three shows in support of her excellent debut mixtape, A Good Night In The Ghetto. I caught her first, a sold-out Pigeons and Planes-presented show at Baby’s All Right on Friday night (7/22). After her DJ got the packed crowd warmed up, Kamaiyah and her hype man came out to huge cheers, and that crowd’s enthusiasm never waned once. She played plenty of her mixtape, of course including its best known song “How Does It Feel” (which she ended with), and the place was dancing and singing to just about every song. It was a little disappointing that Kamaiyah’s pre-recorded vocal track was often louder than her own voice (and sometimes she just stopped rapping all together), but it was tough to deny the fun of hearing those songs in a packed room over a loud sound system.

The Baby’s show had direct support from local rapper Jimi Tents, who’s fresh off releasing his very solid 5 O’Clock Shadow, and his set was great too. He doesn’t have as many crowd-pleasers as Kamaiyah does, but he’s a very skilled MC and his set made that obvious.

After the Baby’s show, Kamaiyah played the daytime Warm Up at MoMA PS1 on Saturday (7/23), and brought her collaborator YG (videos below). She’s still in NYC for one more show TONIGHT (7/25) in Central Park: the stacked Mass Appeal BBQ with Ty Dolla $ign, Danny Brown, and many more.

Instagram videos of her Baby’s and Warm Up sets, below…

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