Redveil refuses to censor himself at Theatre Fairmount

I hold a belief that a good concert can solve any bad day, and Maryland-based rapper Redveil once again proved it. Because even after fumbling an engineering test, I still had a fantastic night. 

I’ve known about Redveil since he started making waves with his album Learn 2 Swim. I would get the chance to see him live when JPEGMAFIA brought him during Osheaga 2023 for their song “Kingdom Hearts Key”. He was only 19 at the time, and even in that modest appearance, I could see his passion. So I was definitely thrilled to see him perform a full gig almost 3 years later.   

I tend to go to concerts alone, but I always end up leaving with new friends. I find it really easy to bond with others over shared music tastes, which translates quite nicely into other shared interests. That night, I met a fellow Concordia student who told me that he was attending the concert as part of a course. It turns out one of the fine arts electives at Concordia is a course called “It’s Bigger Than Hip-Hop”, taught by Iraqi-Canadian rapper Yassin Alsalman, also known as Narcy. Their assignment was to write an analysis of tonight’s show, how lucky! My jealousy only grew when I heard they had an interview with Redveil just the day prior. 

As time passed, more and more students began to arrive, forming an important part of the crowd. But make no mistake, many diehard fans were there, holding signs of encouragement and later singing every lyric word-for-word.

The stage was set up to resemble a cozy living room, with a vinyl stand at the center and an alarm clock on the right. The alarm buzzing signalled the immediate segue into the first track of the show, “Time (a dream deferred)” which also serves as the intro song for Redveil's newest album, Sankofa. And what an energetic way to start! He was jumping around, kicking the air, all while maintaining his breath. And that fire did not stop at the first track. 

While Redveil is often labelled a conscious rapper, I felt that his performance didn’t carry that same mellowness that a lot of artists of the genre have. Despite playing slower and more reflective songs from his catalogue, he wasn’t afraid to perform more bouncy songs such as “Drown” and “Mars”. Throughout the course of the show, Redveil would keep that energy up. I find he has an ability to control the crowd whilst still being down-to-earth. At times, I did feel his energy was not totally reciprocated by us. Fortunately, he knew how to get the crowd going and made us mosh to one of his favourite songs, “black enuff”.  

Now, if you know Redveil, you also know he is very politically vocal. It’s best exemplified by how he ended his Camp Flog Gnaw 2023 set by displaying the names of hundreds of Palestinians who were killed before reaching the age of four. He would do the same that night, urging us to scream “Free Palestine” in unison. Under the echoes of our chants, a special guest rushed out of the back, the Concordia rapper-professor himself, Narcy. To my surprise, and the surprise of many of his students in the crowd, he still had rap in him. He and Redveil began exchanging bars about oppression and martyrdom, with Narcy even letting out a “Shoutout my class!”.
To conclude the show, Redveil decided to finally take a break from all the action and sit down to play the piano. Although I do feel singing isn’t his strong suit, the final song, “glimpse of you” is a touching piece about the pain of being close to someone with mental issues.

But of course, the crowd wanted more, and before we could all scream: “One more song!”, Redveil promptly jumped back to perform his politically engaged freestyle: “Stupid prizes” in which he expresses his raw frustrations at the state of the world and those in power. After the show, he stayed at the merch stand, interacting with fans and taking pictures. As I rode the metro home with my picture of Redveil and me, I knew that Narcy’s students would have a lot to write about.