Written by Dominic LaFratta, Photos by Max Ketterer

We Only Talk About Real Shit When We’re Fucked Up Tour

As bright white lights danced off the hanging disco ball about the concert venue, and an angelic voice operatically anointed the audience, Bas emerged onto the stage with a presence of pure grandeur. The crowd erupted. “I think I made it.”

On March 17th, 2024, I had the privilege of catching Bas on his “We Only Talk About Real Shit When We’re Fucked Up” tour (which shares the same name to his latest record from December of last year) in Seattle at the concert venue Neumos. My experience with Bas’ music dates back roughly six years. As for many others, Bas first popped onto my radar after the release of his hit song “Tribe” with J. Cole back in 2018. I can vividly recall watching the music video for that song while sitting on my bed back home in Hawaii. I then remember a few days when his third full-length record dropped, Milky Way. Songs like “Icarus” and “Boca Raton” were a part of the soundtrack to my drives to and from high school. 

A few months later, after the release of Milky Way, I remember the promotion for the recording sessions of what would be Dreamville’s (the record label Bas is signed to) compilation album, Revenge Of The Dreamers III, circulating around the internet. I can recall my anticipation for the music from those sessions. I would eagerly replay snippets from various Dreamville artist’s shows and social media accounts. Eventually, the first two singles from Revenge Of The Dreamers III were released, one being “Down Bad” which features an iconic verse from Bas. And, who can forget another classic off of that record, “Costa Rica”, which also features Bas.  

With a few extended plays (EPs) later, (I constantly return to “Jollof Rice,” “Fried Rice”, “[Admire Her]” among others), Bas has stayed relatively present within my playlists. 

But, somehow I missed the release We Only Talk About Real Shit When We’re Fucked Up. Again, the project was released in December of last year, during the dead period of music releases, due to the holiday seasons. As a self-glorified music encyclopedia (at least, I’m working on it), I’m surprised this one totally flew by me. 

That was until I received the opportunity to attend Bas’ show in March. With much anticipation, I deep dove Bas’ entire discography, consuming the new album, refalling in love with cuts on Milky Way, and even checking out his older material of Too High To Riot and Last Winter. The binge-listening rekindled a love for many songs I hadn’t heard in awhile, exposed me to some new favorites, and absolutely cranked my anticipation up to eleven.

Max Ketterer and I arrived at Neumos around 7:40 p.m., twenty minutes or so before the first opener was set to begin. This was my first time at Neumos, and certainly not my last. The venue offers a wonderful and diverse experience for all. There is a general admissions section that leads right up to the stage, and a 21+ area with second floor bar on it in which performances can be viewed from above. And, of course, there is a designated merchandise area as well where Bas sold vinyls of his newest record, hoodies, and long and short sleeve shirts.  

As the audience slowly packed in, the first opener, a Sudanese rapper who goes by the name Hoosh began his set. I wasn’t familiar with Hoosh’s music, or frankly any of the other openers prior to this show, but they all were impressive in their own respective way. First and foremost, I want to give the utmost credit to Hoosh for his stage presence. He had an innate ability to engage with the audience through participatory actions (i.e. call and response or “Seattle, make some noise”). Being the first opener is certainly no easy task, but his natural showmanship won the crowd over pretty instantaneously. Even though his music is very melodic and lofi, he brought a lot of charisma and passion to his performance which, again, hooked the audience in and got the energy for the evening going. 

Hoosh’s set lasted about twenty to twenty five minutes. After just a few minutes of cooling down from the opening set, the East Charlotte rapper, Reuben Vincent, erupted onto the stage right as his DJ hit play on the first song. Reuben Vincent had a different approach than Hoosh to warming up the crowd. This energy was practically relentless, and I loved every second of it. In general, Vincent’s music is more hard hitting than Hoosh’s, yet there was still a cohesiveness to these two acts being back-to-back. Reuben Vincent offered and was representative of the energetic high that would come about throughout the evening, and Hoosh more so established the atmosphere and the vibes of the concert. The third and final opener fit perfectly in the space between the two.

The final opener for Bas was the South African star, Blxckie. By way of Bas’ new record, I had technically heard some of Blxckie’s music before as he is featured on the song “U-Turn.” Blxckie brought an additional third sound to the lineup of openers. As Blxckie is from South Africa, much of his music contains afrobeats and overall afro influence. While there were some African elements to Hoosh’s music, Blxckie’s sound brought a greater sense of musical diversity. This was a very calculated choice by Bas. Part of the inspiration for Bas’ latest record, We Only Talk About Real Shit When We’re Fucked Up was that he had spent the majority of 2022 traveling across the world, taking in a broad range of musical influences. So, with such a diversity of opening artists, Bas did an effective job at establishing a representative mood and tone that inspired, and is present on, his newest record. It was great to experience an artist like Blxckie who is huge in his native country, but not yet as big in the United States. 

With the conclusion of Blxckie’s set, the audience was packed, full of anticipation for Basie (as he’s also called) to grace the stage. 

Where was I earlier…The crowd erupted as Bas emerged onto the stage with presence of grandiosity and showmanship as the introduction to his latest album, “Light My Soul,” began to play. I could already tell we had a hell of a show on our hands. After the conclusion of his first song, and multiple times throughout the performance, Bas engaged with the audience. I’ve been to shows in the past where the artist doesn’t banter or engage much with the audience at all, so I really appreciated this quality of Bas’ showmanship. It made the exchange of the energy that much greater. So, after his immediate introduction with “Seattle!!!” Bas jumped into a song off of his new record called “Home Alone” which features J. Cole. This was only the beginning. 

I really have to hand it to Bas, his team, and the production team and quality of Neumos. First and foremost, the lightning control of the evening was top notch and really enunciated the mood of each song. One of the more notable instances of this was during Bas’ song “Choppas,” which is also off of his latest record. In all transparency, this wasn’t one of my favorite cuts when I was listening through the album. However, in the live setting, “Choppas” had a whole new life to it. The chorus of this song goes “Round we go like the helicopter”, and during this part, dark blue lights would spin around the venue at the exact cadence of the song’s hook. It was immaculate. 

Another aspect of Bas’ show I absolutely loved was the accompanying musicians he had with him. In his band was a background vocalist, a keyboard player, DJ, and a guitar player. It was beyond evident that the show was well rehearsed, and the blending of live instruments with the recorded tracks brought a greater spirit to the songs and overall performance. The way the band and Bas all interacted added an additional entertainment quality to performance. At one point, the keyboardist was soloing and Bas was joking with him that he must be tripping because of how beautiful the playing was. Their joking with each other complimented the already feel-good vibe of the evening. 

The third overall praise I want to give to Bas was the fact that he hardly used background vocals. It is common in hip-hop performances nowadays for people to rap/sing over their recorded vocals, but I personally do not like that, and I don’t think it sounds good (unless they’re using it occasionally and more in a supporting way). Bas was rapping all of his verses, and might I add, pretty damn well. I was blown away by his vocal clarity, breath control, and overall annunciation. And he was certainly moving along to the music. That shows he’s a seasoned vet.

Once again, Bas began his performance with a few records from his latest release, including “179 Deli” and the records I’ve already mentioned. After doing so, he took the audience (who were clearly long time Bas fanatics) down memory lane with cuts off of his first two albums, Last Winter and Too High To Riot, like “Housewives.” The show wasn’t that linear as he’d sprinkle newer cuts in between older ones. But ultimately, he created a pretty cohesive vibe and balance of lyrical cuts, upbeat, harder songs, singing ones, etc. And, at one point, Bas brought out Blxckie to perform “U-Turn” with him. 

After about half way through Bas’ performance, after some more lyrical cuts, Bas really got the audience dancing with “Passport Brothers” off his latest record, which features J. Cole. Bas then proceeded to play some cuts off of the Milky Way project. This was full circle for me because, as I mentioned, I first started listening to Bas right around the release of this album back in 2018. So, when Bas declared, “There’s only one way to go, huh. We gotta keep going up now. The only way is to the Milky Way, now,” and then “Boca Raton” started, I erupted in cheer and shouted along. And my shouting kept going during the performance of “The Jackie” right after.  

Then Bas played a few well known records he’s featured on, which included “l e t . g o . o f . m y . h a n d” off of J. Cole’s 2021 project, The Off-Season.

After a few more cuts off of his newest record, Bas got into the final leg of the concert, the songs everyone knew and were anticipating. This included a run of “Costa Rica” into “Down Bad” (I was beyond hype for these), and then into “Tribe.” When I heard that opening guitar line, I was instantly transported back to that moment of first falling in love with this song while watching the music video for it in my bed. And, following the run of songs off of Revenge Of The Dreamers III, it was a full circle moment for me. I felt a cathartic re-embracing of a younger, simpler time in my life when this music first connected with me. And now, six years later, I was there just a few feet from Bas, hearing those songs, and connecting with new songs that maybe in another six years I’ll get the privilege of hearing again live. When “Tribe” ended, the audience absolutely erupted. Bas thanked us and said goodnight.

But there’s always one more.

After maybe a minute or so, Bas’ DJ walked back onto the stage, and the whole crowd cheered because we were getting one more song. Bas came back on stage to perform his song “Lit” which is another one featuring J. Cole. This performance was very special because Bas selected a fan from the crowd to rap J. Cole’s verse alongside of him. There was one fan close to the stage to the left who had been singing and rapping along to practically every song for the entire show. Bas selected him and this guy did not disappoint. He brought so much energy. After rapping J. Cole’s portion, the fan was shouting into the mic how Bas is top five in the game right now, and everybody loved it. Bas and his band were laughing and smiling along. That final encore was the cherry on top to a truly incredible performance. Max and I left that show in a state of absolute ecstasy, it was so much fun. Thank you to Bas and all the other artists and people who assisted in running such an incredible show. That was an evening I’ll deeply cherish.