Dreamville’s own Bas stopped by The Fillmore Silver Spring on Easter Sunday for the DMV stop on his We Only Talk About Real Sh*t When We’re F*cked Up (WOTARSWWFU) Tour in support of his most recent album of the same name. The Paris born, Sudanese New Yorker pulls from his diverse upbringing using numerous influences for the album from afrobeats, RnB, and grime to electronic and lo-fi but all stacked on top of a hip-hop foundation.
That diverse sound created the soundtrack for the tour and was also reflected in the opening acts; as rappers Hoosh, Blxckie and Ruben Vincent are all also of African descent. Their similar vibes received a warm welcome from the crowd as they waited to see Bassy.
At The Fillmore Silver Spring on March 31, the room fell dark as smoke filled the stage and light strips lit up both sides of the stage creating a runway to the front of the crowd. Dressed in black from head to toe and a pair of shades, Bas stepped out through the smoke to open things up with albums intro “Light My Soul.” As the beat dropped, he took control of the room as the crowd rapped his words back to him line for line.
Bas welcomed everyone and showed love to the DMV before going into “Home Alone” followed by the fan favorite “Choppas” and the grime-influenced “179 Deli.” Bas made sure to perform nearly every record from WOTARSWWFU but also mixed in hits from all over his discography since breaking out towards the end of the blog era featuring on J. Cole records.
Bas jumped all the way back to 2013 next, performing the first song I ever heard from him: “My N**** Just Made Bail.” The record instantly made me a fan back in college and from the way everyone was singing it, I know I wasn’t the only one feeling the nostalgia. He bounced back to the album with the chill ukulele sounds of “Yao Ming” as well its first single “Diamonds” before getting into a run of favorites and from throughout his career — from hip-hop heavy records like “Night Job,” “Dopamine,” and “Housewives” to slower jams like “Ricochet” and “Clouds Never Get Old.”
Bas took time out to shine the spotlight on each member of his band before wrapping the mic stand in the flag of Sudan and speaking on the crisis going on in his family’s home country — and its similarities to the issues going in Gaza and Ukraine but how it is constantly ignored in the news media. He stood center stage with the flag draped in front of him as he performed “Khartoum,” the song dedicated to Sudan’s capital city. His synthy-lofi collaboration with FKJ “Risk” came next followed by slower RnB sections of the album like “Decent” and “U-Turn.”
Listen to Bas’s latest album We Only Talk About Real S*** When We’re F***** Up on Spotify:
Check out the official music video for the Bas & J.Cole collab “Passport Bros”on YouTube:
The last leg of the show was felt like club as the sounds bounced back and forth from Hip-Hop party records like “Costa Rica” and “The Jackie” to Caribbean and latin vibes with “Passport Bros” and “Boca Raton” then to slow jams like “Dr. O’blivion” & “Wait on Me,” and the party was in full swing. Bas wrapped the show up with the biggest hit from the Dreamville compilation album “Down Bad” and left the stage momentarily before faking out the crowd and running back out as his first song on Dreamville “Lit” started to play.
The ones that had started to walk out stopped in their tracks and turned back around for one more chance to party with Bassy before heading home.
Bas’s We Only Talk About Real Sh*t When We’re F*cked Up Tour wraps up this Monday, April 9, after spending the weekend at Dreamville Festival he heads home to NYC for a show at Irving Plaza to finish things off.
Below are some more photos from Bas’s performance at The Fillmore Silver Spring on March 31, 2024. All photos copyright and courtesy of AJ Waugh (wauffleznotwaffles.com).
