R.A. The Rugged Man and A-F-R-O

Back in late September, I decided to see R.A. The Rugged Man and A-F-R-O. A-F-R-O was my main reason for going and I was intrigued about R.A. The Rugged Man because I was largely unfamiliar with his work. I spent a small amount of money to see them perform in a very small venue that I am not super fond of. The most unfortunate aspect of this show was that the venue did not offer re-entry and there were ten local openers that I had no interest in seeing. A-F-R-O was also only given a 20-minute set which I was pretty bummed about and there was no purchasable merchandise on site at all.

A-F-R-O’s set was amazing. He performed “Dark Energy” and “Code #829”, both of which were delivered with a skill and finesse that most famous rappers will never attain. He got the crowd hyped and moving and he was a delight to see perform live. R.A. The Rugged Man, though, brought A-F-R-O out for his entire set. A-F-R-O was hyping up the crowd, providing backup vocals, and moving a lot on the stage while R.A. The Rugged Man provided an incredible performance.

I don’t know if you have ever seen R.A. but he has the most energy of anyone I have ever seen live. He entered the crowd itself no less than six times and interacted with a ton of people. At one point, he allowed “the first ten people” to climb up to the stage to join him. He also invited someone to come beatbox while A-F-R-O freestyled and he did name A-F-R-O as “the best rapper in the world”. R.A. provided a ton of his own songs as well as allowing A-F-R-O to perform “The Definition of a Rap Flow” which was the contest R.A. held that brought him into the spotlight and caused them to meet. They also took a hat and put a bunch of random stuff in it and had A-F-R-O freestyle about those things. It was pretty legit.

The show was very enjoyable, especially for an impromptu setup. I saw some more shows that I might tell you about but they will have to wait.

Until next time.

-Ryan