With the outlook for concerts being murky for the rest of the year, artists have gotten creative when it comes to connecting with their fans. Offset put on a virtual reality concert Wednesday (April 29) by teaming up with Oculus Venues and some famous friends to give back to the ATL community.
All proceeds from the night’s event went straight toward supporting the Atlanta Community Food Bank (ACFB), as the Migos rapper was joined by hip-hop friends SAINt JHN, Young Thug with help from Gunna, and Rich The Kid for performances throughout the three-hour set.
If interested in donating, fans are prompted to give back here. Check out our top five moments from the virtual concert below.
5. SAINt JHN turns his L.A. balcony into a scenic stage
SAINt JHN makes the most of his home by using gloomy downtown Los Angeles as the backdrop to his performance. Ghetto Lenny kicked off shortly after 7 p.m. ET joking about somehow nearly being late for his set, even though all he had to do was just walk a few steps outside. Lenny then jumps all-around his discography with tracks such as “94 Bentley,” “All I Want is a Yacht,” Collection One‘s “I Heard You Got Too Litt Last Night.”
The Brooklyn native thought back to his humble beginnings, highlighting the importance of giving back whatever anyone can afford to give at a crucial time like this. He finishes off with a pair of Billboard Hot 100 hits in the Lil Baby-assisted “Trap” and the electronic “Roses (Imanbek Remix).” “Roses” also reached a new peak of No. 22 on this week’s Hot 100 chart.
4. Young Thug & Gunna raise your thermostat with fiery “Hot” performance
After introducing himself from the balcony of his Atlanta penthouse, Thug brings out Gunna to turn the heat up a few notches with the scorching So Much Fun standout “Hot.” Thugger’s genius is on display with a drone camera flying from balcony to balcony around the apartment to capture both Thug and Gunna for the majority of the performance. Trippy visuals on the outer-two screens were sure to make those equipped with the Oculus virtual reality headset a big queasy.
3. Young Thug debuts new song “Slatty” with Yak Gotti
With Thug recording at a vociferous pace, he couldn’t let the fans go without previewing some new music. The YSL boss is always willing to put on for the younger artists surrounding him, and that was the case here, as he debuts the bouncy “Slatty” with Yak Gotti. “[Yak] just got out of prison after four-and-a-half years and he wants to tell us about every day of it,” Thug says. The track also features Lil Duke, who wasn’t on hand for the performance. Thug repeatedly spews the song’s title as a slimy ad-lib on the outro.
2. Young Thug recounts having liver & kidney failure in near-death experience
Before moving into the next part of his set, Thug prefaces his “Killed Before” performance with a sobering explanation of the tragic events that inspired the SUPER SLIMEY cut. Thugger recounts having what he believed to be an anxiety attack that had him bedridden and eventually landed him in the emergency room. He would actually suffer kidney and liver failure from drug abuse, which led to a 17-day hospital stay for treatment. “You’re supposed to be dead,” he recalls a doctor telling him.
“They had to get me out of the bed basically. I felt like my whole body was numb and I couldn’t move. I went to the hospital and I had found out that I had liver and kidney failure,” he explains. “And I kinda had sorta passed away, like I kinda died. I was in the hospital for like 17 days. I left the hospital, my mom didn’t trust it. So I left the hospital, went to another hospital, they was like, ‘Man, you got liver and kidney failure. You supposed to be dead. Basically, you’ve been dead.’ I’ve been killed before.”
1. Offset previews a candid unreleased solo track
Following a 20-minute delay thanks to audio difficulties, Set returned alongside DJ Durel with the same boisterous energy he had at the start of his headlining performance, picking up exactly where he left off. The Migos rhymer closes his time on stage out around 10 p.m. with an unreleased solo tune, which finds him candidly narrating his rise in the music game. Fans don’t have to think too far back to similar tracks like “Red Room” off his Father of 4 album.
It’s still unknown if this was a Fo4 leftover, or a track he plans to release in the near future. “Gold bottles, sipping champagne/ 20 b—-es tryna scam things/ I remember all the stomach pains/ The world crying when you see the ring/ Police asking for a n—a name/ I remember in my membrane/ People think a n—a got it all, but my n—-s still in the game,” he raps.
