The Tree Team: Championship Postgame Celebration

The brainchild of Tree Team head honcho Sage & their latest addition to the family, the almighty Marcus, whom you must know from his work on Project RiiZE, Reek & Sage were on that showcase as well but unlike that success story, this success story is all about the experience. Ask them, they were very adamant about this not being your typical concert or showcase & we’d have to agree, it was definitely an experience we hope you weren’t unfortunate enough to have missed. Held at the same location as RiiZE, much love to the beautiful people over at Thirsty Camel Bar for their hospitality, this was the place to be that Sunday. Once again, bringing the community together to enjoy some beautiful music by a plethora of our top artists, the lineup alone should’ve prompted you to immediately cop your ticket, I mean who wouldn’t pay $15 to witness all these beautiful performers? Not to mention all the vendors, Nola Bayou Bites, Willyum’s Deserts, even a wide array of smoking accessories, courtesy of Candy Clouds cause it is the Treeeeeee after all.

Kicking off the night with one of the most criminally underrated lyricists/artists, they did good choosing their openers I must say cause personally, I’m not used to the openers to shows impressing me but those who are in the know, know full well that Adrilla is that dude. His set had to have been the grooviest performance that night & he even had the live instrumentation backing him up with the drums, courtesy of Marco G. It was surely the perfect way to lead us into what we were about to experience, every number performed was stopping the floor & though the people hadn’t quite shown up yet at that point, he rocked those in the crowd like it was hundreds in attendance. We very much appreciate artists who can put their kingdom aside & rock a crowd, regardless of the number of people in it, some artists be too big headed for that but not he. Extremely humble soul as well, ‘twas an honor to finally meet! And we need those unreleased tracks you performed as well my brother!

Of course, after each performance, the crowd is gonna need a breather & what better way to catch a breath than with the soothing voice of Big Beautiful Williams, who hosted the experience! We know damn well you’ve heard his voice throughout the work the Tree Team has put out thus far, even when hype it’s lulling! Baby Aztro was called up to the stage next, still relatively fresh off his NPR set the week prior, he ripped his set up with his lyrical barrage of bars, seemingly never ending. I mean it’s just line after line with this guy, you just have to sit back & absorb everything said, admire how seamless he is with the rhyme. If you haven’t copped his latest “False Idle”, then the tracks he performed off that no doubt pushed you to do so. Sage even stated before his performance of “The Bijou” that it was the illest rap song he’s ever heard, a high honor from the almighty & definitely prompted Aztro to deliver his stellar performance of it. He even performed an unreleased record from Phree Bass Sampulz that still has a Hip Hop head like me in a frenzy!

Y’all had to have seen all the unique promo for this experience as well, sports fans had have been delighted to see their spoof of it! Khali honestly, had to have been the reigning champion of this night & that’s not say everybody else wasn’t on their A game but Khali was just on another level with his performance. Every single record he performed, a little piece of almost every release of his catalog was like swisher shots, nothing but net. So many fan favorites & personal favorites of mine he decided to perform, probably the illest set list of any artist I’ve witnessed live. Khali is as real as they come, he even took time out of his set to send healing energy over to a dear friend in BabyJ, who sings the hook on “Serenity”. We pray she gets well soon. So many hits in his catalog, especially those off his most recent CHROMA series & no, that is not Chris Brown on “As I Am”, that is OLA my friends. “Pillow Pet”, “Cut Your Losses”, “Next Man”, lots of Duvin produced tracks throughout his performance, reasonably so cause those two together is always a tour de force of elite musicality & lyricism colliding! Just wait til he & Sage start cooking up some more though. He even performed a record that only real fans would know & if you weren’t in attendance, I’m sorry to say that you may never hear it live again, he’s just far past it’s content & we’re proud of him for it cause man, breakups are rough but we do love some Heartbreak Khali! You should’ve seen how perfectly everyone in the crowd delivered when it came to “Leg Room”, just go to his socials to see for yourself! Mad love in the room for Khali for putting on a monstrous performance, his 1st all year!

After obliterating the stage, it was nice to have a more subdued performance by the nonchalant killer that is Eastside Fish. Fish just got this laid back swagger & charisma to him that is just so infectious. He calmly kills it everytime & it’s really his voice that makes his bar work stick out. Ayo Sage what you doing on this shit, you know when you hear those words that it’s one of them ones, whether it’s “Go In”, “Someone Else”, a few unreleased records as well that we cannot wait to hear come his debut album, slated to release in late December, Fish is just too charming a figure in this game to not pay attention to. He even blessed us with one of Mazi from Mazi’s World’s favorites with “California Shit”. Although Fish is past a lot of that Gangsta persona exhibited on other performances that night like “Dirty Money”, he still got that real in him, that energy never leaves you & you continue to feel it in his latest work with Sage, he’s just so much more polished now that he’s been cooking up with him. I can’t remember the name of the record but it was on some Cypress Hill type shit & I can’t wait to hear it in its entirety. He is truly the Kobe Bryant of the Tree Team cause his 24/7 tenacity since linking with the team has been impeccable & it shows throughout his consistency. He even performed the, at the time unreleased “Juve ‘22”, which you can now stream & get jiggy with, the way everyone in the crowd was when they heard that beat come in! He truly is “Runnin’ Things”.

Next up was Reek who delivered another impeccable set list, consisting of nothing but the hits out of his catalog so far, “Jigga Man”, “Barry White”, “Met You On The Internet”, “Vision of Love”, whom he brought Levi on stage to perform with him, “Real P’s”, alongside the young gunner Malcolm Jakob, “Sundress” with Niko2K, even the recent success story of he & Sage’s “G2KU”, which just hit over a million streams! You seriously had to be there cause if you’re a fan of these gentlemen then you got spoiled that night. Malcolm, Levi & Niko, even Fish were consistently brought on stage as well to perform many unreleased tracks, too many for me to name but they are no doubt, all gonna be new fan favorites, especially one in particular where the guys had a lot to get off their chest. Things then closed out with even more performances from Reek & Fish cause they got alot of beautiful music thus far, whether it be “Back 2 Cali”, “On Me”, “Bounce”, which honestly, they’ll have to perform til they are no longer with us. Imagine the flak they’d get if they ever chose not to perform it, oooh boy! There was a record in particular about everybody having that dog in them that I can’t wait to hear cause it’s on that R&B shit I’ve been on all year. Overall, this was another night for the books & if you stuck around, you got to witness Lexx Author doing what she does best, she be moving mountains with those hands of hers cause the records she was was playing were some throwbacks I ain’t heard in years. God bless everybody involved in this experience & until next time, IT’S THE TREEEEEE!!!