The city of Chicago has always produced ground-breaking rap acts such as Common, Twista, Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco and Chance The Rapper, to name a few. But these days, femdot. appears to be the newcomer out of Chi-Town poised to make a powerful impact in hip-hop.
After noticing his buzz on social media and YouTube, I wanted to experience the 24-year-old rapper’s live show. On an unseasonably warm fall evening, I walked into The Masquerade in downtown Atlanta to witness the future.
Born Femi Adigun to Nigerian immigrant parents, femdot. fell in love with rap music as a teenager and juggled his hip-hop dreams while studying biological health sciences with a minor in peace, justice and conflict studies at DePaul University. However, his rap career began to take off while on the path to higher education with the release of his 2018 project, Delacreme 2. He eventually found himself performing before thousands at the 2018 Lollapalooza in Chicago.
On this night, femdot. made his way to The Masquerade stage shortly before 9 p.m. as the raucous, mostly college-aged crowd in the dimly lit concert venue showed its respect with cheers and screams. He opened his 30-minute set with the song “Crossroads,” rapping the lyrics, “Gotta call from my homie, he got a proposition, I know he put in work and he just got a new position.”
Wearing a black hat and white T-shirt, he danced without care throughout his set. He invited crowd participation, telling the audience to chant “it’s alright” before he performed his song “Alright.”
Femdot. rapped “Snow in July,” where he tackles issues of skin color in the Black community with these lyrics: “Questioning complexion, my sister was a blessing, helped me embraced my color, and she was darker than I was, told me my skin was perfect, the older I get the more the words cut the surface.”
After rapping “Happy December,” he performed his hit song “94 Camry Music.” In the song, femdot. details moments from his youth: “Like getting jumped on right in front of Heath ‘nem house, same place the car would stop when we was sneaking out, the battery was older than I was but best believe I’ll, get a jump and reroute.”
He closed his set with the songs “0Ssomething” and “Late Night Run.”
Femdot.’s bombastic show was a hit with fans and those who were introduced to his music for the first time.
“I’m feeling the energy of his music,” Shane Vandercruize, a Brooklyn native, said after the show. “On stage, he dances like he’s at the house. He has an album you can play from beginning to end.”
