Sexyy Red celebrates stardom, and Milwaukee's biggest rappers, at defiant Rave concert

Drake, Nicki Minaj and SZA have all shined a light on Sexyy Red in 2023, from track collaborations to touring gigs, making her one of this year's biggest hip-hop breakouts.

And at her show at the Rave's Eagles Ballroom Thursday, the St. Louis rapper born Janae Nierah Wherry paid it forward.

A half-hour into her 83-minute set, Red retreated to a chair in the shadows of the stage and had her long, flowing neon red wig touched up by her team while a beaming Certified Trapper — the king of Milwaukee's surging lowend sound — stepped onto the stage for an infectious performance of his song "Trapper of the Year," while Red affectionately mirrored his signature finger-pointing moves.

The local street-rap love fest didn't stop there. A couple of minutes later, Chicken P — arguably the rapper in town whose hugely popular YouTube videos helped bolster one of the scrappiest and energizing hip-hop scenes in the country — took the stage, too, performing a few songs while Trapper played his happy-go-lucky hype man and Red, now on her feet, danced along and dropped a few ad libs on the mic. And fans packed on the ballroom floor were ecstatic, with nearly everyone whipping out their phones to capture the moment.

Despite their immense popularity online, Certified Trapper and Chicken P never get to play shows for such large crowds in their hometown. For Red to give them both her stage for 13 minutes was an admirable and surprising gesture.

And here's hoping it's just the beginning. Fingers crossed for future collaborations — and that a venue in town finally assembles the biggest rappers in town for a blockbuster concert.

As Red's Milwaukee fans proved, there's clearly a big audience eager to see that happen.

Red may be hanging out with A-listers these days, but her personality and sound have more in common with Milwaukee's street-rap stars: she's raw, defiant, quirky, confident, authentic. And at the Rave Thursday, she showed she's clearly relatable, with a large crowd primarily made up of young Black women.

She gets mocked a lot online — much more, I'd suspect than a male artist would in her circumstances — and hip-hop heads bristle at her flow, which tends to be all over the beat.

But that defiance of expectation and convention is exactly what Sexyy Red's all about. It's why she's popular — and it's what gives her her power.

And hip-hop's biggest star sees that clearly. Red recently appeared on Drake's "Rich Baby Daddy" from his new blockbuster album "For All the Dogs," a highlight of Red's set Thursday. The song is slick, polished — and Red's appearance on the song is the polar opposite. Drake, wisely, let Red be Red, and the song gets a lot of its personality from her harsh vocal delivery, her raunchy rhymes, her non-plussed bravado. Without it, it wouldn't be that memorable.

Gestures were made Thursday to make Red's set, now that she's playing for crowds this size, a capital-S show, including video displays and four talented, red-wig-wearing dancers.

But showmanship wasn't the main appeal. It was the way Red led the crowd to rap along through the weed-honoring "Sticky Icky," the unapologetic "Hood Rats" — the energy, from fans and Red alike, intensifying ever so slightly across the set until it exploded at just the right moment, for a final four run-through of her standout tracks: "Hellcats SRTs," "Looking for the Hoes (Ain't My Fault)," the career-launching "Pound Town," and the most recent sensation "SkeeYee," the first No. 1 song on Billboard's new TikTok chart.

And feeding off the crowd's energy, the pregnant Red, showboating on her terms, twerked around the stage and, during "Pound Town," dropped down into the splits.

Let's see her haters try to pull that off.

5 takeaways from Sexyy Red's Milwaukee concert, including surprise guest Tay Money

• Red’s show Thursday included a 13-minute twerking tournament. Following Chicken P's guest appearance, Red selected a dozen women from the crowd to come to the stage, split them into two groups of six, and had them shake what their mamas gave them as the DJ played her song “Strictly for the Strippers." Using the cheers of the crowd as a guide, the pool was narrowed down to four combatants who engaged in one final epic butt-shaking, floor-dropping battle. The most animated wiggler didn't just get bragging rights — Red handed her a wad of cash.

• Certified Trapper and Chicken P weren’t the only surprise guests at Sexyy Red’s show. Breakout rapper Tay Money stepped on the stage for the night’s final opening slot, delighting and surprising fans with bratty, unbothered run throughs of signature song “The Assignment," Saweetie collaboration “Bussin 2.0” and more.

• Two other rappers were officially on the bill Thursday. Sexyy Red collaborator GenesisTheGawd practically offered a blink-and-you-miss it opening set, on stage and off within 10 minutes. With a barking flow, stage (and pit) sprinting energy, and hype men (including a dancer), D4M $loan showed stronger crowd control, and ultimately creativity — like his unexpected lyrical interpolation of Daft Punk’s “Technologic” in his original “Swagg Talk.”

• Energizing as the unexpected Tay Money appearance was, it ultimately was the DJ that got the crowd the most hyped and triggered the most twerking all over the ballroom floor — especially when he slipped local rap hits like Munch Lauren’s “Big Money,” Carvie P.’s “Rexx,” Bon Kurt’s “Still Bout It Bout It” and SteveDaStoner’s “Ballin’” into the mix.

• As I stepped out into the front parking lot after the show, the party was still going strong on the street — with one red-wig-wearing fan, riding in an SUV stopped at the intersection, climbing out through the sunroof to twerk on the roof of the car.

Sexyy Red's Eagles Ballroom setlist

1. "I'm the (expletive)"

2. "Sexyy"

3. "Female Gucci Mane"

4. "Chicken Chicken"

5. "Sticky Icky"

6. "I Love My Nickel"

7. "Throwin' It"

8. "Mad At Me"

9. "Slob on My Ckat"

10. "Hood Rats"

11. "Slut Me Out"

12. "MMM HMM"

13. "Shake Yo Dreads"

14. "Face Down"

15. "Shake Sumn"

16. "Rich Baby Daddy"

17. "Peaches & Eggplants"

18. "Hellcats SRTs"

19. "Looking For The Hoes (Ain't My Fault)"

20. "SkeeYee"

21. "Pound Town"

Contact Piet at (414) 223-5162 or [email protected]. Follow him on X at @pietlevy or Facebook at facebook.com/PietLevyMJS.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Sexyy Red celebrates stardom, Milwaukee rappers at defiant Rave show