Trippie Redd 76 minutes late to Summerfest; Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, City Girls save the show

And Summerfest officials thought struggling ticket sales were their biggest worry for their American Family Insurance Amphitheater show Saturday.

A sea of empty seats remained several weeks after the July 1 show with A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie and Trippie Redd went on sale. The festival did multiple discounts, and added City Girls to the lineup, and in the end managed to make the lower sections of the amphitheater seem pretty full, while the bleachers and lawn in the back were completely deserted.

But the biggest problem turned out to be the night’s third performer Trippie Redd … who took the stage 76 minutes late, a full 16 minutes after his set was supposed to end.

Trippie Redd 76 minutes late, performs for just 28 minutes

Seriously, the amount of disrespect Redd has shown for his Milwaukee fans is astonishing. I’ve never seen anything like it.

For his Milwaukee debut opening for J. Cole at Summerfest in 2018, his DJ didn’t even show up, forcing Milwaukee’s DJ Bizzon to do his best with no warning. Two years later at his headlining Eagles Ballroom show at the Rave, Redd took the stage 80 minutes late, claiming his bus broke down — then left his own show for 20 minutes after just a half-hour on stage.

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Redd had no excuses Saturday — claiming he woke up from a nap for this show (he did have Hello Kitty pajama pants on). His blasé attitude — chain-smoking through his set, barely rapping and looking bored during multiple songs, performing for just 28 minutes — made a frustrating situation even more infuriating.Well, at least for me. The people near me — who looked miserable and were shouting obscenities once the DJ’s stalling tactics reached the one-hour mark — seemed to quickly forgive Redd, bouncing and rapping through his set, and demonstrating more energy then the guy they paid to see.

And considering, tragically, that Redd remains the biggest surviving star of the SoundCloud rap era (following the deaths of Lil Peep, XXXTentacion and Juice WRLD), I’m sure Milwaukee fans will continue to pay to see Redd when he’s in town. Just don’t bother to show up on time — or honestly, show up at all.

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A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie brings big energy

As a result of Redd's, well, nap (allegedly), the night's closer and top name on the bill, A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, started his set 33 minutes late. And it was off to a rough start, with Boogie's right-hand man DJ Ominaya repeatedly calling the festival "Summer Set."

But Ominaya turned out to be an excellent hypeman once Boogie took the stage, who delivered a headlining show that felt like an actual headlining show. Performing for nearly an hour, leaving the stage just three minutes shy of Summerfest's midnight closing, Boogie was backed by cool live video effects; dramatic lighting rig; a plethora of flames and fireworks; plus a keyboardist and live drummer, the latter giving a heartfelt Pop Smoke tribute "Hello" a little extra fire.

He had some prerecorded backing vocals, too, but his tongue-twisting live delivery was smooth and commanding, whether he was dwelling in angst for "D.T.B. Interlude" and Juice WRLD collaboration "Demons and Angels;" puffing out his chest for "My Sh*t" and "Mood Swings;" or bringing those two moods together for moody, amped-up signatures like "Jungle" and "Drowning."

Considering his current status in the hip-hop ecosystem — he's one of the bigger names on the Lollapalooza poster in Chicago, for instance, but not a headliner — Boogie's booking as an top-of-the-bill amphitheater headliner certainly deserves some scrutiny. But he also showed Saturday that he's ready to move on to the next level.

City Girls the MVP of the amphitheater headliners

That said, the top headliner of the night turned out to be City Girls, an absolutely crucial addition. Not only did it give the fest a lone women-led headliner in the amphitheater for 2023, they were clearly a huge draw for the teen and early twenty-something women that made up the majority of the crowd.

And unlike the more brooding Redd and Boogie, their music is consistently fun, with JT and Yung Miami Saturday dropping hilariously absurd, largely unprintable rhymes for swagger-drenched sex-positive anthems “Take Yo Man” and “Rodeo,” and inspiring thousands of women to rap along to the unapologetic banger “Act Up.” A couple of local dancers that backed up local rapper Kia Rap Princess' opening set at the amp Saturday even got to do double duty twerking and dancing to “Twerkulator.”

City Girls mistakenly thought they were done after that, losing momentum when they halfheartedly resumed the set with Usher collab “Good Love.” And, yes, their time was short (just 25 minutes on stage), and they rapped over prerecorded verses. But no other act inspired such intense audience energy in the amp Saturday.

Milwaukee's own Kia Rap Princess opened

But for me, the absolute best part of the show was at the very start, with hardworking and talented local rap veteran Kia Rap Princess kicking things off. And she went all out for the biggest show of her career, with dancers; a live guitarist; fog machines; big screen animations and Milwaukee drone footage; a great guest appearance by fellow Milwaukee rapper Protege; and some tremendous turntable work from one of the city’s most skilled DJs, Moses.

But it was Princess who shined brightest with her magnetic flow and stage presence, expressing touching gratitude that thousands showed up early and saw her set, and getting close to the crowd for her dancehall banger finale “Issa Vibe,” jumping down into the pit.

Watching her crush it on Summerfest’s biggest stage was a special experience, and further validation that the Summerfest booking team needs to make a greater effort to give more incredible Milwaukee rappers — and there are so, so many of them — a similar chance to shine.

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

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Summerfest: Trippie Redd 76 minutes late; Boogie, City Girls save show