Yo Gotti and CMG label stars shine in Birthday Bash's return to sold-out FedExForum

Memphis rap king Yo Gotti made a triumphant return to FedExForum for the eighth edition of his Birthday Bash concert on Friday. The star-studded summer show has become an annual event since launching in 2012, but the concert was canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Playing to a sold-out house — the show was also livestreamed online via Amazon’s hip-hop channel Rotation — Gotti clearly relished the resumption of the event after three years.

“My city!” Gotti said, basking in the cheers of the loud capacity crowd. “Let’s go!"

Wearing a bespoke denim jacket and shorts combo, Gotti rode the energy of the crowd through an opening mini-set that included “Collect Calls (ring ring),” “Giving Back” and “Touchdown,” with the audience singing along to every word.

“Y’all know this is a special moment, we do this every year,” Gotti said, covering the history of the Birthday Bash from its humble roots a decade ago. “We started out with a small crowd, now we selling out the Memphis Grizzlies' arena.”

After Gotti’s kickoff, the first guest of the evening, Boosie Badazz, came on performing “Wipe Me Down,” and then directed massive sing-a-longs to “Crazy” and “Set It Off.”

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Chicago rapper Lil Durk followed and led the crowd in a “Free Shiesty” chant, referring to imprisoned Memphis rapper Pooh Shiesty. Durk then proceeded to perform his collaboration with Shiesty, “Back in Blood.”

In between guests, Gotti would return for another set of songs — as he did throughout the night — including “Bulletproof” and “Standing in the Kitchen,” and then took it back to his formative years with a medley of tracks from early in his career.

Gotti also paid tribute to Snootie Wild, the former CMG act, who was killed in February. Gotti praised the late rapper as part of the foundation that helped build the label’s current success.

Although guest spots from Lil Uzi Vert, Michigan rapper SleazyWorld Go and Big30 offered plenty of highlights, the real energy of the evening seemed to come from the artists on Gotti's CMG label. The CMG crew were also the focus of a new compilation album, released on Friday, called "Gangsta Art."

Since the last Birthday Bash, CMG has grown exponentially and become one of hip-hop’s signature companies, with a run that compares favorably to labels like Cash Money and No Limit in their heyday.

Over the course of the night, Gotti would showcase the label’s ever-expanding scope, introducing its first R&B act, East Coast singer Lehla Samia, who made her Memphis debut. CMG’s latest signee, Memphis’ GloRilla — whose anthem “FNF (Let’s Go)” has become one of the songs of the summer — was given a particularly wild reception.

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The established names on CMG — including EST Gee, Blac Youngsta, Big Boogie and California-based Mozzy, who joined the fold earlier this year — all delivered during their respective turns. CMG’s flagship artist Moneybagg Yo — who last year earned his first-career No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 with the release "A Gangsta's Pain" — brought the evening to a crescendo with his performance, as Gotti watched on proudly.

The success of CMG has been such that Gotti has suggested recently that he would be retiring from rapping to focus on his duties as a CEO and artist mentor.

“Where we come from only thing we knew was the drug dealers, the hustlers,” Gotti said, reflecting on the journey both he and the label have made. “We showed n***** what was possible. We made our way out of nowhere. We changed the narrative.”

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Yo Gotti Birthday Bash: Lil Durk, Lil Uzi Vert, Moneybagg Yo perform