Saturday’s show opened with a few technical glitches as the film Belly (1998) restarted a few times. However, this could have been an artistic effect which I missed, you tell me?.  The film played throughout the show, I’m not too sure of the movie’s significance but it certainly added to the overall ambience. One thought I had during the show is how much better Goldlink’s material would sound with a live band. But this is likely to come with time as he grows in popularity as an artist.

Goldlink performed brilliantly and catered for the different types of people in the audience; those who have been rocking with him since The God Complex and those who perhaps came solely to hear Crew.  Goldlink catered to an older fan base by playing songs like Dark Skin Women, Late Night, Spectrum and Unique. Unfortunately, he didn’t perform Dance on Me and my feeling of dissappointment was shared amongst some I spoke with after the show. Surprisingly enough, dare I say it, his vocals were sublime live. As he riffed and ran over Meditation I thought to myself “Wow… Goldlink can really sing!”. There was not a dull moment throughout the concert. His overall crowd engagement was fantastic and the energy level was on 10 even when performing slower songs like Herside.

Pray Everyday (Survior’s guilt) was a song I looked forward to hearing, despite this song being a great track it wasn’t well received. Much of the crowd stood still and Goldlink pretty much sang to us. Perhaps this was due to the sombre nature of the song or maybe the crowd were just eagerly waiting to hear Crew. Songs which were the most well received live were the smooth-summer-vibe Summatime, the up-beat dance record Meditation and obviously Crew. Meditation was everything I imagined it to be live, it felt as if everyone in the concert was here to party. Crew is unquestionably one of the songs of the year, perhaps even song of the year. Goldlink played this twice and the response was even greater the second time. I can only describe Crew live as an experience.

How was the show overall?

Lit! And If you weren’t there you missed out!

 

At What Cost is Goldlink’s first studio album released in March of this year. Having released two prior mixtapes, The God Complex and After That We Didn’t Talk, a studio album was certainly what fans like myself were waiting for.

Did it disappoint?

Certainly not.

The album is an exploration and narration of the DMV area, in particular D.C, that being Goldlink’s home city.  The album features many from the tri-state area; Brent Faiyaz, Lil Dude, Shy Glizzy, Kokayi and most famously Wale. There is a strong Gogo influence heard throughout the album. Gogo is a subgenre closely related to funk, which originated in D.C. Perhaps the most modern and famous Gogo inspired song is 1 Thing – Amerie. (Mentally cues drums and envisions Amerie walking down the street in a fur and heeled boots). And if you’re now interested in getting into Gogo, I’d recommend Backyard Band – Team as a good place to start!

Gogo’s influence is heard on Hands on your Knees and Meditation  and both tracks were produced by Kaytranada. Hands on your knees acts as a pre-lude to the “Funk bounce” party track that is Meditation. Meditation is not only the party track of the album because of the sound but also because the setting itself is a Gogo party. Hands on your knees transports us to a typical Gogo party which was a feature of Goldlink’s adolescence.  On this track there is no rapping, instead,  Kokayi hypes up the energetic crowd by saying “Get your hands up off the wall”. 

Sampling the last minute of his own song “Track Uno”, Kaytranda produced Meditation, one of my favourite songs of this year. The track explores Goldlink’s relationship with a girl from Maryland. The relationship is rocky, wild yet loving. The latter part of the song is Goldlink lamenting on what could have been with the girl whose “favourite band was Backyard”. Goldlink also showcases an element of his upbringing by putting a spin on a church song when Jasmine Sullivan sings “shake shake shake, shake the nerves off, in the name of dancehall, shake the nerves off”. Meditation ends with a ruckus ensuing and finally gun shots firing which abruptly brings the party to a stop.

The latter half of the album is much less happy and uptempo when compared to the first half. “The Parable of The Rich Man”, “We will Never Die” and “Pray Everyday (Survivor’s guilt) invoke much grittier and depressing tones. “We will Never Die”, featuring Lil Dude, is somewhat of a proclamation by both artists. As this album explores all aspects of Goldlink’s home area, this song perhaps speaks to many young men like them who are determined to not be victims of their circumstances nor areas and succeed.  In his interview with 106 Los Angeles, Goldlink broke down the survivor’s guilt which he feels as most of the friends and people he grew up with are either dead or in prison, yet here he is, alive and successful. Despite the theme of Pray Everyday being sombre, it simultaneously offers an element of hope which can be attributed to the  gospel-inspired melody of the song. Personally, this is one of the most underrated track on the album as it is forced into the shadows due to songs like Crew, Summatime and Meditation.

Crew.  My words fail me as it is simply that amazing and timeless. Hopefully Goldlink, Brent Faiyaz and Shy Glizzy make more anthems like this in the future.

A criticism I have of this album is that there a lot features from other artists. There are only 4/10 tracks in which Goldlink is by himself. This is not to say that having a lot of features on an album is a bad thing, but with this being his debut album, it would have better to have more of the tracks to showcase his talent as a solo artist.

At What Cost is thought-provoking, fluid and Goldlink meticulously articulates his story of his DMV. No two songs are the same which shows his versatility as an artist. As a fan and music lover, I look forward to forthcoming albums from Goldlink.