Andre Nickatina is on a mini-tour and stopped through Eugene, OR on January 23rd, before heading to Seattle and Portland. His most recent album, Pisces, dropped in March of 2018.
At the WOW Hall Wednesday night, several expectations must have been shattered by the events. For starters, if the crowd expected to see Andre after a reasonably-timed opening act, they were sorely surprised. He appeared after not one, not two, not three, but four initials artists, all currently touring with him from Cali. The DJ, StevieBoy Musiq, began the night with a cutting session, then introduced the three rappers warming up the stage for Andre. The first “rapper,” Speaker Child, who was featured on the Pisces track “Phat,” awkwardly churned out his super slow bars about partying and getting high, requested girls to dance on stage with him, and ultimately made the crowd uncomfortable with his privilege. The following MC, CB Fam Bizz, came out for only three songs, like he was running short of time, one of which featured Andre, only he didn’t join the stage. By the time the crowd was clawing at their eyes in hopes of Nickatina, the fourth and final opener, J. Lately, revealed himself and actually blew everyone else out of the water. His flows, his content, and his beats were all top quality and he supplemented with a wild energy and stage presence.
Andre Nickatina followed, lazily ambling into the room as the Oregon hood rats rushed the stage, screaming and taking selfies with their hands on his junk through his jeans. He had a hype man with him, stabbing at lyrics once in a while, but mostly just enjoying himself. Sadly, Andre’s set was equally as disappointing as his touring buddies. He played all of his old hits such as “Ayo for Yayo,” which was to be expected, however he did not play any songs from Pisces, as if he were already tired of them. After partying long enough with the crowd, he closed the show by having the DJ play three back-to-back songs by Mac Dre. When the WOW Hall had had their fill of Mac Dre sing-a-longs, Andre promptly left the stage, saying only “Peace.” If the fans expected an encore, they were let down in that respect, too. Andre disappeared and StevieBoy Musiq ushered everyone out with some more mixing on the fly.
