Rising Atlanta rapper Playboi Carti is a winning mixture of wide-eyed and worldly. His addictive vocal tic of studding verses with a bemused “what?” can make it sound like the man born Jordan Carter cannot believe his days of working the till at H&M are behind him. But everything else about the sinewy 21-year-old – from his cocksure stage presence to a penchant for catwalk-ready power posing – suggests he was born to be a performer.
Collaborations with A$AP Rocky and Lil Uzi Vert, plus a fleeting cameo on Lana Del Rey’s Summer Bummer, have helped boost Carti’s profile, but these are still early days for his European conquest. The oddball entourage on the opening night of his first proper UK tour consists of a DJ, two enormous bodyguards and, rather more incongruously, two mannequins posed as if they are reaching out to touch him. The extremely youthful fans crammed into this nightclub seem similarly keen to press the flesh, scrumming in front of the stage for Carti’s woozy breakthrough track Magnolia.
If his preferred beats skew towards the narcotised and heavy-lidded, Carti radiates nervy energy. He conducts the crowd for a boisterous shoutalong to Do That Shit, gets frisky with one of the mannequins and strips off his hoodie with a self-aware flourish. During Broke Boi – his exasperated portrait of would-be players who buy their diamonds and gold chains from shopping centres – he is hoisted out over the crowd by an unsmiling minder to deliver his volley of disses more emphatically. It is the highlight of a short but impressively energised set that crackles with self-belief.
• At Academy, Birmingham, 26 February. Box office: 0844 844 0444. At 02 Ritz, Manchester, 27 February.
