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Music

REVIEW: G-Eazy, playing to a young Musikfest crowd, makes you root for the underdog

G-Eazy took to the Steel Stage at Musikfest on Saturday night.
Samara Ahmed
/
LehighValleyNews.com
G-Eazy took to the Steel Stage at Musikfest on Saturday night.

BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Musikfest headliner G-Eazy took to the Steel Stage against a dark blue sky at 9 p.m. Saturday.

  • G-Eazy headlined Musikfest on Saturday night
  • The performance was high energy
  • The crowd was filled with college-aged fans

His slick voice, combined with his high energy, made for a great performance. The set featured 23 songs and lasted nearly 75 minutes.

He opened the concert with "Tulips & Roses," a single he wrote when living in Paris and released in March of this year.

It's one of the few songs he's released since the yearlong break following the death of his mother, Suzanne Olmsted, in November 2021. It signals his re-entry into the music world and touches upon the hardships that even wealth and celebrity can't insulate people from.

"When you walk away, they'll miss you," the song says. "But stay away too long, they might forget you/'Cause nothing ever lasts forever."

He followed the song with "I Mean It," a certified triple-platinum single off his 2014 album, "These Things Happen." It starts with a hypnotizing hook by Remo.

One of the lyrics, "If you're mad, well too bad/Sounds like a personal issue," evokes the Zoomer rallying cry, "that sounds like a you problem."

The show had a nightclub vibe, which matched G-Eazy's frenetic energy. Notable was his interactions with fans, as he grabbed phones for impromptu videos of himself and the crowd.

His last album, "The Beautiful & Damned," came out in 2017. Off that, he performed hit singles "Me Myself & I" and "No Limit," which were certified platinum five times and seven times, respectively.

He also rapped "Him & I," a song that originally featured Halsey, and which was another hit.

The show ended on a note of triumph — the kind that makes you root for the rapper, but also inspires you to conquer external challenges. Like another "I Mean It" lyric:

"My haters feel like I'm better dead but I'm quite alive getting bread instead/With a better girl, with a better face, I'm in a better place."

It's a song that makes you want to root for the underdog, for G-Eazy, and possibly even for yourself.