The Better Late Than Never Tour came through to New York City on November 2nd and did not disappoint. Andy Mineo, lecrae, wordsplayed, nobigdyl., and WHATUPRG absolutely slayed PlayStation Theater in the famous Time Square.
*Above picture is not from NYC show*
The PlayStation Theater was packed out for the night. The crowd was active and supportive of every artist on the stage as they sang the words and danced.
Leading off the night promptly at 7:30 pm was WHATUPRG. He came out firing and with enough energy to get the crowd ready for the night. He performed tracks such as “Rosegold,” “Glow,” “Wesside,” and “Aquafina.” The set ran roughly 20 minutes which then led to nobigdyl.
nobigdyl. came out excited saying it was his first show in NYC. He opened the set with “twenty eighteen.” He also performed an intro acapella of “Suicide Nets,” that was amazing. He closed out his 15 minute set with “Shakira” and called out WHATUPRG to do the adlibs and chorus with him.
wordsplayed followed up immediately. He’s from New York as well and had friends and family in the crowd. If you haven’t seen him live, expect for hilarity. He had an inflatable dancer on stage named Gertrud that he referenced a few times. The emcee showed off his dance moves with “said” inflatable as well. He performed his verses from Magic & Bird, like “Dance (Now You See It),” and “Kidz.” The best highlight was him doing the track “Kanye Cares.”
After an intermission, Lecrae came to the stage. He flipped-flopped with Andy for this show because of it being Andy’s hometown. As expected the crowd went nuts for Lecrae as he played tracks such as “Hammertime,” “Watchu Mean,” “Come And Get Me,” “Dirty Water,” “Blessings,” “All I Need is You,” “Broke,” “I’ll Find You,” a medley of older tracks and more.
Lecrae dropped a lot of wisdom throughout his set and at times sounded like a preacher. He receives a lot of flack for some of his moves, but there is no doubt that when you see him live it’s – “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus to all the haters.”
Closing out the night was the hometown hero Andy Mineo. Throughout his set, the crowd would start chanting “Andy, Andy, Andy.” The night was full of emotional moments for Mineo who out times seemed overwhelmed by the love he received by fans, friends, and family in attendance. He spoke about his mom who had died just a week before the tour and shared a lot of personal anecdotes. At one moment it appeared he crumpled to the floor crying. It was extremely powerful and moving.
Some of the songs he performed were “Uno Uno Seis,” “Desperados,” “You Can’t Stop Me,” “Dunk Contest ft. wordsplayed,” “I’ve Been…,” “Clarity,” “Family Photo,” “…Lost,” “Shame,” and a few others.
Andy Mineo, Lecrae came out for an encore where they did the tracks “Coming in Hot” and “Say I Won’t.” At the end of the song dyl, RG, and wordsplayed along with everyone else who appeared during the night joined them on stage. It was like a big party. Once the music ended the rappers headed off the stage to quickly greet fans.
The night was filled with amazing moments. Unfortunately, security was super tight and didn’t allow any press or backstage access for Rapzilla to have access to the artists. We were told that the artists themselves couldn’t even come out from backstage. We were, however, able to meet with nobigdyl. and WHATUPRG when they came out to their merch table when the concert was over. Regardless, the Better Late Than Never Tour was one of the best concert experiences you could go to. There are still six dates left you can check out.
