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Yung Lean  

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Yung Lean is a rapper, singer and producer hailing from Stockholm, Sweden who was born on July 18th 1996. Since his debut in 2011 he has released one studio album, E.P and mixtape, and has helped pioneer a slowed-down, emotional style of hip-hop through his label Sad Boys Entertainment.

Jonatan Leandoer Håstad’s first exposure to hip-hop came from 50 Cent’s landmark 2005 album “Get Rich Or Die Tryin’”. Completely taken with the album, he developed a full blown passion for hip-hop soon afterwards and began his first attempts at creating it himself as well, producing a number of tracks and writing his first lyrics. Nothing major would come from this until, he met fellow hip-hop obsessives Yung Sherman and Yung Gud and struck up a friendship with both of them. This friendship lead to all three of them creating music as the Hasch boys, along with several more of their friends who were also hip-hop fans, but Sherman, Gud and Håstad were the only ones who were truly dedicated.

Soon enough, everyone else lost interest until it was just the core trio again, and together they decided to rebrand themselves as “Sad Boys”, with a genuine visual aesthetic and musical style to match. The trio would write, record and upload their tracks to Soundcloud when in 2013 Håstad, who was by this time performing under the name Yung Lean, scored an internet hit with his track “Ginseng Strip 2002”. Through a mix of word of mouth, social media and press, Yung Lean became one of the most exciting names in modern hip-hop. He’s a truly international success story as well, just over a year after “Ginseng Strip 2002” was uploaded to Soundcloud, his debut album “Unknown Memory” was released and he headlined a sold out show at New York City’s Webster Hall off the back of it.

His music is taking him to the other side of the world to his home country, and nothing seems to be able to stop him from getting even bigger as time goes on. For being a genuinely new and exciting force in hip-hop, Yung Lean comes highly recommended.

Live reviews

My friend told me about Yung Lean approximately a year ago. Even though rap is not my favorite genre, Yung Lean's music quickly grew on me. I never really thought I would get to see him live, because he is a native to Sweden and is still an up and coming artist. However, Red Bull Sound Select (RBSS) solved this issue. RBSS is a unique music platform, where curators (a music guru of a specific city or region) will promote local music groups that are up and coming. You RSVP to an event and if you get to the concert on time you will get in paying a discounted rate of $3 for a ticket. I arrived at The Loft around 7 PM, and the line had already formed around the curb of the sidewalk. Once doors opened at 8:30PM, the check in to confirm your RSVP was fast and easy. After climbing two flights of stairs, paying $3, and being checked by security, we entered into the concert space, which had 2 bars and a nice couch area all the way to the right. I situated myself toward the left of the stage and was all the way in the front. In a short amount of time, the opening acts, Jace and Finding Novyon came on. The venue was pretty packed at this point, and the crowd began jumping up and down and pushing each other side to side, without causing too much harm. Crowd surfing and fans trying to push themselves onto the stage followed right after. The audience's savagery intensified throughout the rest of the night, and, oddly enough, was celebrated. In between people dressed in taco and hamburger costumes, the smoke of vapors, the smell of various people's sweat mixed together, and failed attempts from certain audience members to use illicit drugs, I was given a space be present in the moment. As soon as Yung Lean came on, the energy exploded as Lean performed a variety of songs from various albums, including his EP. I didn't want the night to end because this is by far one of the coolest concerts I've ever been too. Afterwards, we were all told to leave the concert room, and I was unsure of whether Lean would be willing to take pictures with fans. He proved to be the exact opposite of who I thought he was. He came downstairs, took pictures, and immediately became one of the coolest rappers I've ever met. I will definitely be on the lookout to further concerts and wish him the best in his career.

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Going into the Fillmore at Silver Spring, on the second night of Yung Lean's U.S. Warlord tour, I expected a majority or even all of the tracks on his setlist to be from the recent release of Warlord, and very few of tracks from his previous projects. With that, I was excitedly surprised to hear Motorola come in right after his opening track. He played most of my favorites throughout the performance, notably Volt, Diamonds, Sandman, Monster, and the encores of Yoshi City and Ginseng Strip 2002

Opening before Lean was Adamn Killa, whom I hadn't heard of prior, but with which I was pleasantly surprised to experience. His laid-back Chief Keef like style and the intense bass of each song was a nice and relaxing introduction to the banging opening of Hoover just an hour later.

Yung Lean live was vocally much more interesting than I had anticipated. With Leandoer's high energy, dancing around the stage and practically screaming into the mic, and Bladee's more relaxed back-up vocals occasionally harmonizing in dream-like ways (especially during Diamonds and Monster), it was a heart-racing and extremely energetic night. The crowd's mosh-like jumping and screaming along to the bangers blasting from the stage only added to the energy.

I went with a friend who hadn't heard any of Lean's music spare a few music videos beforehand, and he loved the obsessive energy of the crowd and both Lean's personality and musical appeal. His live set being so much more powerful than his studio music would likely sway any "on the fence" casual fans of Lean into wishing he'd never left stage.

Overall, it was definitely one of the best performances I've ever been to.

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#sadboys Say what you will about Yung Lean's talent. Most will say it isn't there, and I find myself as one of the few arguing not only its existence, but its greatness; Yung Lean knows how to put on a show. His first ever US show, a sold out show at Webster Hall, was easily the best show I've ever been too. He performed never-before-heard songs, as well as running through all the classics. Every line was echoed from the front of the room to the back. Never before have I been so captured by a performance, literally. The crowd pogos and sways, following Leandoer like Simon Says. The whole #sadboys crew is dancing up on stage, as well as stage diving. He threw his hat into the audience early on, and quickly donned another one. Much to my surprise, he then hurled this hat into the audience only 2 songs later. His charisma and love for the music truly shows in his live performances. Get tickets while you still can.

first concert i went to and it was great. 2 friends accompanied me and i hate em both. but yung lean was great. he crowdsurfed us and we touched him. his legs were in my face and i was very happy. everything was great except for the fact that i did not once see gud or sherman. palmistry supported the show and his music was sick too, unfortunately nobody knew the lyrics but everything was still great. thank you yung lean your music makes me very happy dadi.

the show seemed like it was going to be extremely dope. but me and my friend were denied entry for not bringing an ID after the flyer said " ALL AGES " isnt yung lean under 18 ? lol but its w,e that guy was an asshole we drove all the way from Jersey to get denied by tht asshole btw we are over 21+ fake ass security guard

The Yung Lean concert was one of the best alternative concerts I ever saw. The people were very kind. And I really like the hipster scene so... Yung Lean is just awesome and I thaught he wouldn't be good live but he is even better live then on YouTube for example.

Greetings from Belguim

I saw Yung Lean & Sadboys at Neptune Theater in Seattle, March 2016. Yung Lean brought much more energy than I anticipated from his recordings. For someone so young, he's a great performer and he knows how to get a crowd going. His set ran pretty short though. It lasted only an hour.

The YUNG LEAN and SAD BOYS was crazy and hyped! It was the best concert Ive been too. I also got to meet yung lean and thaiboy, they were really cool. We NEED ANOTHER SHOW IN SAN DIEGO before they leave!!!

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Yung Lean Stardust Tour [Night One]

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Swedish cloud rap superstar Yung Lean headlines two nights at the Knockdown Center on his Stardust Tour. It’s his first NY appearance since 2018 and the release of his film “Yung Lean: In My Head.”

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Yung Lean Tour Dates

Swedish rapper Yung Lean will be making his way to North America later in 2022 to support his brand new mixtape 'Stardust' . The 5-city journey kicks off November 30th in Montreal and extends into December making additional stops in Toronto, Brooklyn, Philadelphia and Chicago. Prior to the North American shows, the tour will be heading over to Europe for additional performances.

Yung Lean released his fourth mixtape 'Stardust' on April 8th, 2022 via World Affairs. His previous 2020 studio album 'Starz' reached #39 in Sweden and features a guest appearance by Ariel Pink on its title track. Back in 2018, the artist launched his Stranger Tour which was joined by his other Sad Boys members including Yung Sherman and Yung Gud.

Yung Lean Concert Schedule

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Yung Lean: Lavender

• OreoMilkShake
• Ginseng Strip 2002

Yung Lean: Stranger

• Red Bottom Sky
• Silver Arrows
• Metallic Intuition
• Push / Lost Weekend
• Salute / Pacman
• Drop It / Scooter
• Hunting My Own Skin
• Snakeskin / Bullets
• Fallen Demon

Yung Lean: Kyoto

Yung Lean: Unknown Memory

• Blommor (intro)
• Sunrise Angel
• Ice Cold Smoke
• Dog Walk (intermission)

Yung Lean: Starz

• Boylife in EU
• Outta My Head
• Dance in the Dark
• Acid at 7/11
• Butterfly Paralyzed

Yung Lean Concert Tour Questions & Comments

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On “Violence”, the fourth song on Yung Lean ’s seventh full-length Starz , the rapper paraphrases a mob boss from The Departed , played by Jack Nicholson: “You’re a product of your environment, my environment’s a product of me.” It’s less of a flex than a statement of fact: Lean is a foundational figure in the pantheon of white, middle-class kids making divisive internet rap. But Jonatan Leandoer Håstad, now rebranded as a vulnerable creative polymath, seeks something deeper than a Yung Lean coronation on his new album: instead of sampling the quote in all its iconic gravitas, Lean mutters his version through a sonic fog, the words ash-choked and made into his own. On Starz , Yung Lean turns inward without losing his rare ear for speaker-shaking rap, and creates some of the most compelling music of his hip-hop career.

Lean debuted in 2013 as the term “white privilege” was entrenched in the mainstream, and his music became a tinderbox for conversation. On viral tracks like “Ginseng Strip 2002,” “Oreomilkshake,” and “Gatorade,” Lean was a hormonal 16-year-old Swedish teenager obsessed with OJ Da Juiceman and cloud rappers like Main Attrakionz; he sounded exactly like he was supposed to. Well, almost: Lean’s youthful features and crisp, alien Scandinavian accent may have lent a clownish quality to bars about drugs, sex, and corner store snacks (Lean insists his music has never been intentionally funny). On the other hand, Lean created drugged-out atmospheres with palpable enthusiasm, and his lo-fi visual aesthetic so close to cringe, it could only ever be cool. Rather than sign his collective Sad Boys to a label, Lean created his own: Sky Team (now YEAR0001). The independent streak was hard to discount, even if the music wasn’t.

On Starz , Yung Lean turns inward without losing his rare ear for speaker-shaking rap, and creates some of the most compelling music of his hip-hop career.

Håstad’s musical trajectory shifted after the 2015 death of Barron Machat, Yung Lean’s U.S. manager and co-founder of the experimental label Hippos In Tanks. On subsequent projects, Håstad for the first time sounded truly invested in creating something worthwhile from the bleakness that infested his life. He started a punk band with longtime producer Gud called Död Mark, channeled his inner Dean Blunt as jonatan leandoer96, and wrote for Frank Ocean. On his rap records, Lean’s flow got tighter — bars are no longer back loaded with syllables — and his singing voice developed into an unexpected source of range. Lean is blackout drunk and endlessly suave on the decadent and tender rap ballads “Red Bottom Sky” and “Hennessy & Sailor Moon,” and delivers deadpan wretchedness on “Agony” from 2017’s ambitious, patchy Stranger .

On Starz , Lean builds on the melodic excellence of those songs and continues wrestling with his demons. As on Stranger , Lean on Starz sounds like an undead creature of the night who spends his time counting his treasure, reading poetry, and searching out rap on YouTube. But a special Lean song has a text or subtext of romance: the album’s sublime title track, which features Ariel Pink, recounts transcendent puppy love over an ice storm of synth pads: “When I met you that summer I thought it would never end / It would never end / You never end.” He stretches the concept to an absurd, wonderful place on “Butterfly Paralyzed,” a gamble on colliding Darude with 808s & Heartbreak that pays off. Some of Lean’s older songs can aspire to a rote rap ruthlessness as every day as a Jason mask ; he can achieve it, and serve the song better, when he embraces the ineffable. On lead single “Boylife in EU,” a swooning reimagination of witch house with a strident sincerity, Lean creates the resonant scene of a corrupted haven: “Pretend this dream will never end,” he intones over a funereal synth. “Some things can't be unsaid.”

In older projects, Lean’s flexing sounded a size too small for his Gucci track pants as he delivered lines that sounded like someone’s younger brother who had forced himself into a cypher. That tendency isn’t completely outgrown on Starz . While Lean now longer attacks each syllable of his brags, his quiet confidence isn’t enough for him to deliver more juvenile lines with the effectiveness of rappers he looks up to. “Fendi tee, there’s no remedy / I got a lot of enemies” he raps on “Hellraiser,” sounding more Kidz Bop than Don Corleone. But for every clunker Lean drops, he more than makes up the ground: on “Acid at 7/11,” Lean documents the peak of a drug trip made more sublime by the designer he’s wearing and the hate he successfully deflects. “Yayo,” a song which is essentially a two-minute hook, makes drug-fuelled burnout sound beautiful thanks to Lean’s golden earworm: “Miami yayo-yayo-yayo-yayo-yayo-yah.”

Starz is a worthy addition to the recent boomlet of notable releases from Lean’s associates, albums like Ecco2k’s e , Bladee’s Exeter , and Thaiboy Digital’s Legendary Member . The most valuable connecting thread is not Lean himself but his stable of producers, Gud, Sherman, and whitearmour, who all worked on or impacted these projects (whitearmour produced the entirety of Starz with co-production from Sherman). The two Starz producers have considerably leveled up their talents in recent releases, and on the new project they build on the sizable influence of Clams Casino: tempestuous-yet-delicate rave electronics meet trap drums that can be propulsive or sedentary. For Lean, the sound is a perfect symbiote that can absorb him (“Sunset Sunrise”) or talk with his lyrics (“Dancing In The Dark.”)

The way Starz makes its past influences sound like prologue is reflected on Yung Lean’s own body. He has two tattoos on his neck: a scraggly stick-and-poke rendition of Goofy rests beneath his right ear, while a demon perches on the other side of his throat, its posture suggesting deep thought and dread. The images could be points in a timeline of Lean’s career, from twisted cartoon to tortured auteur, but our experience of time is not linear: On “Pikachu,” Lean twists a simile made famous by one of his biggest influences, Young Thug , comparing jewelry to Pokemon. It’s a homage, but as on the best moments of Starz , Yung Lean finds ways to make the past work for him instead of against. “Yellow black bracelet look like Pikachu” he mumbles in a flow learned from Atlanta; the words may not fully belong to Yung Lean, but they are his own, and there are more reasons to keep listening than ever.

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Yung Lean’s “Stardust” tour omits new tracks in favor of old hits

Swedish artist Yung Lean appeared at Franklin Music Hall in Philadelphia, PA on Dec. 6, 2022 as part of his Stardust Tour. Named after Lean’s “Stardust” mixtape released on April 8, 2022, this tour contained nine Europe shows, two Canada shows and six United States shows along with two added stops in Australia in January 2023.  

Since his debut in 2013 with the project “Unknown Death 2002,” Lean has been acknowledged as an influential figure in hip hop, specifically the subgenre “Cloud rap.” Like the name implies, this music has hazy, light characteristics while also containing elements of trap beats and electronic hip hop instrumentals.

In the leadup to Lean’s performance, operatic music similar to the famous Halo theme had played throughout the venue, an uncommon twist from the usual hip hop hits you hear in between acts at a rap concert. It was obvious that Lean wanted his shows to be unique in comparison with other concerts that his fans may see. 

At 8:58 p.m., the music stopped, the lights went down and a dramatic narration that spoke of “the rise and fall of heroes” began. Four minutes later, Lean burst on to the stage to perform “My Agenda” off of his 2020 album “Starz.” His attire was a large, wizard-esque cloak that turned him into a shadowy figure on stage. The lights were pulsing near the stage floor which made it difficult to make out his appearance from afar. Behind him was an eerie projected image of a house. 

Despite the tour being promotion for Lean’s most recent project “Stardust,” his setlist did not contain a single track from the mixtape. Considering his extensive catalog, Lean may have thought that his fans would rather experience the older “classic” songs instead of the newest material, which did experiment with slightly more pop-leaning sounds in songs like “Lips” and “Bliss” with FKA twigs. In the merch area, exclusive physical copies of “Stardust” were sold along with clothing featuring the era’s artwork. Both CD and vinyl copies are hard to find online, and could sell for far above the price on the tour. 

Lean would go on to perform more songs from “Starz” such as “Boylife in EU,” “Pikachu” and “Put Me in a Spell.” He performed tracks such as “bender++girlfriend” and “Smirnoff Ice” released in 2018 and 2019. Near the beginning of the show Lean performed a cover of “Diamonds” by Thaiboy Digital, who is a frequent collaborator with Lean along with Drain Gang artists. 

Fans in the GA floor were excited throughout the whole show– jumping and throwing shirts into the air periodically. Lean brought the energy in his delivery and presence throughout the set, though occasionally a track would hit a slower section that was more relaxed. During more calm, singing tracks Lean would deliver the whole song live, opting not to shorten his songs’ arrangements very often. 

About halfway through the set, he performed the iconic “Ginseng Strip 2002” off of the 2013 EP “Lavender.” While being a defining song throughout Lean’s career, it had an insane resurgence as one of the most popular tracks on TikTok in 2022. It was a highlight of the night to see such an important and influential song performed live. Around this time Lean also played older tracks such as “Hurt,” “Yoshi City,” “Gatorade” and “Ghosttown.” 

After a quick break at 9:40 p.m. Lean (in a new, thinner cloak) performed a section of slower songs that began with “Hotel In Minsk,” a track from his 2016 project “Psychopath Ballads” released under the alias jonatan leandoer96. As a play on his birth name Jonatan Aron Leandoer Håstad, “leandoer” has released three projects on streaming services that are distinct from his Yung Lean persona. Following “Hotel,” Lean sang “Put Me in a Spell,” “Leanworld,” “Agony” and “Yellowman” before leaving the stage yet again. 

For his final encore, Lean ended the show with “Miami Ultras” from his 2016 album “Warlord.” This was an appropriately loud, messy ending to a show that covered the many sounds of Lean’s career. While it was a bit confusing to not hear any of the namesake songs during this tour stop, it was still an impressive show as Lean proved that he was not afraid to perform long, singing tracks passionately on stage as well as loud, raging rap songs. 

(Some of the song identification in this article is courtesy of setlist.fm.)

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May 21, 2020

Yung Lean moaned so Lil Xan could mumble. With his sad-boy aesthetic, the Swedish cloud-rap pioneer set the stage for all the polarizing, Very Online baby-faced white rappers to follow in his wake. (“I thought it was funny, a 16-year-old kid rapping about coke,” he said recently .) But Yung Lean’s music has rarely served as anything more than a bridge for other rappers to advance across. “Yeah, I’m only 23 but there’s like, like, ten of me,” he raps on his new album Starz , not just a flex of his pedigree but an unwitting critique of how easy his stuff is to replicate. Lean deserves a lot of credit for being ahead of his time, but to paraphrase Drake , it isn’t about who does it first, it’s about who does it right, and on Starz , his methods seem outmoded and nondescript.

The sounds Lean helped popularize are better off in the more capable hands of his Drain Gang collaborators, especially Bladee and Ecco2k , who push the music well beyond his limits on recent projects . Many other rappers have taken bits of the Sad Boys style and scurried off in so many different directions it’s hard to do a head count, but several of them did something more worthwhile with it. Lean, for his part, has remained largely static. Even as he’s become more comfortable with himself, there’s still an emptiness to his music that makes it seem uninhabited. Starz feels like an abandoned promotional website for a tentpole blockbuster: A snapshot of a bygone little kingdom unto itself, standing still, oblivious to the world that has passed it by.

On 2017’s Stranger , Lean polished his songcraft a bit, and he stopped turning sadness into a meme and started reckoning with it. “ Red Bottom Sky ” showed his pop chops, and “Yellowman” teased the offbeat experimental musician he could potentially grow into. Sadly, the songs on Starz don’t really move in either direction. He’s still largely plagued by the same issues that hampered him in 2013: His boasting isn’t just inauthentic, it’s boring , and glimpses of real, genuine emotion are far too rare. On Starz , it’s easy to imagine most of the songs being better if someone else were performing, or if no one was performing at all.

The music’s punch and pathos come from producer and frequent collaborator whitearmor. His icy electronics make Lean’s one-dimensional performances seem stereoscopic. The erupting synths on “Violence” nearly blot out the stains of Lean’s expressionless rapping: “Put the money in motion, I pull strings, Geppetto,” he says, sounding more like the puppet that has yet to become a real boy. The crystalline arpeggios on “Acid at 7/11” aren’t enough to salvage the amelodic chants or the song’s fleeting moment of introspection (“I sold my soul when I was very young/I’m so gone”). Lean has talked before about the titular harrowing incident in Canada, seeing a man crack his skull open at the convenience store while he was high on LSD, describing it as the worst drug experience of his life, but that isn’t the song he wrote. Too many of his songs operate in this way—as approximations of episodes that never quite articulate the feeling.

The rapping on Starz , if it can even be called that, is utterly devoid of character. Lean regresses into bad habits, disappearing into empty flexing. “Pikachu” is the most explicit “ Young Thug did it better ” moment, and on songs like “Hellraiser” and “Iceheart,” Lean’s mentions of brands feel like product placement. There are flashes of evocative writing buried deep. “My dreams are in heaven, I won’t sell you them/Yeah, I lost a friend but we will meet again,” he raps on “Low.” He has a painterly way with melancholic imagery when he bothers: “Blood writings on the moon paint the sky/Living is whatever, I know what it feels to die,” he raps on “Sunset Sunrise.” But most of the time, he doesn’t bother, and whole stretches of the tape pass by without evoking a single identifiable emotion.

Yung Lean is most tolerable on Starz when his songs play into the surrealism. On the yappy “Dogboy” and the crooned “Boylife in EU,” his oddball personality jumps out. The closer, “Put Me in the Spell” is closer to the Fray than any rap song, and while his singing is strained and incompetent, at least he’s going for it. Too much of the album seems satisfied with the small space Lean was able to carve out for himself.

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7 Best Moments From Usher’s Past Present Future Tour Stop in New York City

The R&B star dazzled Brooklyn's Barclays Center with an all-absorbing, career-spanning spectacle that adds another coat of gold to his renaissance.

By Ralph Bristout

Ralph Bristout

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It was not a drill Friday night (Sept. 6) in Brooklyn. Usher -mania had arrived. After having serenaded the nation for two-and-a-half-years with the hottest Las Vegas residency in the land, and readjusting his crown at the Super Bowl XLVIII halftime show, the R&B icon brought his Ursher-issance to the Barclays Center with a show-stopping blitz that proves he’s operating at a new prime.

For the thousands of fans who packed out the first of four sold-out shows as part of his Past Present Future tour, the night was special for several reasons. For some, it was a chance to scratch one larger-than-life concert off their bucket list (“I never got to see Michael Jackson live, but I’ve seen Beyoncé and now Usher,” said one concert-goer). For others, it was the opportunity to relive the headline-making My Way the Vegas Residency experience (“We saw him in Vegas, too,” gushed another excited fan). But the number one objective for everyone on this night (including this writer) was simple: “Gonna boogie, tonight…”

The aptly titled tour, which launched in August with two sold-out performances in Washington, D.C., lived up its namesake as the king of R&B left the borough known to keep it thorough in a warm blanket of nostalgic and euphoric bliss. Much of the two-hour show felt less like a concert and more of a celebration of the man whose music has soundtracked lives, redefined a genre, and shifted the pop-culture landscape over the last 30 years. But age is furthest from the mind when watching the singer, especially as his liquid movements evokes the same “how’s he still performing at this level” wonderment that stalks LeBron James. Whether pop-locking, leaping, or standing next to a video of his younger self, the timelessness of Ursher did indeed writ large over the course of the night.

At around 9:30 p.m., the singer popped up on stage, commanding court with the kind of spellbinding aura that Michael Jackson exemplified during his fan-faint-outs era, and opened with “Coming Home,” the title track from his latest chart-topping outing. He followed that up with “Hey Daddy (Daddy’s Home),” which quickly summoned ecstatic gasps from the audience mid “I just wanna get your attention…” Like that, the sold-out audience went down memory lane.

After “1993” appeared on the screen, along with a digitally-rendered teenage version of the singer, he danced along to a medley of his earlier records — “Call Me a Mack,” which originally appeared on the 1993 Poetic Justice soundtrack, “Think of You” and “Can U Get With It.” Soon after, the “You Make Me Wanna” singer time-shifted through the decades, as the capacity-crowd, decked in their flyest and finest, played the role of back-up singers — and, judging by the swaying bodies in the aisles and rows, back-up dancers, too. Spreading love is the Brooklyn way, after all. The Grammy award-winning showman floated on that cloud of love through the night, cascading through a plethora of his genre-defying hits that kept those aisles and rows rocking in a rhythmic trance. He traveled to 1997, performing “My Way” and “You Make Me Wanna” to resounding shrieks before loading up tunes from the 2000s with “U Remind Me” and “U Don’t Have To Call.”

By the time he got to his diamond-certified magnum opus, Confessions — an album that celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, after spawning four No. 1s on the Billboard Hot 100 chart — it was sheer pandemonium. There was “Caught Up,” followed by some of “Yeah!” before the song was abruptly interrupted by a “system malfunction” alert on the screen. But ever the consummate performer, Usher kept the show rolling by flipping the chronological script, hitting shuffle, and pulling out the roller skates for “Don’t Waste My Time” and “Love in this Club.”

As concupiscent shrills showered him through “Nice & Slow,” he operated with the eros of the moment — stripping down to a white tank top, jeans and his signature “U” diamond pendant — and saucily mime-humped the mic stand after having already turned up the heat with “Lovers and Friends.” If that wasn’t enough, the rapt audience melted at the knees once his sterling silver vocals belted out that well-known falsetto to “Superstar.”

And there were a number of other superstars in the house, as well. After prowling through the audience while singing “There Goes My Baby,” he spotted and serenaded celebrities Taraji P. Henson (“You starting the celebration of your birthday early,” he beamed), Victoria Monet, who danced along with the singer to “On My Mama,” and rapper Yung Miami. Not long after, he brought out Fat Joe and Ja Rule, who also won the crowd over with their string of classics, including “What’s Luv” and “Put it On Me.”

As the night wound down, with energy levels depleted following run-throughs of “OMG” “There Goes My Baby,” and “DJ Got Us Fallin’ in Love” among others, Ursh, now wearing a glittering blue leather Vanson motorcycle jacket, sent the capacity-sized arena into a tizzy when he finally unleashed “Yeah!” without interruption. “I was able to turn Barclays into the house of Usher,” he said. A fitting way to close out a hit-filled spectacle that stamped an emphatic “Watch this” for those still wondering “how’s he still performing at this level?”

But that’s not all, here are the seven best moments from night one of Usher’s four-night rendezvous in Brooklyn.

Unmatched Performer

Between his musical wizardry and masterful choreography, it’s no hyperbole to say Usher is the greatest showman of his time. The 19,000 clamoring fans Friday night (Sept. 6) can attest. While his 30-year trail up to this point has provided innumerable examples, including sharing the stage with the great James Brown and Michael Jackson, the performance inside Barclays no doubt reinforced those gifts.

He is a performer whose meticulousness yields nothing less than fascination. To incorporate the iconic choreography from some of his iconic music videos like “U Don’t Have to Call,” exchange his sneakers for roller skates for “Love in this Club,” run through multiple wardrobe changes, and still possess the voice through it all to burst out a ballad like the heart-wrenching “U Got it Bad” or an eruptive dancefloor number like “Yeah!” was like something out of Broadway. No details were spared, and the result was nothing short of excellent.

Timeless Classics

Between the hits (“You Make Me Wanna…,” “U Got it Bad”), the blockbusters (“Yeah!,” “OMG”), and the special ones abounded in cultural reverence (“There Goes My Baby,” “Throwback”), Usher’s yellow brick road of classics was undeniable.

That everything sounds just as fresh as they did in circa 1997, 2001 or 2004 is a testament to the singer’s enduring catalog. The show carefully curates this by traveling through these eras as a way to illustrate the singer’s transformation through the years, from burgeoning heartthrob (“Call Me a Mack, “Think of You”) to R&B superstar (“My Way,” “U Remind Me”), pop behemoth (“Burn,” “Confessions Part II”) and now, icon.

Stats aside, the winning ingredient that powers the undeniability of these records is the emotional intimacy within them. That’s why a “Lovers and Friends” almost always elicits a squeal (or three) mere seconds after “Uhh, oh-oh-oh.” The messiness of “You Make Me Wanna…” immediately pulls listeners into a trance recalling that one time, while the firewood crackle of “Nice & Slow” almost instantly draws “It’s 7 o’clock, I’m in my drop top cruising the streets” being sung in unison.

These hits became hits because his music holds a velvet-roped space in our hippocampus. As a listener, these records feel just as part of your life as the plastic covered couch in grandma or auntie’s living room. What’s more, he captures this connection on the stage, emitting as much palpable joy performing them as the audience does singing along. Brooklyn concertgoers were sent into a beatific reverie.

Give the Band and Dancers Some

The “gumbo,” as he described during his “Tiny Desk” performance for NPR in 2022, provided the secret sauce to the winning recipe on stage. But it wasn’t just the incredible live band that brought Usher’s catalog to life, it was the dancers, as well. From the crew crisscrossing on skates to the pole dancers bringing a taste of Magic City to the Brook, the interplay between the singer and his uber-talented team of performers put the “u” in unbelievable.

Taraji P. Henson, Victoria Monet & More Jump Onstage

As the music world continues to mourn the loss of Isaac Freeman III, better known as Fatman Scoop, Usher and his legendary DJ, DJ Mars, paid tribute to hip-hop’s ultimate hypeman by playing a few of his records, including “Be Faithful.”

Plus, seeing as how the show was just minutes away from Bedford-Stuyvesant, the singer couldn’t have kept going without a toast to Brooklyn’s favorite son The Notorious B.I.G., and he did. With his live band in tow, the singer slipped into a red attire and shifted into a silky rendition of “Big Poppa” incorporating the Isley Brothers’ “Between the Sheets” sample. “I love it when you call me, Ursher baby,” he sang.

Elsewhere, he invited Taraji P. Henson, Victoria Monet and Yung Miami to the stage, where they made it rain as pole dancers left the audience in awe while performing to “I Don’t Mind.” Of course, hip-hop was also in the building. Joining the singer later on in the night was Fat Joe, who tore the roof off with “Lean Back,” “All the Way Up,” and “What’s Luv.” For the latter, he was joined by Ja Rule, who sent the crowd into sheer excitement with his rich catalog: “New York” and “Put it On Me.”

For as many hits in his catalog, there were plenty of outfits to match — just in time for 2024 New York Fashion Week, no less. Through the two-hour set, Usher slipped in and out of eight wardrobe pieces. By the sixth song he was in his third outfit of the night. It was award-show-host level. Among the top-tier selections from the drip overflow, was a sequined black blazer and trousers that he wore while roller-skate-performing to “Don’t Waste My Time” and “Love in this Club” and a cherry red fur overcoat that was bright enough to make Elmo blush.

Nice & Intimate

How Usher was able to make a capacity-sized arena feel like an intimate nightclub is one of his superpowers. “Prepare for an intimate ride,” echoed one of the videos before he appeared on stage, and while that may have seemed almost impossible inside a 19,000-seat arena, the night very much felt that way.

Over the course of the night, the ambience kept changing to match the temperature set on stage. There were moments like during performances of “Lil Freak” and “Bad Girl” that felt like a cabaret. Other moments like during “I Don’t Mind” that felt like Magic City.

The rules of science dictate that you can’t physically go back in time. However, Usher’s elaborate three-dimensional LED-screen contraption delivered the visual composite to the Time Stone of Marvel Comics lore. It not only transported fans through the decades by introducing the albums and years, but it also provided visual context, like projecting a lookalike 14-year-old rendition of the singer dancing along to “Call Me a Mack” and setting the background scene, whether it’s a strip club or steamy bedroom session.

At one point, during “Caught Up” the screen flashed numerous headlines and magazine pull quotes about the singer to complement lines like, “And every lover, in and out my life, I’ve hit, love and left with tears/ Without a care.” At another point in the night, it featured a montage of him as a child dreaming up the moment that is now the present.

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