Houston, TX – YoungBoy Never Broke Again‘s sold-out show at Houston’s Revention Music Center on March 6 was one of the city’s last concerts before the pandemic. Just hours after Austin’s SXSW was canceled — soon to be followed by festivals and concerts nationwide — the 20-year-old rapper turned up on stage with around 700 people, as a packed crowd danced and sang along in the stands.
In an upcoming interview with Houston concert promoter Tony Snow, whose Good Fellas Entertainment company was behind YoungBoy’s show, Snow reveals how the sold-out event was one of the last allowed performances in the city, as venues, tours and festivals quickly became canceled due to COVID-19.
“I did NBA YoungBoy probably like the weekend right before it happened (March 6),” Snow told HipHopDX. “I had to basically cancel everything after that. When I started seeing them shutting down the Coachella, the Rolling Loud, I knew it was over for me.”
While YoungBoy has continued his momentum with his No. 1-debuting mixtape, 38 Baby 2, concert and festival organizers have scrambled to stay afloat during a time of unprecedented uncertainty in the live entertainment business.
“They shut down all the events that were coming and mine was the actual beginning, like, right when they started talking about it,” Snow continued. “They wasn’t even talking about it, publicly. They didn’t start talking about it until I think the day of [the NBA YoungBoy show] and the day after. But, it was already too late by then.”
However, even with news about the pandemic just beginning to unfurl, Snow said his attention was on YoungBoy and the rowdy concert.
“I couldn’t think about [coronavirus] at all — I had to worry about [YoungBoy],” he revealed. “He’s a firecracker. He could be on one day, turned off the next day. So, that was the real lesson learned for me, was [working with] him. He’s the one that you’ve got to make sure is in the building. He’s a very talented artist but he’s very hard to work with.”
Check back in on HipHopDX for the full interview with Snow about the future of Houston‘s rap shows and see a clip from YoungBoy’s viral last show below.
@GGYOUNGBOY performing lonely child live in Houston tx pic.twitter.com/GI5jjmwfPZ
— Saleem (@baltajistrong) March 7, 2020