Baby Tate Slays The House Boots Down At Union Stage!
By: Joulisa Francis
Although the rapper and songwriter first appeared on SoundCloud in 2015, I was surprised to hear Baby Tate announce her first tour following the release of her album titled "Baby Tate Presents: Sexploitation the Musical." As I entered the pit, Baby Tate was very enthusiastic about performing live for her audience. She bounced around the stage while interacting with her multiple fans in the crowd. One of the first things I noticed was she rapped along to every lyric of her songs without relying on background vocals. Primarily, during her song "Jersey," she performed choreography while singing the hook with high energy.
One of my favorite parts of the show was that Tate clearly paid homage to the queer community by including local drag queens as part of the experience, as it was a clear influence within her latest project.
The performance was separated into three parts, with Baby Tate theatrically running off stage crying between each scene. However, the show continued during the intermissions with performances from the drag queens. "Y'all remember this is a drag show, right?!" shouted the DJ into the mic. The first queen was extremely lively, dancing to "Alien Superstar" by Beyonce and perfectly lip syncing every lyric. As the intermission continued, she went off-stage into the middle of the pit, interacting with crowd members. Various Baby Tate fans applauded her as she performed additional songs from Beyonce’s Renaissance album like "America Has a Problem" and "Pure/Honey." Shortly after, Baby Tate reappeared in an outfit change with as much energy as ever to the song "Eenie Meenie."
"You guys were attacking me to add DC to the tour— I kept getting comments asking, 'Where is DC?'" stated Baby Tate at one point, laughing. Although she was being sarcastic, I was extremely happy she took the initiative to listen to her fanbase and perform here. Although she did seem nervous at the start since it was her first tour, her overall positive demeanor resulted in an enjoyable show. To end, the rapper finished with an alternative-rock version of her song "Wig." I was amazed throughout but she blew my expectations away with her live performance of the song, topping it off with a high note as fans threw their personal wigs on stage. Although this was her first tour, it definitely will not be her last.