Pigeons and Planes is a publication put together by Complex that looks to showcase brand new music from all different genres from all over the world. For a few years now, Pigeons and Planes have been hosting their own events called ‘No Ceilings’, “which began with the simple idea of translating online music discovery to a memorable IRL experience.” Over the past couple of years they’ve been able to host shows in London, New York, and Austin, but this time, Pigeons and Planes decided to switch it up. They always had an interest in hitting more cities and what better way to do that, then a ‘No Ceilings’ tour!
The ‘No Ceilings’ official tour started on April 18th and went until May 2nd. On the lineup was Boogie, Kemba, Michael Christmas, and Kaiydo. On April 25th it hit the Bottom Lounge in Chicago and thanks to Biz-3 I was able to attend the show!
Opening up the tour package, you had Kemba. Let me first say this, for any of you old heads complaining about the ‘new wave’ of hip-hop and mumble music, well here’s a new artist you need to start listening to. Hailing from The Bronx, Kemba embodies your NYC spitter mentality. Opening up with a cold acapella freestyle, he gets right into my favorite song of his, “Already” produced by Frank Drake. I first caught the attention of Kemba when Kendrick brought him on stage in New York City and he spit this freestyle. While I’m writing down notes in my phone from his set, I hear a few lines that caught my attention and realize it’s that same freestyle he spit on stage with Kendrick. When you see Kemba, you see a huge smile and calming presence, but don’t let that fool you, Kemba spits some of the most potent and vicious bars. If nobody else is going to say it, I will, Kemba is definitely one you should keep your eyes on over these next couple of years.
Following Kemba, we had Florida native, Kaiydo bless the stage. Thank you to Dana Meyerson from Biz-3 who put me on to Kaiydo a few months back. Kaiydo is a 19 year old, recent high school graduate who is set to hit the stage on almost every single major festival this year and last week I finally got to see why. Developing a huge following over the past year, Kaiydo has over 10m streams on his biggest song “Fruit Punch”. Touching the stage with a huge smile, Kaiydo lets us know that this is his first tour and he’s very thankful for Pigeons & Planes and for the crowd for coming out. He drops the first song, which was Fruit Punch, his biggest song to date and you start to see the crowd vibe with it. Phones out, snapchat open, the crowd starts having a ton of fun. Following Fruit Punch, he keeps the high energy and transitions into his next biggest song, ‘Arcade’, which was the second single he ever released. On this song, Kaiydo makes it clear that, although he is new in the industry, he isn’t playing any games. The future is going to be very bright for the young humble Kaiydo if he continues dropping hits like he already has. If you’re attending Bonnaroo, Electric Forest, Governors Ball, or Firefly festival, make sure you stop and catch a Kaiydo set. It will be filled with good vibes and hella turnup!
As we continue on through the night, Michael Christmas hits the stage next. All I can say is if he wasn’t rapping, he forsure could be a comedian. Instead of playing new songs, Michael Christmas wanted to take it back a little bit, and play a few of his older songs first. Michael Cera is the first song he opened his set with. The way the crowd was interacting, it was clear that most people were there for Michael. Following up with another song from “Is This Art”? he dropped ‘Y’all Trippin’ and the crowd started to really started to interact with this one. Fast forward on through his set and he announces the title of his new album “Role Model” and follows it up with a question, “Am I a role-model or a piece of shit”? Michael is a real one, he ran his set late and ended by saying “I love Chicago, it would be my favorite city in the world, if I wasn’t from Boston.”
Last, but not least, headlining the show we had Boogie. I had not listened to Boogie before this set, so I had no idea what was in store. Hailing from Compton, right away, he opens up with a lot of energy with his song, ‘No Way’, which truly hyped the crowd up. One thing I can say after seeing Boogie is just how good of stage presence he has. Completely switching the tempo, he transitions into a love song, ‘Sunroof’, which features Dana Williams on the hook. While not knowing any of Boogies songs, I sit back and listened to key lines of his raps and one that really stood out was from his song, ‘let me rap’ where he said, “I’m like a bougie soccer player, I can’t kick it with dudes who got no goals”. Due to the show not being on time, Boogies set clearly got cut short after only performing a few songs.
Written By: Nico Rud
Chicago Creatives 
Dope!
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Great write-up bro!
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