Offset. Photo by William Wark via UMG.
When he was eight years old in 2002, Offset served as a backup dancer in the video for “Whatchulookinat” by Whitney Houston (he’s the one in the grey suit). You might have caught a glimpse of his moves, perhaps at the 2019 BET Awards with Cardi B or 2023’s Rolling Loud Miami, impressive not for their intensity or complexity but for their synchronization and showmanship.
These skills are displayed throughout the thoughtfully executed Set It Off tour, which positions Offset as a star in his own right, not just half of a power couple or one-third of Migos, the 2010s’ biggest rap group. The set list largely draws from the namesake Set It Off, reenvisioning his October album via light restructuring and truncation. But casual fans can rest assured — he is going to do fan favorites.
Most of the venues on this tour have a capacity above 2,000, with bigger spots in Chicago and Los Angeles nearing 5,000. I saw Offset at one of the smallest: Bogart’s in Cincinnati, Ohio (capacity 1,500). The crowd was healthily full, a touch less packed than when Destroy Lonely and Ken Carson came to town on a Tuesday evening last February, but more diverse and with a far lower percentage of high schoolers.
The concert’s staging reflects Offset’s stadium-size ambitions for his show’s production. The standard setup at Bogart’s is pretty basic: a big screen for showing video behind an artist and not much else. When we arrived on Friday night, the center of the stage was dominated by a large staircase leading to a platform eight to 10 feet off the ground. This gleaming white set piece was veiled in black during opening performances by Moonrock Mont, Mango Foo, SleazyWorld Go, and Skilla Baby, all of whom were suitably energetic and good sports about hyping up a restless audience: doors opened at 7, but Offset didn’t take the stage until 10:30.
The moment he did, everything kicked into overdrive. Fog machines belched murky vapor, and backing tracks were punched up by live drums and guitars. Four dancers mirrored and accentuated Offset’s moves and lyrics, efficient and emphatic. The staircase and platform setup opened up the vertical axis, letting the performance fill the entire field of vision and enabling better sightlines for those of us further from the barricade.
The crowd’s biggest reactions were for Offset’s most popular songs (“Bad & Boujee”), but newer solo tracks like Travis Scott-feature “SAY MY GRACE” also received enthusiastic rap-alongs. I experienced a pang of euphoria when the music cut out to let the audience rap a capella, “Ric Flair drip go woo on a bitch/57 90 spent a coupe on my wrist.” Even songs fans might not know as well were met with decent energy, buoyed by Offset’s frankly magnetic stage presence. Roughly 45 minutes after his first song, he yelled into the mic, “IF YOU GOT MORE THAN $100 IN YOUR BANK ACCOUNT LET ME HEAR YOU SAY HELL YEAH.”
All of this was exactly what you hope for when you pay good money to see a successful rapper.
Offset easily ranks among the most dexterous rappers in the game. Naturally, his breath control and delivery were on point. But his singing (both Auto-Tuned and not) was satisfying too — when he crooned along to Don Toliver’s hook on “WORTH IT,” it felt impassioned rather than forced. Still, my favorite moments were visual rather than auditory, like when he broke into full choreography during the choruses of “FAN” and “BIG DAWG.” It was a little absurd, sure, but he was synced up and committed, and the moves felt organic rather than TikTok disposable. Unlike “WAP” or a K-pop group, these dances aren’t aiming to wow the audience on their own merits but to pump up already-hype songs. In that, they more than succeeded — it was hard not to grin watching Offset hit a subdued shimmy in the middle of “Rap Saved Me.” He relaxed a little at other points, focusing on rapping and letting his backup dancers do more of the movement as he bounced in place.
All of this was exactly what you hope for when you pay good money to see a successful rapper. According to an interview with The Chicago Tribune, Offset put some of his own money behind the production, and that investment shows. “I’m trying to take myself out of that box of just a ‘trap artist,’” he said. “I want people to respect me as an artist.”
But he doesn’t need any of these popstar accouterments to deliver a gripping performance. “ZEZE” rang off as he led us in an Auto-Tune singalong, standing alone near the top of the stairs; with more room to breathe in-person than on-wax, Set It Off deep cut “DON’T LIE” transfixed the crowd from start to finish, even if few of us knew the words. Of course, it was a thrill to scream along to “Patek Water” and “Fight Night,” but it was the lesser-known tracks — “SKYAMI” with Mango Foo, “Monday,” the aforementioned “DON’T LIE” — that stuck with me, the way the energy in the room stayed up even for the songs only a few people knew. At the close of the show, the fog machines erupted as lasers strobed, a thundercloud hovering over the stage. By the time it cleared, Offset was already backstage, out of sight. But the electricity still lingered in the air.
