BlerdCon 2019: SAMMUS Concert
Sammus is a rapper, producer, and educator from Ithaca, New York, who recently graduated from Cornell University with her Ph.D. Taking her name from Metroid protagonist Samus due to her love of the classic Nintendo game. Over the years, I heard nothing but good things about her. So when the opportunity arose to check her out live at Blerdcon, I had to jump on it.
So let’s dive right in!
Sammus is really something special.-she’s amazing! She raps, writes, and composes her own beats. Modern Renaissance Women, of the blerdy persuasion. As far as first impressions go, she’s really knocked this one out the park. This was my first time hearing a chunk of her catalog, and to be honest, I can’t imagine a better way to be inducted into the fandom.
Sammus stage presence is top-notch, and ya girl commands the microphone like a bawse. She engages with the audience like we’re best friends. Seamlessly moving from song to song without a hitch. You could tell she’s genuinely happy to be at an event with her peers. People who look, walk, and talk the way she does. That was something I felt the crowd also reciprocated because that was at least how I felt, which only helped to enhance the experience.
Quite a bit of her performance was done solo, but around the halfway mark, we were introduced to her bandmates: Zoe Brecher and Adrienne Hailey. They are known as the Galactic Fed!! (Federation) or a.k.a The Mocha Magic Orchestra. I really loved the fact they were all melanated peoples. I also really enjoy watching an artist perform with live instrumentation. It adds color to any performance.
Have I mentioned how dope her music was? You get gamer tracks, old school animation tracks, but then she also gives you that real shit with songs about mental illness or reflecting about darker times. Those are the types of things that really hit home for me. I wanna be able to vibe and celebrate with you, but I also wanna know what it took for you to get to this moment. And Sammus gave us that. I left this concert changes, and I mean that in every sense of the word. I was happy, energized, and motivated. I had such a great time, and I don’t think I can stress this enough.
So now it’s your turn to check her out and let me know what you think?
