20 Jun 29 - July 5, 2023 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents Voodoo Queen Erykah Badu called Blueface ‘trash’ and turned the universe against him. BY DANNY GALLAGHER D o you know what you have to do to piss off Erykah Badu? It’s like getting Mr. Rogers to tell you to go BLANK yourself. The endlessly wise and open- minded singer even has the heart to remain one of Kanye’s last friends. Blueface must’ve really got under Badu’s silky smooth skin because Dallas’ Queen of Neo-Soul basically asked fate itself to turn its eye-popping gaze his way on Instagram. And the universe, no surprise, is a Badu fan. The Los Angeles rapper, who managed to earn Badu’s vengeance, first found viral fame with his 2018 track “Respect My Cryp- pin,” which got him a record deal with Cash Money West. There, he scored big in 2020 with the single “Thotiana.” He’s also known for his amateur boxing bouts and, oh, for a charge of attempted murder that followed with a civil lawsuit for firing a gun in a Las Vegas strip club in Octo- ber 2022. The beef with Badu started when he posted an Instagram video on June 2 for his latest track “BBD,” which featured sev- eral pregnant women. The track is the latest swipe at his on-again, off-again girlfriend Chrisean Rock, who caught him cheating on her last October by posting on Twitter, “Y’all can have him. ChriseanRock [sic] is single.” Blueface has a checkered history with women. He has two children with influencer Jaidyn Alexis and another one on the way with Rock —which led to a whole other series of messes between the three including the time he told Alexis on a date that he expects her to take care of all three of his kids. A video sur- faced last May of him harassing an intoxicated woman in a nightclub by grabbing her face. Most recently, another Las Vegas woman ac- cused Blueface of kicking her and stealing her phone, according to XXL Magazine. Blueface posted the caption on the Insta- gram video for “BBD,” “I’m in n out bih life. [sic] I’m not Oscar proud.” Badu responded on an Instagram story post featuring Blue- face’s post, “He’s trash/Universe do your thing.” The next day, Blueface responded with a sarcastic thank you note that says, “W promo. Thank you universe.” Fans, however, are urging the rapper to tread lightly now that Badu has whipped out her spiritual karma powers to turn the universe against him — es- pecially since he’s somehow facing a third le- gal hurdle after Las Vegas police arrested and charged him with robbery while he was liter- ally in court for a proceeding on his aggra- vated murder charge, according to FOX5. After Badu called for the universe to turn on Blueface, just a little over a week later, he got slapped with a completely separate charge while he was in court on a different charge. Wow. That’s just spooky. Even a Penn-Jillette-level atheist would tell Blueface at this point, “Dude, stop tempting fate.” ▼ FESTIVALS Y’ALL COME BACK NOW THE RE:SET FESTIVAL NEEDS TO RE:TURN NEXT YEAR. BY GARRETT GRAVLEY T he Re:SET the festival’s Dallas itera- tion, which took place this month, started on some good footing with two consecutive showcases headlined by boygen- ius and Steve Lacy, respectively. Then on the third day, when LCD Soundsystem was scheduled to headline and close the Dallas weekend out, inclement weather swept through Grand Prairie and threw a wrench into things 15 minutes into IDLES’s set. Audiences were asked to move indoors, only to be told more than two hours later that the show would not go on. That same weekend, a similar misfortune befell Re:SET’s Atlanta and New Orleans events. Shows are scheduled for Columbus, Ohio, Chicago and Nashville. Will these three festival weekends end the entire series on a strong note? We cer- tainly hope so, because the festival game al- most always requires organizers to lose the first battle in order to ultimately win the war, and the attendance in Grand Prairie — let’s just say — did not reach sell-out levels like a seasoned concert promoter would have reasonably expected it to. Then again, other festivals that have tried to attract North Texas audiences had A-list talent playing to light crowds, and some of these festivals never returned for a second year. KAABOO Texas in Arlington and Sub- urbia Music Festival in Plano are just two examples that come to mind. Re:SET’s Dallas attendance didn’t quite reach the nadir of Sting playing to less than 5,000 people at AT&T Stadium, but judging by the crowd size, it’s a safe bet that Re:SET could have moved last week’s sets indoors to the nearby Texas Trust CU Theatre while honoring every ticket sold and then some. From where we’re sitting, attendance was rather disappointing, especially consid- ering how unique and refreshing the con- cert series’ concept was. Each of the three days offered a four-artist bill that, according to Consequence, was artist-curated. If Re:SET were to continue with this practice, it could solidify the series as the 2020s’ an- swer to All Tomorrow’s Parties (a London- based festival that, until being discontinued in 2016, had festival lineups curated by the likes of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Jeff Mangum, Modest Mouse and dozens of others.) Twelve artists being spread out over three days was also a refreshing tonic in an era where 10 or so artists playing the same festi- val stage on the same day ensures that the fes- tival schedule experiences multiple delays, prompting the headliner to cut songs from their setlist. We hope the festival comes back next year, but with some changes. To begin with, they could have had better communication with the fans who were left in the dark over the course of a roughly two-hour evacuation. An outdoor festival should be better pre- pared for bad weather, especially before set- ting up camp in Texas. After an excellent opening day, the last thing we expected was disgruntled festivalgoers. But, we can’t help but wonder if the festi- val experience even needs to be as integral to Re:SET’s identity as an event. If anything, having vendors and other amenities juxta- posed with the comforts of an indoor venue may have added to the experience. (It prob- ably would have reduced the number of fans who passed out during boygenius’s set.) The reason an alternative to the “stan- dard summer concert experience” is needed is because the “standard summer concert experience” sucks. If Coachella didn’t have Gigi Hadid or Kylie Jenner in the audience every year, people would be far less inclined to risk getting dehydrated and baptized in their own sweat. What makes Re:SET different is that it is about the talent. Not since Lollapalooza 1991 has a touring festival’s inaugural lineup been as strong and no-nonsense. The summer music festival isn’t dead, but maybe it deserves to die. It would be cool if Re:SET could give it a proper burial, even if through trial and error. Andrew Sherman Erykah Badu wished karma on Blueface. | B-SIDES | ▼ Music SCAN HERE TO ENTER TO WIN 2 TICKETS DICKIES ARENA SAT, JUL 29
