Karen Ponzio Photo
Ceschi Ramos
Four artists rapped their way into the weekend at The State House this past Friday night, and whether on that stage for the first time or for the first time in a good long while, they brought the crowd forth and kept them there, hanging on every word and rhyme like a lifeline.
The State Street venue was the New Haven stop for the There and Back Again tour, led by the Nashville-based R.A.P. Ferreira, and on this stop featured two of his Ruby Yacht label mates Sha Ray and Pink Navel. Local favorite Ceschi Ramos also joined the lineup.
Pink Navel came to the stage first with a sizeable crowd waiting for them. “I’m about to rap for y’all,” they said. “You into that?” Bathed in pink light and smoke the rapper immediately captured everyone’s attention with playful poetic lines offered with a smile while they danced and manipulated buttons and dials to create the accompanying sounds. They dipped into their latest record Epic for a few newer songs, including “Tiguan,” which begins with their car trying to make Bluetooth connections as they contemplate multiple other connections in their life.
“This song is just a list of fictional characters,” Pink Navel said. “If you hear any, you know you can give me ten dollars.” Names like Tommy Pickles, Superman, and Betty Boop were noted, among numerous others (wait, do I owe Pink Navel 30 bucks now?), and the crowd smiled and shouted along as they recognized their own. They ended with a cover of “Still Crazy After All These Years,” making it their soulful own, asking anyone who knew the words to sing along. A few of us did, and the rest swayed along, nodding possibly in acknowledgement of the sentiment.
Next to the stage was Sha Ray, who immediately got the ever-growing crowd to rock out to her beats and rhymes, each one more powerful and passionate than the next. As she commanded the room with style and force, her empowering lyrics had arms raised and feet pounding, right up to her final song “Tried It,” which was received with rousing applause and cheers. Immediately after her short but impactful set was over, a sizable group of admirers followed her over to the merch table to ask for her social media handles and to inquire about where they could hear more of her music. Sha Ray said this was her first time in New Haven, but based on the response she received, I am imploring her to not let it be her last.
Ceschi Ramos arrived on stage with DJ Mo Niklz only to take the microphone and bring it to the floor in front, calling the audience toward him even as most had already begun making their way there. Beginning with “Teach a Rat to Fish,” from the 2021 album This Guitar Was Stolen Along with Years of Our Lives, he alternated between older favorites like “Say Something” and “Take It All Back, Pt. 1 – 4” and newer material like the recently released single “Decline of Western Civ 4&5” and the epic “2020 BC,” also from last year. In a continuation of the conversation that began upon the release of This Guitar Was Stolen, this reporter is not afraid to admit that the tears began to fall during the first song and repeatedly throughout Ceschi’s set. Whether it was the impact of hearing songs I had not heard played live in almost a year (or never before), the eventual singing and screaming along of nearly everyone in the room, or listening to Ceschi talk about how the show had initially been dedicated to the loss of a friend’s mother and now would also be dedicated to a friend he had just found out passed before the show, the juxtaposition of the acknowledgment of life both lost and remaining weighed heavily. Yet, here we all were, together and still standing. As Ceschi finished his set with the ever inspiring “This Won’t Last Forever,” he repeated the final line “stay strong” one extra time.
R.A.P. Ferreira began his set seated with his guitar, offering the audience two bluesy tunes, mentioning in between them that he had only learned how to play guitar in the past year. He noted that his grandfather dying had stirred something in him to revisit the blues, something he had first gotten a taste of as a child through a friendship with a local blues musician. He also acknowledged his ten-year friendship with Ceschi, who he said was the first rapper he saw play the guitar, as well as his label “family” Pink Navel and Sha Ray.
The rest of the set saw Ferreira rapping and interacting with the crowd repeatedly.
“I kinda wanna rap, and I kinda don’t,” he said, but he did, and with a joyful flow and almost spiritual tone. He asked a couple of the audience members “you ever make a beat?” as he decided which beat himself to choose, though no matter what he chose, the crowd ate it all up and encouraged more.
“I don’t know how far out I wanna go,” he said.
“Go far out!” someone screamed from the audience, and he followed. He even took a request for the song “Doldrums,” and many sang along. “Disappointment cloaks resentment, wearing a cloak in Wegman’s and being escorted out. Is this what rap’s about?” he sang. A couple more included one with Pink Navel on the rhymes while Ferreira handled the beats. Meanwhile, Ceschi and DJ Mo Niklz stood to the side and cheered along, and Sha Ray watched and smiled not far behind them.
“The goal is to retain the most hope,” he sang earlier. After a show like this one, it would not be as difficult to do exactly that.
R.A.P. Ferreira’s There And Back Again tour continues throughout the East Coast. Please see his website and/or social media for dates and details. Ceschi returns to The State House on Friday, April 29 with Myles Bullen, The Bumbling Woohas, and Traashboo. Tickets are available through The State House website.