To mosh means to dance violently to harsh noise. Chief Keef and Roddy Ricch’s performance at V100 made students mosh. Hard.

It became clear from the beginning that V100’s latest event wasn’t a mere concert as much as it was a vessel for the release of academic tension. Playing with the sounds of the zeitgeist, the organizers were apparently aware of what they were doing by booking the highest-streamed  artist of the here and now. Chief Keef and Roddy Ricch’s back-to-back shows at Terminal 5 granted students the liberty to thrash, jump and scream all their stress away.

The music was mostly a blur. The crowd engendered by the sounds of “Love Sosa” and “Hate Bein’ Sober,” but the desire to dance it all away was too severe to take when the DJ transitioned from sets from Waka Flocka to Miley Cyrus. That said, the greatest amount of moshing did seem to revolve entirely around Chief Keef.

As Keef took the stage to the accompaniment of Waka Flocka’s “Hard in Da Paint,” the crowd went wild. Mosh pits formed. Bodies fell. Students chanted. Everyone smiled. The invigorating cadence of Chief Keef promoted chaos and as we all know, youth delights in recreational chaos. Keef performed his greatest hits alongside some other songs that provided beats to thrash to despite their lesser known lyrics. All in all, his performance could be summarized by a remark I overheard from a sweat-clad audience member as everyone was leaving the show: “Bro, I just love Sosa.”

Once the beloved Chief Keef left the stage, one would expect people to settle down and loiter in anticipation for Roddy Ricch. However, the complete opposite took place. In an odd vacuum of on-stage artistry, everyone was moshing to the hype-DJ’s queing of a collection of songs that fit a genre I’ve always regarded as “Blatantly Teenage-Hype Songs” such as “Mo Bamba” and “Hot.” By the time Roddy Ricch emerged onto the stage to a glamorizing array of lights, the crowd had already exhausted itself.

Thus, Roddy Ricch nonchalantly performed one song after another, walking about the stage under a rapidly shifting series of multicolored lights before a crowd of tired students who were finally reminded of their consciousness.

I suspect many fatigued thoughts about classes the following day plagued the minds of the bodies surrounding me, as Roddy Ricch performed his hits, a touching homage to the recently deceased Pop Smoke, and eventually, “The Box.” It was the perfect conclusion to a night that celebrated mindless fun and provided attendees with a pretty cool memory to reflect on the following day as they found themselves stuck in class yet again.

Email Nicolas Pedrero-Setzer at [email protected].