Leikeli47 Turned Montreal’s Belmont into a Wild Dance Party (Review)

Leikeli47
Le Belmont
March 26, 2019

Apparently Leikeli47, a dynamic hip hop powerhouse of a musician from Brooklyn, was shy as a child. But these days the only remaining vestige of that childhood inhibition is the mask she always wears. Otherwise she’s a bold dynamo of pure energy and optimism, the toughness of her lyrics exceeded only by the inspired and inspiring generosity she shows her fans.

During Leikeli’s recent concert at Le Belmont, for example, she pulled so many audience members onstage I actually lost count – although lord knows there must be copious social media posts to prove my point. The “point,” in this case, being that the enthusiasm this mysterious rapper/ singer/ “communicator” (as she calls herself) shares with her fans is positively incandescent. Her face is unseen, her true identity is unknown, but Leikeli47 wears her heart on her sleeve and the crowds are here for it.

Personally I’m a skulking in the shadows type, not a get up on the stage and vogue my heart out type, but so many folks had an absolute ball posing for Tuesday’s crowd and its cameras – particularly, and appropriately, during the song “Post That” (“Hit that pose, take that flick/ Check your angle, post that shit”) from Leikeli’s latest album, Acrylic (Hardcover/RCA Records, 2018). When one Black girl ascended the stage Leikeli said “Take your hair out, sis,” and there was a great moment of natural hair appreciation as the fan let loose her ’fro.

The energetic crowd was also extremely on point during Leikeli47’s addictive song “Girl Blunt” (“This shit is a girl blunt, I only smoke girl blunts”); suddenly the air was all smoke, to which Leikeli graciously responded, at the end of her song, “Thank you for that; it’s been a long day … normally I don’t partake at work, but thank you.” In fact, as head over heels in love with Leikeli as this audience clearly was, it was the musician herself who was constantly offering thanks as she made her way through songs from Acrylic as well as her debut album Wash & Set (Hardcover/RCA Records, 2017). At the end of the show she told us all to follow our dreams, even offering an interactive rap on the topic (“Start”), and ending with a final thank you: “Give it up for yourselves for supporting a black creative like myself … Thank you for supporting me in my weirdness; I suggest you follow your weirdness too.” Amen to that.