Tink Tears Up SOB’s in Brief NYC Performance

Hot 97's Who's Next concert series at SOB's in Manhattan has been on a consistently great run since its beginning at showcasing up-and-coming talent. Last night was ladies' night, with Asia Sparks and Detroit Che opening up for Chicago's buzzing new rapstress Tink.

Asia Sparks kicked things off and helped set a ferocious tone that both performers who followed picked up on. Che in particular, with close-cropped bleached hair, was on point, spitting bars about Trayvon Martin and the Black Lives Matter movement while introducing each song at her first-ever New York show (and, according to her, just her second time in the Big Apple). Her song "Act Like One" was a particular standout over a thick, pulsating production, while in a closing freestyle she named herself the best female rapper since Left Eye. Big shoes to fill.

A moment of silence for Chinx, slain this weekend in a drive by shooting, was a solemn touch, the entire venue understanding the gravity of the moment and the ripples it had sent throughout the hip-hop community.

The headliner was Tink, Timbaland's newest protege whose Epic Records debut is highly anticipated by those paying attention. "I love coming to New York, because New York is a city that loves hip-hop," Tink said after destroying her version of her Jeremih-assisted track "Don't Tell Nobody" and her song "Treat Me Like Somebody." Impressively, the young MC would go back and forth between rapping along to her beats and just leaving them behind to scorch them a capella-style, even showing off her singing skills at the beginning of "Treat Me." The lyrical assault was unending during her set.

But then, just as things began kicking into high gear, it was over. Tink ended her all-too-brief set with her current single "Ratchet Commandments," which got the crowd hyped just as she thanked the City and left the stage. The night was a whirlwind of unyielding bars and relentless flows cut off too soon. But the next time these ladies hit the city the crowds will only get bigger.

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