As part of Amazon’s renewed push to compete with Spotify and Apple Music as a premier music destination, they’ve scheduled huge acts from all across the industry to take part in Amazon Music Live. The series, shot live in LA, airs after each of the media giant’s Thursday Night Football presentations. And for their most recent edition, they brought out Chicago’s own Lil Durk.
Beginning with the Headliner’s Solo Work
Beginning with a smatter of vocal samples that echoed the Almost Healed theme on display throughout his latest album, Durk began lying still before literally jumping into a performance of his “Pelle Coat.” From there, we got a tight back-to-back of some of Durk’s earlier hits, like “AHHH HA” from 2022’s 7220 and “L’s Anthem” from way back in 2012. Much of the earlier part of this Amazon set focused on Lil Durk’s own solo work—only “Hellcats & Trackhawks” and his viral hit “No Auto Durk,” both off of OTF compilations, broke that mold. Those first dozen or so tracks were largely performed without breaks in between—only a few brief interstitials either to queue up following tracks or to thank both Amazon and the crowd in attendance.
Towards the midpoint of the set, around 30 minutes in, Durk & his DJ shifted the energy a tad bit by diverging into a “for the ladies” walk through his catalog. The selection there was “Home Body,” “India Part II” and “Sad Songs,” the latter coming off of the tracklist from Almost Healed. Following that, we got our first guest appearance of the night when the Chicago rapper introduced Trippie Redd. Taking the stage in characteristically bold fashion, Redd graced the crowd with two of his own biggest singles, “Taking a Walk” and Diplo’s “Wish.” Without skipping a beat, Chief Wuk, OTF signee and generally a Durk affiliate, made an appearance to perform his parts on two collaborations between the artists: “Turkey Season” and “Big Dawg.”
A Trip Through Durk’s Notable Guest Appearances
With most of Durk’s biggest material on his own already covered, the Chicago MC segued into his most well-known features. “Back In Blood” led off here, followed by Nardo Wick’s “Who Want Smoke??” In one of the more emotional moments of the Amazon Live Music spotlight, he also rapped the entirety of King Von’s “Crazy Story,” dedicating the performance to his late friend. Off of that, he hit his verse on DJ Khaled’s “EVERY CHANCE I GET,” and of course, the song that re-introduced Durkio into the mainstream, Drake’s “Laugh Now Cry Later.”
For the final course, Machine Gun Kelly came into the fold, not to perform either of the singles they’ve rapped alongside one another, but instead for his instrument skills, providing an electric guitar backing to Durk’s “The Voice.” The grand finale took us to the only place it could, the top 10 smash “All My Life.” The instrumental break towards the end of the song again gave the rapper the chance to thank the audience before officially closing out the performance.
Another Entry into Amazon’s Concert Series
Amazon Music Live has already played host to plenty of massive names before Durk made his appearance. In season 1 of the show, which coincided with Amazon’s acquisition of NFL Thursday Night rights, the likes of Lil Wayne, Lil Baby, Megan Thee Stallion and Kane Brown took to LA for fans and audiences. Now, in the second season of the program, the stars continue to show up.
Kicking off the year was Ed Sheeran, who performed a medley of his most popular tracks alongside selections from his recently released Autumn Variations. Things took a global turn when Colombian sensation Feid headlined the second show, proving why he’s regarded as one of the brightest faces in the increasingly dominant Latin music scene. As far as future shows, Metro Boomin, Peso Pluma and Latto are on tap for the next few weeks, with additional acts to be announced as their air dates draw closer. For now, you can check out a replay of Durk’s performance on Amazon Prime Video, where you’ll be able to catch each week’s edition live, on Thursdays at 12AM EST.
