Gotta Manifest.

Bobby Sessions' Seamless Album Release Showed Off His Label's Wide Range of Talent.

Back in mid-October, The D.O.C., held a big homecoming show that wasn't without a great deal of pomp and circumstance. We would soon find out that The D.O.C.'s voice wasn't really back, and the whole novelty of seeing the fallen star who had the career-that-could-have-been was better than the actual performance.

But, smack in the middle of the evening, was a shining light. A.Dd+ had a set which turned into a medley of Dallas rap's future with Blue the Misfit, Sam Lao, -topic and Bobby Sessions gracing the stage and, subsequently, stealing the show.

Friday night, as Erykah Badu held her mixtape release party across town in the Design District, a lot more of the same took place over at Trees in Deep Ellum.

Bobby Sessions was the marquee name on the bill, as the event was the official release show for his outstandingly good album, LOA (Law of Attraction). On paper, the event was all about Bobby. But in its essence, it was a fast-paced display of Dallas' immense rap talent — and only a fraction of it too.

Sessions took the stage at about 10:30 p.m., or so, and performed a few songs from his album. At one point, he premiered the music video for “Black Neighborhood,” directed by Jeremy Biggers. Then, -topic assisted for their collab, “Peyton Manning,” as Leon Bridges joined the stage as well and danced. Sadly, Bridges still did not dab. -topic then performed a few of his songs with his right hand KoolQuise, one of note being a very prescient rendition of “Rainy Day in Dallas.”

This formula acted as the theme for the night, as Sessions would run through a few of his songs and pass off the spotlight to his High Standardz labelmates Blue the Misfit, Xes, Sam Lao and Slim Gravy for a few minutes at a time. The transitions were seamless, and also a great excuse to show off some of the cluster's high-energy collabs like Blue's “All Systems Go.”

As each of Sessions' labelmates have projects coming up right around the corner, LOA and the release show are both a celebration of one of Dallas' most exciting emcees achieving full chi in a live and energetic setting and a coming-out party for the newest era of Dallas hip-hop, perhaps at a point while it's stronger than it has ever been — while only getting more robust and promising.

At the close of the night, an exhausted Sessions went into a bit of a speech on a crowded stage, further hammering the point home.

“These are my people,” he says. “This is my family.”

The family looks tenacious, and the High Standardz name fits. The bar has been set high.