In The House: Scenes From Bobby Sessions’ DDD Experience.

Pete Freedman

Bobby Sessions Brought Out Some Of Dallas’ Top Rappers — Including A Reunited A.Dd+ — To His “The DDD Experience” At Club Dada On Saturday.

All photos by Jeremy Biggers.

Dallas rapper Bobby Sessions’ entire persona is built around the power of positive thinking: His 2015 debut LP LOA (Law Of Attraction) is more or less the sonic equivalent of the The Secret, an album that pushes forth the notion that speaking one’s hopes and dreams aloud pushes them closer to reality, and his 2017 follow-up grateful. continued that notion, centering around the fact that Sessions is quite pleased with all the success he’s had in recent years as a result of adopting that mindset.

Fact is, improbable as it may sound on paper, when Sessions says something’s going to be a certain way, you’ve got to assume that there’s at least some likelihood of it turning out that way — even if that statement is a little grandiose.

So, yeah, apologies to anyone who rolled their eyes when Sessions began promoting the show he was hosting this past Saturday, August 5, at Club Dada as “the biggest show of the year,” but Sessions’ entire career is built on speaking things into existence. And, to be sure, his so-called “The DDD Experience” out on Dada’s back patio this weekend was indeed an event worth remembering.

 

The odds, of course, were already stacked heavily in Sessions’ favor. Along with the man himself, the night was set to feature a bill with a number of Sessions’ close collaborators along with some of the brightest new rap talents that Dallas has to offer: Sam Lao, T.Y.E, Rikki Blu and Xes, plus a DJ set from Blue, The Misfit.

Lao was her usual impressive self, bouncing between alluring singing and rapid-fire raps. T.Y.E proved himself an increasingly capable showman with his back-and-forth audience banter and an onstage charisma matched only by his varied, and ever-dramatic operatic trap music. Rikki Blu, meanwhile, showed off a commanding on-stage presence to match his boomy, often throwback raps. Xes, on the other hand, continued to establish himself as a progressive, boundary-pushing rapper teeming with potential. Sessions, backed by a two-piece band, then flashed his singular style as one of the more unique voices in Texas rap and premiered a new Dallas city logo- and local hip-hop culture-referencing song “DDD,” for which this night was named. And, armed with a hard drive of bangers, Blue’s DJ set brought things home by keeping the crowd in place once all the live performances had come to a close.

On the strength of those performances alone, the night would’ve been a strong one. But Sessions pulled out some other stops to put this night over the top, too. For one thing, the entire night was streamed live on Facebook by the folks at Stream Music TV, where it’s already garnered more than 16,000 views.

The biggest surprise of all, though? At the end of Sessions’ set, he brought out the surprise guests he’d been teasing in his promotions for the night — a reunited A.Dd+, the acclaimed Dallas rap duo that rather unceremoniously split up at the top of 2016. Introduced by Sessions, the twosome entered the stage and performed its 2012 track “Suitcases” with the exact same vigor and swagger that the two had become so revered for during their heyday. It was a short, but thrilling — and potentially promising — display. After their one-song set was complete, A.Dd+’s Paris Pershun and again-Dallas-based Slim Gravy were encircled by fans out on the Dada patio, where they pretended to not hear repeated queries about whether this meant the group was officially back together after almost two years apart.

Whether this night means there’ll be more A.Dd+ performances or even music down the road remains to be seen, sure. But, regardless, that the reunion happened at all very much helped ensure that the night lived up to Sessions’ hype.

If nothing else, Sessions was stoked on it all as the crowds began to file out of the spot at closing time.

“I’m incredibly proud,” he said at that point, smiling from ear to ear.

And, well, since he said it, you know it’s true. That’s just how Sessions operates.

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