On Sept. 16, 2025, I got to see the “underground rap” duo, and first cousins, $uicideboy$, commonly known as Scrim and Ruby Da Cherry, respectively, perform at the Pine Knob Theater in Clarkston, Michigan, my third time seeing them. This performance was a part of their annual “Greyday” North America Tour, a concert event they headline that features a rotation of openers every year, most of those being members of their record label Grey59 Records or affiliates. The duo has a predominantly emo rap sound, with a horror-like flair featuring “occult” or “Satanic” themes, that frequently touch on topics of mental health struggles, drug addiction, and more common rap themes, such as money, girls, and guns.
Upon arrival, the atmosphere was different from what I had previously experienced at Grey Day. Grey Days 23 and 24 were at the Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, so immediately, the open environment, surrounding woods, outside restrooms and a barn on the other side of the parking lot surprised me. I had arrived a little later than I wanted, which was confirmed when the rumbles of bass could be heard hundreds of feet away. The entrance featured a merch booth on the side, which many people took the opportunity to wait in while the openers were performing.
Once I got through the security checkpoint and started walking up the steps, the smell of fruity vapes, cannabis, and beer filled my nose to an almost nauseating level. At the top, a sea of people filled the lawn and under the canopy, watching the current performing artist, Night Lovell, a Canadian rapper from Ottawa, who emerged from the same cloud rap era as artists like $uicideboy$ and Lil Peep. The concertgoers were people of all types, but it was clear to me that the largest demographic was more alternative people, with chains, septum piercings, fish nets and a likely love for Monster Energy.
Night Lovell played many fan favorite tracks, such as “Dark Light,” his “blow up track” that starts with a hauntingly beautiful vocal sample that loops throughout the entirety of the track, and something I feel fits the “Dark Light” title perfectly. In the outro, Lovell sings “Stress keeps building, blood stops flowing, brain got me open, gone off a potion,” a simple, but extremely relatable chorus to many who struggle with mental health and its all too often association with drug use. On “Joan of Arc,” a song featuring the $uicideboy$, Lovell agrees with the common notion that love is like a drug when he says “Numb the pain, so I’m like, baby, you my novocaine,” as the deep and persistent bass rattles in the background.
Following Lovells’ set was that of Bones, who hails from Howell, Michigan, and is also an extremely popular and influential cloud-rap artist. “Who here is from Livingston County?” he asked as many cheered. Bones may be one of the most prolific artists I have seen, as in 2024, he released a whopping 5 albums, while releasing 3 this year. He does this as one of the most popular independent artists, similar to the $uicideboy$, which creates a sort of authenticity to the music, releasing what he wants, how he wants it. With that being said, it shouldn’t be a surprise that his lyrics can be a little raunchy and non-PC at times, fighting back at his haters on “CelebrityDeathmatch” he states “They telling me Bones tone it down, pussy ass let me work.”
As Bones wrapped up his set, he asked the crowd, “Now who’s ready for the $uicideboy$?,” to which he was met with cheers. When they finally came out, the whole venue wailed, as to many, they were the only artists that mattered to them out of the lineup. They started things off with a plethora of songs from their newest album, Thy Kingdom Come, which mixes the usual topics of theirs, depression, nihilism, drug use, etc., with their newfound sense of religiosity. In “Count Your Blessings,” Scrim seemingly changes an iconic symbol and gesture for their community. Popularly known as the “ok” sign, the $uicideboy$ have used it as a gesture to represent their record label, Grey59, with it symbolizing “666.” On “Count Your Blessings,” however, Scrim says “three up like the trinity,” seemingly moving away from the satanic imagery that they previously heavily featured. They also performed some older songs that they haven’t performed in about 10 years. “Don’t ever say we don’t fucking love you,” Scrim exclaimed before they started performing the fan favorite song “New Chain, Same Shackles,”, which has a haunting loop similar to Night Lovell’s “Dark Light,” featuring an extremely emotional verse from Ruby where he sings his heart out, contrasted by Scrims verse where he sounds like a stumbling zombie, though equally emotional in its own right.
As a Michigander, I sort of selfishly love it when music I like references places or areas that I know and have been to. On the $uicideboy$ newest album, there are two lines of significance for me. The first is on the Deep South cut “Napoleon,” where over the Juvenile sampled, bouncy beat, Scrim talks about his past drug use with the references “Pop a pill like Kodak, I glitch for the twitch, cup stay dirty like we pouring up in Flint.” As someone from the Flint area, I loved it when I heard the line for the first time, even if it is talking about the only thing Flint has been known for and discussed in recent times. The second reference is on the Bones accompanied “Now and At The Hour Of Our Death”, where Bones raps “It’s that 517 legend, I’m the one that they call upon, Razor in my palm with a rag full of chloroform,” with 517 being the area code of Howell (the aforementioned hometown of his), as well as East Lansing.
As the concert was coming to a close, $uicideboy$ performed what they now refer to as “the speech,” which has become a tradition at their shows. It consists of them telling their story of battling drug addiction and depression, which almost took their lives many times, ultimately reaching a breaking point where they almost broke up the group because of the issues associated with these topics. Eventually, they did something they never thought they would do: they went to rehab, and with that, had a newfound sense of purpose tied to Christianity. They found the need to mention, though, that despite their newfound sense of religion, they still will go hard, continuing their legacy of having some of the best concerts and mosh pits in the rap game, and ultimately, they are the same $uicideboy$ that people fell in love with.
