KQED: Stoni, COMMANDO and Others Serve Excellence at Noise Pop 2023

Stoni makes waves whenever she posts a car freestyle or hops on a track with one of her fellow Text Me Records artists. But the Oakland MC has spent years quietly training in her dojo, and still has yet to drop a debut album (although we hear it’s finally coming this year). Her masterful set Sunday night at Oakland’s New Parish, opening for Junglepussy, showed it’ll be worth the wait.

Stoni rapped with infectious confidence and laser-beam precision, and the audience gasped and cheered at every smack-talking bar — each one more audacious than the last. But the wildest part of the show was during a song about getting one over on a rich dude, when actors joined her on stage and enacted a full-scale performance of a robbery. Then, one of the masked “assailants” removed her mask, and it turned out to be fellow Oakland MC Fijiana, who joined Stoni for the next track.

Stoni performs at The New Parish in Oakland on night seven of the Noise Pop Music and Art Festival on Sunday, Feb. 26, 2023. *(Estefany Gonzalez)*

I’ve never seen the audience demand an encore from the first opening act, but it happened at New Parish Sunday night. The venue cut Stoni’s mic when she tried to come back, but she returned during Tia Nomore’s also excellent performance with a live band.” — Nastia Voynovskaya

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