Source: Prince Williams / Getty
Fivio Foreign’s rocky halftime performance during the Brooklyn Nets home opener had many questioning what went wrong, and the artist suggesting that the stadium’s audio crew might be at fault.
On Wednesday night, the highly popular rapper and Brooklyn native took to center court during halftime of the Nets’ first home game against the New Orleans Pelicans. There was a lot of anticipation for his set, as it had been reported that he would be sporting a new diamond chain crafted to honor the team’s first decade in Brooklyn while rapping to the packed Barclays Center crowd. Other fixtures with ties to the franchise will also wear the chain throughout the 2022-2023 season.
Fivio started to perform a medley of three of his hits – “Say My Name,” “City of Gods” and “Big Drip” – but it became immediately apparent that there were technical difficulties. Fivio seemed to be off with most of his lyrics throughout, with the video showing him not matching the backing beat to his songs. The footage also shows that he was wearing in-ear audio monitors. The issues prompted the rapper to ad-lib for the entire set.
Online reactions saw many clown him for his poor performance, and some recalled how his sound went out as he performed with Kanye West at one of his DONDA events held last year. For his part, Fivio told TMZ that everything went well during the soundcheck prior to the game, but when he went to center court to do his set he noted that his earpiece was lower than the crowd noise.
He also said that the sound was delayed in his ear and suggested that the audio production crew wasn’t on their job. Fivio shrugged off the reactions online, but he did say that he wants to do another halftime show at Barclays to make his borough proud. The Nets would go on to lose the game in a blowout, 130 to 108.