‘Fuck the cancel culture!’ shouts rap phenomenon Boef when Lil Kleine takes off his balaclava and electrocutes the audience in the Afas Live. “I really like this man.” That balaclava is a theme tonight, the biggest live concert by Sofiane ‘Boef’ Boussaadia (29) ever. His second today – due to the rapid ticket sales, Boef decided to stick an extra matinee for it.
He is happy to let you know tonight that Boef is a much-discussed artist. For example, we see deepfake videos of Geert Wilders, Humberto Tan and Jan Roos, who say that they are big fans and that it will be ‘rwina’ tonight. A direct sneer at everything that Boef is against: the media, the state, the cancel culture. A troupe of about twenty backup dancers helps set that tone by dancing in balaclavas all evening. It also turns out to be an inventive way to get guest artists on stage. Ronnie Flex and Dopebwoy, among others, hide under hats and come to play their hits with Boef ‘Come Again’, ‘All those days’ and ‘TikTok’.
And so does Lil Kleine. The Amsterdam rapper was discredited last year after assaulting his ex-girlfriend Jaime Vaes and was held in custody for a while. In addition, label Sony canceled its collaboration with him and radio stations stopped playing his music. Canceled, you could say. There’s nothing left of that tonight. The day before he made his musical comeback. The song ‘Pornstar Martini’ (featuring Boef and $hirak) immediately entered the top 50 at number 1. On his song ‘Memory’, the one on Boef’s latest album Luxury problem stands, Lil Kleine does “his side of the story” (read: he drills Vaes into the ground). The track was streamed a record 846,000 times on its first day. Boef does not want to “silence anyone”, and knows that he will break streaming records with these kinds of collaborations.
After his fourth number one album in five years, it cannot be denied that Boef has become the boss of contemporary Nederhop. The power is in his range: from tight, ingenious rap to danceable hits and personal songs about feelings. Although that makes for a messy course tonight – going from emotional to frantic jumping in a few minutes gives the impression that he is looking for padding to stretch the show.
The public doesn’t care: the sea of iPhone flashlights that set the AFAS ablaze, no longer goes out. Boef’s biggest fans are gen-Z people, and the show responds to that: Boef’s vlogs appear on the big screen and the dancers do TikTok dances. A teenage girl calls out to her friends: “I love Boef so much. I’m about to pass out!” Boef shouts that his ears hurt from all the screaming. “But that doesn’t matter because that fissa is LIT!”
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