Photos and words by Samantha Skapin

Last week I went down to Double Happiness in Columbus to check out Levi the Poet on his US run. He had some great support from Columbus native Keyoung.

Keyoung was up first, but was sure to blast some tunes from Kendrick Lamar and Chance the Rapper beforehand. Keyoung, a Columbus native, had many friends in attendance for his performance, and you could tell Keyoung was excited from the huge grin on his face. I personally had not heard any of his content before, but I was blown away. The way he performs is mesmerizing, with his deep and thoughtful lyrics being delivered to you almost like a punch in the face. He performed his new single “ESC“, which has an incredible instrumental which Keyoungs’ vocals mix beautifully with. Of course, his friends, as well as the rest of the crowd, were there to recite his words back to him. Keyoung was such a blast to see perform live, and I can’t recommend his music or his live performances enough, so please check him out.

Levi the Poet was up next, and I was pretty excited. I’ve been listening to his work for years (Werewolves was on repeat a long while for me) and had not yet had the chance to see him live, and it finally was happening. Before hopping up on stage, we listened to some Kanye (“Ultralightbeam” to be specific”) and Levi went up to sing the chorus with the crowd before going into his first and newest poem, “Anxiety“. It’s hard to put Levi’s work into words, because my words will never be as powerful and as beautiful as his. Along with his stunning visuals during his performance, Levi has the gift of being able to paint a scenario in your head of whatever he chooses to talk about in his poems. From depression to anxiety to love, his words always feel as though you’ve been punched in the gut because of how emotionally moving they are. He performed a lot off of his newest release Correspondence (A Fiction), such as “Chapter Five: Tuxedo Black“, and my personal favorite “Chapter Three: The Great American Game“. At the end of his performance, he took a minute to thank the crowd as cheers erupted throughout Double Happiness. These cheers were well deserved as you can tell Levi puts his whole heart into all of his work, hell, even his phenomenal performance. I waited a long time to see this man go up there and talk about hard hitting subjects in his poems, so do me a favor, if you get the chance to see him perform, take it. Be sure to check out his recent release Correspondence (A Fiction) as well, because you feel all the feels.