Preview: Jack Harlow at The Anthem on Aug. 25

My “Hometown Hero” Jack Harlow is making his way to D.C. this Tuesday, Aug. 25. The tour for his controversial album Monica will bring Harlow a long way from the humble halls of Atherton High School in Louisville, KY, to the much less modest stage of The Anthem. The days of selling burnt CDs to his peers at school and releasing music on Soundcloud are far behind Jack as he prepares to dominate the Wharf’s 6,000-person concert venue Tuesday night.

The festivities will kick off at 8 p.m. with opener and fellow Louisville native James Savage. Savage’s smooth and seductive R&B tunes are reminiscent of those of another acclaimed Louisville artist: Bryson Tiller. Jack’s choice of Savage, not only as an opening act for the Monica tour, but also as a feature on the album’s track “Move Along,” proves his commitment to elevating the Louisville music scene to the national stage—and what better place to do so than in the nation’s capital? 

At its core, Harlow’s music can be distilled down to two themes: place and race. Growing up in the deeply-segregated Louisville means understanding the inseparability of the two. The very same can be said of D.C. Jack, like a broken record, has proclaimed time and time again just how proud he is to be from Louisville, and historically, Harlow has proven to not only be aware of his place within Kentucky but also of his place as a white rapper within a Black-dominated genre. 

Unfortunately, Louisville is noticeably and critically absent from Monica. It’s the first album Jack has recorded since uprooting his life in Kentucky to join the mass migration of aspiring young professionals to New York City. Kentucky was Harlow’s claim to fame—his “unique” factor. Recording Monica in NYC, Harlow was without his muse and, without his muse, he ignored the relationship between place and race that helped make his past records. On the surface, he seemed to forget his identity as a white boy in rap. The reality, though, is much more sinister: Jack, with Monica, tried to transcend his whiteness by marketing an appropriated blackness. Leaning into R&B and soul for his new album, Harlow faced backlash while on his press tour and, in response, defended that he “got Blacker” through his musical choices. A race to top the charts is no excuse for Jack’s confused statements on race, and fans have swiftly responded with disappointment. Whether Jack can convince “Chocolate City” that Monica is inoffensive—let alone has any critical value—remains to be seen Tuesday night.

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Grace Guernsey is a senior in the SFS studying Culture & Politics and minoring in Spanish. She first saw Jack Harlow perform when he headlined the final Forecastle Festival in their shared hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, in 2022. If you wanna see some of Harlow’s talent, she recommends starting with “I WANNA SEE SOME ASS.”