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Fresh off the Mar 31 release of his feature on Dreamville Records’ “D-Day: A Gangsta Grillz Mixtape,” Atlanta rapper JID took the Shine stage at North Carolina’s Dreamville music festival by storm.

JID kicked off his show with the energetic banger “NEVER,” with opening lyrics “Never been shit, never had shit,” echoing through the festival. His set was heavy on the 808s, the power from the speakers driving the audience into a frenzy. The reverberating acoustics were accompanied by extensive screen effects. Strobe lights and hallucinogenic images of animals and football tackles lit up the stage. At another moment, the screen behind him displayed different variations on the initials JID, like “Juggling’s Incredibly Difficult” or “Jesus In Disguise.” These artistic elements elevated the performance into the type of intense audiovisual experience only a festival can provide.

“I like to take my sets slow… from the past to the future,” JID said, before diving straight into his 40-minute show. Indeed, the resulting performance was a progressive collage of his discography. There were some nostalgic songs that lingered on the past like “Sandstorm,” during which he brought out his sister, Mereba to sing with him. But there were also renditions of some of his most famous singles, like “Workin Out,” “Meditate,” and “Baptize,” during which the trio of Mereba, EarthGang, and JID (aka Spillage Village) united on stage. JID’s confidence radiated with lyrics like “My verses will live if I die for sure,” with peace signs all around. “Down Bad” saw rapper and songwriter Bas joining the squad up on stage, leaving the crowd going wild.

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He also included a healthy dose of new and experimental projects like the artistic depiction of the Cartoon Network’s show “EdEddnEddy,” which features a sample from A Tribe Called Quest’s song "Scenario.” “A good artist copies samples. A great artist steals,” JID shamelessly admitted in between tracks.

There were also moments where JID freestyled with no music to back him up. Admittedly, he messed up in “JIDtranada Freestyle,” saying that he was “so mad [he] fucked it up.” But this didn’t stop his flow on songs like “Off Da Zoinkyes,” which he delivered a capella to the undying cheers of impressed festival goers. He even gave the audience a glimpse of the new “D-Day” mixtape with the track “Barry from Simpson.”

Although his audience was understandably less familiar with these tracks, JID got the crowd into the groove with call and responses: “If you feeling good, say fuck yeah Jiddy.” The rapper proved himself able to handle the high-energy atmosphere without breaking a sweat. “I gotta take the gloves off, it’s not time to be a gangsta yet” he said. Indeed, when the gloves did come back on during the song “Stick,” his stage presence multiplied, bouncing off the crowd’s.

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Although his performance was high in energy and quality, it was clear that the rapper’s main priority was his audience’s safety. When the audience started chanting ‘medic’ for someone who felt ill during “Sandstorm,” JID immediately stopped the song and saw to it that they got medical attention. On “Stick,” JID asked to open up the mosh pit, guiding the crowd by counting down to the beat drop in the beginning of the song. At the end of the performance, he made sure that everyone in the crowd was okay and that any people who needed help received it right away. There were also several times during the concert where he asked the crowd to take some steps back so that the people in the front could get some room to breathe. Fans could be heard saying “Not like Astroworld,” evidently trusting the rapper in his efforts to keep this festival safe. He kept the atmosphere light with jibes like “How you get hurt on Sandstorm?” and “Sorry for going too hard,” but his intentions were clear: He would not let anyone in the crowd go overlooked.

The rapper ended up going over the time set aside for his set, perhaps a sign of how much fun he was having with the crowd. As a result, his microphone got cut off by the production crew. The rapper later tweeted “I’m so sad I couldn’t perform Surround Sound, I ran over time” ending it with the promise of “we gone follow up at Coachella.” On that hopeful note, JID proved that a high-energy, crowded concert can be conducted safely without jeopardizing any of the fun bits.

—Staff writer Alisa S. Regassa can be reached at alisa.regassa@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter at @alisaregassa.