Jonny Chopps | The Night Cat | Melbourne | 4th September
The footpath thronged on a Friday night out the front of The Night Cat. I got my stamp and entered as my insides shook with the bass of the DJ holding it down between sets. The stale smell of cigarettes and weed permeated the venue, and the crowd was sparse around all four sides of the Night Cat’s middle-of-the-room stage.
Jonny Chopps rose to notoriety in the Australian rap scene over the past 12 months off the back of his highly produced, swagged-out instagram reels. He’s prolific, releasing 9 singles, an EP and an album in 2026 alone, and it’s his debut album ‘Catalyst’ that he’s touring the East Coast with now.
I ran into some friends from the outer-east who’d come along to see “rap for $30” and took up a spot at the back of the room. The DJ dropped out and Jonny Chopps took the stage trailed by a dozen photographers, videographers and groupies. He played ‘No Favours’, and the group of hardcore Jonny fans at the front jumped around and rapped every word while Jonny performed mostly towards the cameraman onstage with him.
He had on a pinstriped Yankee fitted, backwards at 45 degrees and an enormous silver chain. His jeans were sagging and he held a near-empty bottle of Hennessy in one hand and the mic in the other. The crowd moved in and out between the bar and the smokers while he played his new album, and he was rather aggressive and combative on stage, both when he rapped and when he talked between songs.
“Ay where the bad bitches at”. “If you ain’t put your hand up you ain’t a bad bitch!” He screamed at the half-full crowd.
Around halfway through the show he brought his entire entourage on stage, about 10 of them, who rap along and fight for time in front of the camera. Midway through ‘Flip Out’ the DJ reloads the song. “You’re not flippin out hard enough!” He shouts, dragging some energy out of the thinning crowd. After 90 minutes the friends I was with had to leave because their parking was about to expire, and I went into the degenerating mosh at the middle of the stage. The hardcore fans at the front continued to rap along to every word, while others stood between them on snapchat.
By the time he reached his final song and his biggest hit ‘Champaign for Christmas’, the hardcore fans at the front held their faces in their hands and bounced up and down with tired eyes. He played the song twice, left the stage and walked straight out the door. I got a photo with him amongst the groupies while he finished his bottle of Henny.
Despite his undeniable swagger and stage presence, Jonny asked too much of the Friday night crowd at the below-capacity Night Cat. He didn’t seem satisfied with the energy he got back from the exhausted, beaten up crowd by the end of his far too long set, and at points in the night it felt as though he was taking it out on the crowd.