bleood brings PROTAGONIST to the Beacham on Nov. 16

The young rapper-producer, who plays Orlando more than any other city in our records, headlines a 105-year-old Orange Avenue theater on a Monday night.

Downtown Orlando on a Monday night is usually quiet. On Nov. 16, one corner of Orange Avenue will not be, because a rapper who keeps coming back to this city is headlining one of its oldest rooms.

bleood plays the Beacham Theatre on Monday, Nov. 16, with the show starting at 7 p.m. Tickets are through the Beacham. The theater holds about 1,250. Orlando is a familiar stop for him: our records show bleood has played here more than in any other market. The date comes at the end of a long run that has taken him through Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver, Tempe and Salt Lake City this fall.

bleood, born Jamari Spencer, is a recording artist and producer who previously released music as deffici1e and m4ri, per Concert Archives, which lists him as from New York. A German listing for his Kill Your Idols Europe tour, which played Munich's Nachtkantine on Oct. 5, describes him as a 21-year-old rapper whose work centers on trap, digicore and rage, per Regioactive. The same listing notes his newest album, *PROTAGONIST*, came out May 14. Stops in Berlin and Cologne were on that European run too.

That is a lot of road for an artist that young, and it means the Orlando show arrives with a set that has been tested on two continents this year. For fans who came up on the online-born strands of rap that the German promoters name-checked, it is a chance to see it in a room with real history.

The Beacham has plenty of that. Braxton Beacham Sr., a former Orlando mayor who had already owned three other local theaters, built it at 46 N. Orange Ave., on land that once held the Orange County Jail, according to the Orlando Memory project. It opened Dec. 9, 1921, with a Norma Talmadge feature and a Buster Keaton short. The two-story theater cost $175,000, held 1,097 seats and was Orlando's first independent theater, hosting vaudeville until 1936 before switching to film.

Over the decades it has gone by several names, including the Great Southern Music Hall, Laser World and Moulin Orange, before the Beacham name came back in 2011, per Wikipedia. Today it is a live music hall that still carries its original 1920s theater décor.

A 7 p.m. start on a school night is about as friendly as rap shows get. Check the Beacham's site for door time and any openers before you go.

A 1921 vaudeville house on Orange Avenue hosting a rapper who built his following online is exactly the kind of mismatch that makes downtown fun. On Nov. 16, Orlando gets to show bleood why he keeps coming back.

Sources: bleood Concert History (Concert Archives) (concertarchives.org); bleood - Kill Your Idols Europe Tour, München (Regioactive) (regioactive.de); bleood - Kill Your Idols Europe Tour (berlin.de) (berlin.de); bleood - Kill Your Idols Europe Tour (koeln.de) (koeln.de); The Beacham Theatre: The Early Years (Orlando Memory) (orlandomemory.info); Beacham Theatre (Wikipedia) (en.wikipedia.org); Beacham Theater (Cinema Treasures) (cinematreasures.org); bleood at Beacham Theatre (JamBase) (jambase.com)