16 October 2026
Coming off the back of an intense summer of headline shows and festival dates, PARTYOF2 seem to be riding their high. Their album AMERIKA’S NEXT TOP PARTY! is varied, theatrical, and bodacious; all these things translate directly to their live shows.
Mixtape Madness sat down to speak with them about tour life, the practice of hip-hop performance, and the importance of creating community in a divisive time.
You embarked on your first headline tour as PARTYOF2 this year. Is there anything you’ve learned from that experience?
Jadagrace: With performing live, you learn so much about your music and what resonates with the fans in person. Especially with the language barrier in Europe, they maybe don’t know exactly what you’re saying, but somehow, you’re able to build a connection. We’ve also learned how to take care of our bodies on tour. There’s a lot that goes into that. It’s not an easy job. With touring you think “it’s gonna be so fun, we’re gonna be travelling the world!”. It is fun, but it’s a lot of work and responsibility.
For a lot of your festival shows, you had a live band performing with you. What do you think that brings to the performance?
SWIM: Today it’s hard to get people to buy a ticket and come to see you. We don’t take that for granted. So, we want to elevate the shows so we’re creating a whole new world, and we can do that with the incredible musicians playing with us.
Does performing with a live band make performing or rehearsing more difficult?
JG: Rehearsals are more intense. When it’s just us two and a DJ it’s easy to run through everything, but it’s important for all the musicians to feel comfortable. So, sometimes we have to work a little harder and tweak some things, but that’s the fun part – figuring out how to make the music come to life even more on the stage.
Are there any songs from AMERIKA’S NEXT TOP PARTY! that translated to the live setting in ways you didn’t expect?
S: There’s two that come to mind. ‘JUST DANCE 2’ is a pivotal moment during the set. It feels like such a big, fun record that only we could do. The other one that comes to mind is ‘FRIENDLY FIRE’. It feels like a cheat code. It’s sick, as a duo, to divide the crowd and go “hey, pick a side, we’re about to battle and we’re gonna see who wins”.
Which has been your favourite song to perform live?
JG: It really depends on the crowd. In Milan, ‘PUNK B!TCH’ was my favourite. There were like 7 different mosh pits. I’ve never seen that before. ‘POSER’ is always fun to do because that’s one that most people know and they really scream the lyrics back to us. I always take my in-ears out so I can hear the crowd. I’m pretty locked in for the rest of the show and I need to hear my vocals, but that’s one where I can really let loose and rely on the crowd a little more.
You opened for Tyler, the Creator in Milan in front of 20,000 people. How was it performing to such a big crowd?
S: It’s kind of funny because we’re in a unique position. Both Jada and I have been doing this for a really long time – ever since we were kids. It’s all we know. Because of that there isn’t a lot of nerves that come with performing in front of people anymore. For us it’s such an exciting thing. We just want to get up there and have a blast. So, weirdly enough, we don’t really get nervous.
JG: It’s been creeping us out for sure.
S: Yeah, we were like “it feels wrong to not be nervous”. It’s more like that feeling before you jump on your favourite roller coaster. So, we’re really lucky to experience that. But we also really put the work in in terms of rehearsing and staying on top of our shit.
I hear some of Tyler’s influence in your music. Can you speak to the effect he’s had on your music or performance style?
JG: Tyler’s someone that we have been studying since we were, like, 10 years old. He’s an incredible performer. I love the way he puts on shows; his set design and production. It’s impossible not to connect with his music live and when you listen to his music, it’s so obviously not just a beat and his words. He builds a whole new world for every album. He’s so good at sucking you in. It was incredible to be able to open for him and chat with him for a little bit.
You did All Points East and you played in Hoxton earlier in the year. What did you think to the London crowds?
S: They turn up in Europe in a way that’s very rare – especially at festivals. People are really coming to let loose and have a good time. Even from the UK, to Milan, to France, to all the little festivals we did in that small amount of time, I was really surprised to see that kind of energy for our records. At All Points East there was like three different mosh pits happening at once. Those guys were fucking crazy.
For your shows you ask your fans to dress in a certain way. How important is fashion to your music?
S: It’s everything to us. Like Jada said about Tyler, we’re about world building and creating a space bigger than the music. PARTYOF2 is not just literally a party of two. It’s about bringing our fans into our party and into our world. People are craving that feeling of being part of something bigger and we love to create community. I think having everybody at the show dressing a certain way creates that camaraderie.
How does what you’re wearing effect how you perform?
JG: We’ve gotten pickier throughout the years. When we first started, we would just throw something on we thought was fire. But now with our performances, we’re doing more movement so it’s important to wear something that you feel confident in, but also that you can really move in. As well since we’re a duo, it’s important that we complement each other and move on one accord.
You both acted in your earlier careers. Do you draw on that experience when performing?
S: Being on camera and in front of people since we were kids gives us that extra edge of not being afraid. We’ve gained all these weirdly specific skills that have honestly made us outcasts in our personal lives, but now they’re working in our favour. Even in music videos we use our skills from acting to create a visual world. It really is our superpower. We embrace it.
JG: It’s just something that’s in our blood. When you step on stage, you really become a character. So, acting plays a huge part in how we perform.
With AMERIKA’S NEXT TOP PARTY! you draw on so many genres. What jumped out to me is the rock influence. Do you channel any kind of rock energy in your performances, or do you get that inspiration more from hip-hop?
S: We were obsessed with School of Rock when we were kids. We wanted to have that feeling of having a guitar and sliding in on your knees like a rock star. Oddly enough, that’s where a lot of the inspiration came for us. There’s a similar energy to that at rap shows where you want people to just jump around and let themselves go into the music.
JG: We love feeling like rock stars. Growing up it’s not like we were playing rock music in the car a lot, but when we get in the studio, those electric guitars give us a beautiful feeling. Rock’s a really freeing genre. When we do ‘PUNK B!TCH’ live, it’s a moment where our choreography doesn’t really matter. It’s just about giving them energy and turning the fuck up.
What is it about hip-hop and rock that make them fit together so well?
S: To me, they’re two of the biggest genres where people are willing to say and do things that are outside the norm. They’re very audacious. They both push boundaries. That’s something that we 100% played into with AMERIKA’S NEXT TOP PARTY!. With it being our first project with Def Jam we understood the roots of the label and how Run DMC and Beastie Boys were blending genres that had never been blended before. We wanted to pay homage to those earlier artists who were just not afraid to turn up and throw a guitar over some 808s.
I get some political meaning from the name PARTYOF2. Was this intentional?
S: Whilst that isn’t the full origin of our name, when you look at the country we’re from and how divisive the idea of two political parties can be, you see how it forces people to feel like you’re in contention with the other side. We wanted to be the opposite of that.
PARTYOF2 is about bringing people together. There’s so much going on in the US right now that, as black artists, it felt impossible to not speak on. We have different mantras throughout the album like “the two headed hound moves in harmony” and “you’re stronger together”. For us music is bigger than just making something cool or getting streams. I want to be able to listen in 10-15 years’ time and explain to my kid what was going on in the country and why we felt we needed to say something.
On the album both of your knowledge of hip-hop really comes through. Do you feel a responsibility to pay homage to the lineage and the history of hip-hop?
S: Hip-hop is such a sacred thing to us. I remember my dad playing Jay-Z, A Tribe Called Quest, Biggie, and him telling me stories of these legends when I was five or six. It’s more than just music – it’s culture. It’s our responsibility to pay homage, to take that torch, and continue to push it forward. So anytime we can shout out our ancestors we will because we really value the foundation we stand on because of the work they put in.
I imagine your fans are fairly young, but you reference people like DJ Kool Herc. Do you feel like educators in that sense?
S: For sure. Even with ‘JUST DANCE 2’, there’s a whole load of kids that we have put on to electro rap, which is so fire because it’s a gold mine of incredible music. For the kids who are really listening, there’s a lot of stuff to tap into that they have maybe never heard of.
Words by Charlie Edmondson