CAMBRIDGE — One day, and it almost certainly won’t be long from now, GoldLink will be back to perform in front of a packed house at the Middle East Downstairs, just as countless other highly touted young rappers have done over the years.  A second prediction: However he might eventually fare in the bigger room, Thursday night’s show at the venue’s less heralded Upstairs space will remain the artist’s seminal Middle East performance. For starters, the merch tables upstairs are a lot closer to the stage: a benefit, should a performer feel inspired to rush through the crowd in order to jump up and rip through a verse spontaneously.  And it’s safe to bet that GoldLink will be so inclined, if Thursday’s performance was any indication. Perhaps he was eager to make up for starting an hour behind schedule — though no one who wasn’t reviewing the show for this paper seemed especially concerned about what time he finally took the stage, following openers Chaz French and Lakim.  The latter happily extended his allotted 40-minute DJ set for as long as the place would let him, as the crowd jockeyed for sparse real estate in front of the stage. “How the [expletive] did y’all fit in this place?” GoldLink wondered aloud as he finally surveyed his kingdom for the night.  It made all the difference that audience members packed in tight, as GoldLink’s opening 30 minutes thrived off the crowd’s coiled-spring energy. The Washington, D.C.-born rapper has staked his claim as one of hip-hop’s most intriguing young prospects by wading confidently into glossy soul and club music with his self-described “future bounce” sound, showing that a melodic flow and sharp lyricism aren’t as mutually exclusive as some might suggest. The sexual pulse vibrating through “Ay Ay” escalated through to the euphoric apex of “Dance on Me,” the rapper absorbing and reciprocating the crowd’s delirious response as he bounded from stage to merch table and back.  This was possibly a case of peaking early in terms of visceral thrills, but the show’s second half rounded out the broader picture of GoldLink as an artist. “Sober Thoughts” was smoothly appealing hip-hop in the vein of A Tribe Called Quest, and he downshifted into the introspective, autobiographical “The Heart” from his “God Complex” mixtape by rhyming a cappella. If bigger venues and crowds await GoldLink in the near future, it will be because of performances like this one.  With Lakim and Chaz French  At: The Middle East Upstairs, Thursday
Up-and-coming Washington, DC-born rapper GoldLink showed his considerable star potential in a breakthrough show at the Middle East on Thursday.