[media-credit name=’Photo courtesy of Shady Records’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]

Fans who flocked to the Orpheum last October to see popular rapper Wiz Khalifa on his “Waken Baken” tour were confronted with the usual inevitability of a relatively unknown opening act. Opening acts can be a boon to concertgoers who are looking to learn more about new bands, but more frequently they showcase obscure, relatively untalented acts, acts that, in turn, are forced to deal with a hostile crowd waiting impatiently for the main event. 

Without a doubt, many of the Wiz disciples let loose with some collective sighing when they realized that in order to hear their idol rap about smoking weed with their significant others, they would need to sit through one of your typical, tedious openers.

Boy, were they wrong. 

Alabama rapper Yelawolf started proselytizing fans almost immediately after he hit the stage, rapping furiously in a full sweatsuit with his hood pulled up, bounding from one end of the stage to the other, thrashing his head around, and generally displaying more energy than concertgoers would expect from a tour that celebrated the mellower qualities of everyone’s favorite gateway drug. 

After the first song, a couple of the more stubborn Wiz devotees started a chant for their man, which Yelawolf graciously (almost gleefully) joined in for a couple of moments before asking the crowd to let him play a few more songs. After the second song, no one was even thinking about Wiz, other than to hope that he would maybe delay his set for a little while and let ‘Wolf continue to do his thing.

Yelawolf, also known as Michael Atha, returns to Madison on Tuesday, playing at the Majestic, with a burgeoning career to match the hype he was able to conjure up here (and everywhere else). A recent signee of Shady Records, the rapper has released two critically acclaimed mixtapes, the classic-rock sampling Stereo and the more classic rap mixtape Trunk Muzik, which was re-released by Columbia Records as a proper album.

Yelawolf is an interesting hybrid, an extraordinarily lyrical rapper who can spit ciphers around most of his 2011 XXL freshman class peers but is not above making a party jam with Gucci Mane (“I Just Wanna Party”). He doesn’t stick to generic, threatening rap (although he does it better than just about anyone, see “Pop the Trunk”) but instead leaps deftly from subject to subject, occasionally using his alter ego, Catfish Billy, to paint a fully realized picture of country life in the American South. 

Then, too, there are the more experimental songs, the best of which, “Looking for Alien Love,” is comprised of spoken-word metaphysical musings over a basic sped-up soul sample and won top billing in prominent rap blog Passion of the Weiss’s countdown of the best rap songs of 2010.

His signing to Shady Records as well as the unavoidable fact that he’s white have many comparing Yela’ to a young Marshall Mathers. This is somewhat apt, but, if anything, the Alabama native is even more versatile than Em is, able to rely on the many facets of his personality to come up with content for his songs, rather than just handing out heaping twin helpings of anger and absurdity.

Yelawolf’s large personality is due in part to an interesting past. Moving around constantly during his childhood, (he attended, by his count, around 15 schools from K-12th grade) he was originally intent on being a skateboarder before he got into rapping. However, it seems like he’s found his niche, attracting an enormous array of fans and a huge amount of positive reviews every time he does a concert.

Back in October, Yelawolf eventually got rid of the sweatsuit, revealing a tattooed torso and a wild head of hair, which he whipped around frenetically as he performed his last couple of songs in double time, the final surprise in an evening full of them. Madison rap fans have been anticipating his return since he left the stage that night, and this time they know what they’re in for. 

Here’s hoping that the opening act goes quickly.

Yelawolf will preform at the Majestic Theatre March 29 at 9 p.m. Tickets are $18.