I write about music and stuff...

Wednesday 4 March 2015

Kanye West x BBK Concert KOKO


So, yesterday was just set up to be a good day from the start. I beat all my gym targets. I got free cake at Uni (which just cancelled out all my work in the gym). I finished work early and got back to my flat in actual daylight. My Boohoo order had arrived. Yes. Life was bubbling along nice and gently so I thought I'd drop to a softer simmer for the evening and get some uni work done. That is until my phone starts blowing up with, in a nutshell "OI, RHEA, KANYE IS DOING A ONE OFF SHOW 20 MINUTES WALK FROM YOUR FLAT LETS ROLL". It was a this point that I felt my extortionate rent prices were finally worth it. Mate. This is why I moved to London.

After simultaneously buying the tickets and signing up for extra shifts at work, we reach KoKo at about 10pm to stand in the freezing cold for about 2 and a half hours. I probably would have had some type of mild mental breakdown but it was too cold for my brain cells to even orchestrate that. Eventually we get in and find situated on the balcony which, not only had a wonderful view, but was next to what ended up being turned into the VIP area. I literally was brushing shoulders with DJ Semtex, Delilah, Sian Anderson, Julie Adenuga, Aaron (BBR), Jammer, Bossman Birdie, lest we not mention my darling Frisco. Now I live in a different world to everyone else, so while my friend was like "who are these people Riri?????", I'm standing there super excited. Lame. I know. But I love our music scene so I love them all for what they've done for it.

Anyway, lets set the scene. We have a full venue. There was significantly less angst amongst a waiting crowd than you'd usually find, especially with no DJ set to keep it entertained. To be honest, I think everyone was just happy they were no longer in the cold. For once being tightly pushed up against random humans wasn't so undesirable - such sharing of body heat was actually valued. Hero David Vujanic was busy amusing the, apparently Arsenal fan heavy, crowd with Spurs slurring  football chants, when, all of a sudden, that oh so gooooooorgeous'That's Not Me' intro starts ringing through my ears. Joy. Joy. Joy. I look to the stage and yes, there stands  Skepta, JME, Novelist, Meridian Dan etc. as expected. Cool. Yay. Exciting. But then the stage carries on filling. More BBK? Krept and Konan maybe? No. It's Kanye grinning. Big Sean all chain swinging. And even better, they're bounding around at the back of the stage, looking like baby boys just enjoying their life as Skepta's hype men. Taking a second to break down this glorious moment, we have;

  1. Residual adrenaline still running through peoples veins from the fact they made a snap 1 minute decision to just go and see Kanye tonight
  2. A sense of pride/smugness amonst the crowd over the fact they actually got tickets 
  3. Pure elation from simply not being on the verge of frostbite in the que anymore 
  4. Grime future, past and present pioneers all standing infront of a London crowd 
  5. That's Not Me aka hypest track of the 2014 booming through the speakers
  6. Kanye and Big Sean wiling out like they're just normal BBK memebers
So yes. The energy in the crowd was immense. Put it this way, I look to my left to see Will.I.Am thoroughly enjoying himself, ferociously bopping his head to the beat in pure satisfaction. I look to my right and see a group of guys jumping all over each other. I look at myself and I'm doing that thing where I turn into (a bit of) an excited boy whenever I'm at a live Grime event.  At this point Skepta owned the crowd. And throughout the show, with "BBK" chants" echoing the venue, team UK continued to own the crowd. This wasn't just a Kanye West concert. This wasn't just a Kanye West + friends concert. This wasn't just a Kanye West + friends and added support of Skepta et al concert. No. No. No. It was a Kanye West and BBK concert. At one point, it was literally back to back US to UK. One minute Novelist is spitting over the Spaceship instrumental then all of a sudden Kanye or Big Sean has the mic doing I can't even tell you what, because at this point I was probably levitating. We have to thank Kanye for that. He didn't have to have the set up that way. But he did. (Which also proves me right about Kanye actually acting on our behalf at the Brits). And 7 sleep deprived hours after it all finished, I'm still excited by life.

Upon watching back my videos from last night, I fully appreciated the beauty of Kanye's reconciliation with his old mojo. Last year I watched him perform one of many of his many frustration fuelled, performances, that actually were more like outbursts rather than musical displays. And yeah, I get the whole art and emotion thing behind it, but it gets to a point when you're in the crowd and you just feel uncomfortable and stop enjoying yourself. Yesterday was like watching a whole new Kanye, except he was just being the good old Kanye that we know and love. He was happy on stage. He was enjoying himself. When he was performing and when he was watching our UK don-diddly's perform, he grinned genuine grins. The whole night was built upon that foundation of happiness he laid right there. Which is why is was so freaking HYPE.

So yeah, we had; Kanye going old mojo styley on us, Big Sean tearing it up, BBK, Meridian Dan and Novelist putting it down, oh yeah and no to mention Rae-friggin-Kwon coming out on stage to bring us old school hip hop flavours! My only thoughts the whole gig and ever since the gig have been that I just really really really really really really really really really love music. Kanye was probably the first rapper I properly attached myself to as a little girl. I've loved the Grime scene since Yeezus knows. Last night was a magnificent fusion of the two. Mate. I am so glad I was there.

My footage of last night wasn't that amazing, partly because I was too hype to even film properly, plus they're all 10 second snapchat segments because I wanted to enjoy the rest of the songs, and also half of them have me enthusiastically rapping along in them - I even let out an excited squeal when the Spaceship instrumental started because I'm such a loser. Nonetheless, I will leave you with this one gem I recorded of Kanye getting his skankers on. This is how I will enter every club from now on. (Sorry it uploaded with such terrible quality)


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Sunday 1 March 2015

Skepta - SHUTDOWN


I've been waiting for Konnichiwa ever since Skepta dropped Blacklisted. Then he switched creative direction with the dropping of That's Not Me, and got me even more excited. Then literally every move he has made since has built up the anticipation more and more. The dropping of his new single, SHUTDOWN, is no exception to the rule.

Exclusively brought to us through Fader, the new single was apparently freshly mastered just last night, indicating that the album is still sat vigorously brewing on the stove while being added to - leaving even more reason for us to not to know what to expect from this project. The beat, produced by the man himself and Ragz Originale, managed to make me feel like a certified gully creeper all by itself. Upon it, as expected, Skepta laid down some ferocious bars addressing how he has both, shut down plenty of people, places and barriers to get to where he is right now, while still having a few more to go before he becomes king of the world (which will happen one day, I'm sure). Both of these themes can also be found in the two samples he used on the track. The first, a clip of Drake from his short film Jungle - most likely a referral to the progress Skepta has made in getting the Grime scene overtly appreciated and respected by our international peers. The second sample represented the barriers that still need to be broken. An audio clip in the middle of the song depicted the ignorant comments that surfaced as a result of Kanye's BRITS performance, giving the dance floor baaaaaaaaaanger political undertones. Perfect.


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