Last night saw Mr West return to the UK for his first shows since the Forum earlier in the year and if you were there then expectation would have been sky high for last night. One glaring difference between the two shows though was the class support booked in for yesterday evening in the shape of the awesome Talib Kweli. Jay Z on the Black Album said "If skills sold/Truth be told/I'd probably be/lyrically Talib Kweli" and the lyricist that is one half of Black Star was on form last night.
Kweli rattled off tunes from many of his projects, The Blast and Move Something from Reflection Eternal, Definition from the Blackstar album and from his solo repertoire Talib played the massive Get By (Quality album) and obviously tracks from his new project The Beautiful Struggle, watch out for the single I Try with Mary J out soon!!
This was apt because I'm not convinced the entire crowd knew much about Talib but this just aided the man in proving his worth. Halfway through his set he realised the crowd didn't really know his $h!t so he mixed it up straight away. The DJ dropped the latest Snoop single and Talib was away impressively free styling over the beat - then Estelle took to the stage to spit a quick verse - things were definitely hotting up! The DJ next played the old school Jacko tune "Wanna be Starting Something" and a couple of guys from the audience were invited on to the stage to throw some shapes. These randoms again delivered and when the first gent started moon walking across the stage the Academy erupted. "B-boys, B-Girls, We rocking the world!"
This brought Talib back to his own stuff and he played a couple more tunes from his new album before departing. The second grumble was the sound system on the evening which lost a lot of the subtleties of Talibs tunes - this has happened before at the academy and I'm sure it will happen again - nevertheless it was a shame. Talib therefore struggled beautifully through his set but I'm sure he would have won over a lot of new fans last night.
Next up was the main event - the man they call K West. He was heavy at the forum and last night Kanye once again delivered the goods. No violinist or pianist on stage this time but the crowd were still treated to a show. West came out to Get Em High which got the whole of the Academy screaming and after we were warmed up he passed the spotlight briefly to his DJ (5 times world champ apparently) who tore it up when he was given 5 minutes to do his thing and some unbelievable scratching took place which increased the levels of excitement around the venue.
Kanye belted out tune after tune from The College Dropout. The biggest of his set were probably All Falls Down and Jesus Walks but The Workout Plan, Family Business and School Spirit were all massive! As ever Kanye also chucked in some beats that he has produced and Luda's anthem Stand Up and Overnight Celebrity with Twista were two stand out examples. I've also got to mention Kanye's diamond jumper. Not very gangster at all but that is part of what is so accessible about the brand that is Kanye West.
The Academy loved Kanye and Kanye seemed to love Brixton and he got energy off of his crowd throughout the evening. This was most obvious when he jumped into the crowd to get some more direct participation from the crowd before getting rescued by Security!! The crowd was totally mixed with all ages and races enjoying the evening as Kanye has a little bit for everyone! The atmosphere was brilliant and everyone had a good time - despite the best efforts of the stewards at Brixton who for the first time seemed determined to disrupt the evening as much as they could. With the beats and tunes Kanye was dropping it was little surprise no one wanted to sit down upstairs but the orange t shirt brigade couldn't help themselves from hassling the paying punters. A bit disappointing.
All in all though another great night's entertainment at Brixton and although maybe Kanye's show itself wasn't as good as earlier in the year as a whole the night was better with the strong support that was performing.
4 out of 5 for me!
Words By: Kevin Flynn
