[b]S[/b]aturday night at Brixton Academy is always something to look forward to but this weekend was a bit different. were in town. The hip-hop stars from Philly are renowned for their live shows and last night would have done no harm to their reputation at all. The ticket said that curfew wasn't until 2am so it was always going to be hectic and the headliners were supported strongly on the evening with London's own Estelle getting the crowd going.

[b]U[/b]p first though, before Estelle, was The Jump Off crew who were hosting a live MC Battle with four MCs each putting in £250 to compete in front of the Brixton crowd and face the fear of choking. This made up the prize kitty for the night's strongest rapper of a cool thousand quid and in all honesty there was very little competition for the nights victor Professor Green. He was quite funny and murdered both of his opponents with ease so Brixton had no trouble in giving him the money. Once the Jump Off crew were done they cleared the stage to make way for one of London's own the multi award, MOBO award winning Estelle.

[b]P[/b]otential is something that she has been labelled with for a long time but 2004 has been a year when the female MC has started to deliver. Tracks "1980" and the brilliant "Free" from her debut album The 18th Day have helped her enter the mainstream but last nights set included a freestyle over Snoops "Drop It Like It's Hot" and a sing along for the crowd using the Bob Marley classic "Is This Love". This suggested that Estelle has got a couple of other tricks up her sleeve and she worked the crowd as best she could, imploring the men not to be scared about a woman rapper and basically telling people not to be caught frontin!! Estelle played a couple more tracks (including Go Gone and Dance Bitch) before telling everyone inside to put their fists in the air. By this time the crowd had been won over and we all obliged for the finale of her big tune Free. Her work for the night was done and now the main attraction was just minutes away...

[b]E[/b]verybody squeezed into the Academy a little bit tighter so they could get a little bit closer to what ended up being a musical masterpiece. People obviously knew what to expect and then suddenly Boom! (quite literally) from their latest album The Tipping Point and the show was under way. It was about 11 o'clock when they took to the stage and for more tan two hours the sell out crowd were treated to a show. are not just an ordinary Hip Hop act and Saturday night was a fast, furious and funky voyage through their latest studio offering. Leading the way was the man Black Thought. If this man was a battery he'd be a duracell. His energy levels are incredible and he didn't let up and rarely gave the crowd a break throughout the show constantly spitting verses and going from beat to beat. From The Tipping Point they played Star, I Don't Care, Don't Say Nuthin', the magical Stay Cool, Web, Guns Are Drawn...almost the entire album as well as some jewels from their back catalogue including You Got Me and The Next Movement from their classic record Things Fall Apart.

[b]R[/b]oots concerts have sometimes been criticised for being formulaic, guaranteed radio hit followed by some popular current anthems with a few solos dooted throughout and a drum stick throwing farewell. However, it could also be argued that at least two of the solos - Hub on Bass and the mighty ?uestlove on drums with Knuckles on percussion were two of the most exciting and entertaining parts of the show. The encore which is detailed below was crazy last night!! At the end of ?uest's "solo" all 6 members of the band were standing round hammering away at the drum kit - in time!! It was a spectacular way to finish the main show and Brixton lapped it up. The atmosphere had been electric all evening and the 5000 fans went crazy as the band left the stage. Eventually after what seemed hours after such an energetic show they reappeared.

[b]B[/b]ands who don't do encore's are apparently the great ones and like we said sometimes people might expect this type of end to a Roots gig but the encore was great fun. They took us through an array of musical genre's going from "Favourite Things" Sound of Music (not Big Brovaz!!) to Talib's "Get By" from Ram Jam's "Black Betty" to a tributary rendition of ODB's smash "Shimmy Ya". In between all this we had Destiny's Child, Groove Armada and a Tribe Called Quest! It was breathtaking and soon enough the drum sticks were flying but it was still a great end to a brilliant show. If you want to know what I think though take the first letter of each paragraph in this review. Nothing's perfect but this was close.

[b]Words By:[/b] Kevin Flynn
[b]Photography By:[/b] Troy Rice