Last night, we popped down to Jay Electronica‘s first live gig in the UK at Camden’s Jazz Cafe. As always the main artist takes a hell of a long time to show up, it’s a common thing for these American artists  but it was worth the wait as he tore it down in London Town. Before he came on there were a few support acts, one of which was Klashnekoff (remember him?) and some chick called Fatima. More after the cut.

The night started off real slow with some jazz/soul music playing whilst the support acts prepared to liven up the crowd.  I’ve never been to this venue before so I was rather surprised to see how small and intimate it was. The venue was a bit strange for me; this following piece of information maybe deemed as unnecessary but I needed to piss and finding the damn toilet was like walking through a labyrinth. The toilet stunk like sh*t and was the size of a garden shed. </rant>

Anyway on came Fatima who in all fairness was a good singer but I couldn’t look past what she was wearing but that’s just me being me. She sang a few tracks and got the crowd going. She was decent. On to the next one! Klashnekoff, a grime sensation a few years ago but I don’t really know what happened to him since? I didn’t recognise him as I’ve never seen any of his videos etc, from his hoodlum appearance I assumed he was another kid from East London. He did put on a good show but really FLOPPED when he was debuting one of his upcoming singles. The dude hyped himself up and refused to spit one of his classics ‘Murda’ but then bad karma hit him when he actually stopped midway through his new song as he forgot his lyrics! Stick to Channel AKA dude.

After the 2 support acts, we had to wait over an hour and half for Jay to come on. I was starting to get worried that he was never going to show up! the DJ Benji B played some dope tunes as we waited for Elec-Hanukkah to show up but even then we weren’t given any information about the hold up.

Then at 11pm when the gig was meant to finish – Jay made it to the stage in a real smart and fresh suit, weird. He is different to any other rapper I have been to see, He’s an all round entertainer, such a funny and intellectual guy. He started off things with a series of J Dilla tributes which was real deep, even explained the  story about work ethic of the late great Dilla when he was hospitalised. Unlike the usual patients who request a TV and some magazines,  late great Dilla requested his equipment by his bedside so he can continue on his hustle. Anyway back to the gig, Jay asked the DJ to play some more JD beats and he spat a few bars. His lyrical imagery is up there with the greats – the crowd often went silent in awe of his lyrical talent. I was blown away to be honest.

He was real comedian – playing bartender to many by pouring them shots of Jack Daniels, even questioning the crowd’s football team allegiance before revealing to everyone that he’s an ARSENAL fan thanks to BBC’s Giles Peterson. He also playing with the crowd’s feelings by teasing us with such comments like ‘is Nas here?’ before he spat his rendition of Nas’s classic track ‘My World’. The song is dope, some of the lyrics are just wow;

“Me and my chick is like J-F-K and Jackie
They can’t wait to catch me in Dallas top down ‘n the Grassy Knoll and clap me
Kidnap my body”

At one point of the night, he asked if anyone in the crowd wanted to spit over the Waves beat. I expected someone amateur to come but this dude who was standing near me the whole night went on and OWNED that beat. Major props to him (pictured below)! I don’t think even Jay expected someone to go hard like he did. Lyrically he was fire, I actually thought he had been scripted to take on the mic.

Back to Jay, he didn’t do many of his own songs but the ones he did do, they were recited with blazing flow and fierce intensity. He often slowed it down and rapped accapella for which the crowd fell silent. To my surprise, many of the fans in the crowd were rapping along and knew most of the lyrics by heart. The only 2 songs I knew the lyrics to were Exhibit A and C. Those are the 2 songs which he chose to end the set with, both were delivered with crazy energy especially exhibit C. It’s my favourite hip-hop song so far this year, it was so good he spat it twice. I’ve added a video that I took on my phone of the Exhibit C performance and also a video below of the other songs (props to The Higher Plane).

“Drive up on the curb at a barbecue and hop up out the back like “whats up”
“Kill a nigga, rob a nigga, take a nigga, buss up”
That’s why when you talk that tough talk I never feel ya
You sound real good and you play the part well
But the energy you givin’ off is so unfamiliar
I don’t feel ya”

All in all, he was worth the wait. Hip-hop is very much alive and well.

Props to Def Danny Wood aka Danny The Scrabble King for the photo & jump on his flick.r for more from the show.

Yin.