West Coast Connection Forum

DUBCC - Tha Connection => Outbound Connection => Topic started by: On The Edge of Insanity on June 09, 2005, 01:15:55 PM

Title: My review of Krs One @ Shephards Bush Empire, London 08/06/2005
Post by: On The Edge of Insanity on June 09, 2005, 01:15:55 PM
Got in the venue pretty early, allowing me to get a couple of rows back from the front. There was a multitude of support acts that appeared with a couple of DJs playing strictly 88-95 hiphop in between. First off was some random women I didn't catch the name of who started to bust an acapella but could see the crowd getting restless so cut it to go straight into her single, which was just as bad. Scribe & P Money were pretty dope, they did a couple of tracks, and at least made me want to check out some of their other tracks. Jack Jones was nothing special & his crew were no better. Blak Twang ripped his four tracks that he got to perform, everyone getting live to "Rotten" & "GSCE". Swiss just did one full song which lasted about 5-6mins, which was alright but was starting to get real boring by the end of it. And , finally for the support acts, Paradise were total shit, beats were boring, their rhymes made no sense, and the lead rapper seemed incapable ofdoing more than 3/4 bar without someone jumping in to finish off his sentences.

Finally, at around ten-ish Krs came out on stage, the beat dropped for "MC's Act Like They Don't Know", and the whole crowd when mad, bustling to get nearer to Krs, and just getting hype in general at seeing a living hiphop legend live in the flesh. From that opening onwards it was just a non stop hiphop jam, with classic track after classic track dropping, including the obvious highlights of "Sound of Da Police", "Southside Bronx" & "Step Into A World", and many more legendary Krs tunes, interspered with short call and response sessions of "The Real Hiphop is (Over Here!)". Krs was wearing a t-shirt that said "I Am Hiphop" and based on the performance it was very hard to argue. There was almost no breather throughout the entire concert, as even in the moments where Krs took a little time off, there was a B-Boy crew holding it down, and then nearer the end of the concert Rahzel came out and did like a 5-6 min set, which was extremely dope as well, definitely the best beatboxing I've ever had the pleasure to see performed live. The venue was supposed to have a curfew of 11, but Krs just kept on going, ending at somewhere around half eleven, although to be honest it seemed as if he could go on all night.

Overall, of all the artists I have seen live he definitely seemed to have the attention of the crowd in the palm of his hand better than I have seen any other live performer do. He definitely has a great appreciation of what makes a good live hiphop show, and with 14 years worth of tracks to perform he can just keep the tracks coming. He hadn't performed live in the UK since 1996, but I think with the love he received at this concert, he'll hopefully be back at lot sooner this time.