Author Topic: My review of Raekwon Live @ Koko, London, 13/10/2005 + Pics (Read 102 times)

On The Edge of Insanity · « **on:** October 15, 2005, 08:07:41 AM »

Securuty was real tight, checking everybody who was coming into the venue, so despite being near the front it still took like 45 minutes to get into the venue. There was the normal DJ warmup set, and then Mystro came out (as host) to pump the crowd up, and get some call and response going.

The first support act that were brought out was Taskforce and some new rapper that I can't remember the name of. The new guy was pretty tight, beats sounded straight, and he could flow, but didn't seem to have any hooks, just verses that went on forever, which after a while got a little boring. He did do a dope acapella mentioning loads of cartoon characters though. After saying that this guy was the best emcee in Britain right now, Taskforce then did a couple of his own tracks which got a good reception, and then they both left the stage.

More DJing for a while, until Mystro walked up to the decks and pulled the record back. He asked who in the crowd really knew hiphop (people cheered), because if we did we'd know the next guy, and out came Jeru The Damaja. A small section of the crowd (including myself) started cheering as he came on stage, and proceeded to rip a freestyle over the "HipHop" beat. He then said he hadn't planned on doing anything, so would just do one more track, which was another freestyle this time sans beat, which was real dope, before he left the stage. A short but sweet (and unexpected) appearance, which nevertheless got the crowd pumped up.

After some more DJing, up next were Terrafirma, who it seems have a very large following, judging by the reaction when they came out. Bearing in mind that I had only heard a couple of their tracks before, which were pretty tight, their performance completing put me off checking anything else by them. There were around twelve of them on stage, only three of whom actually did any rapping, and the rest of which just appeared to be there to make gun imitations with their hands and provide gun sound effects as well, which seemed a little primitive. There is no doubt that Klasnekoff has skills, but why he has surrounded himself with this bunch of gun happy idiots I really don't know. The other two that rapped were ok, but after hearing Klashnekoff's "Murda" track, I was expecting more of the same kind of intelligence, but instead all their songs seem to be about the streets, shooting people, etc, gloryfying it, rather than just commenting on it around them as Klash did on "Murda". They obviously have a strong street following, that much is clear, but their performance actually disgusted me in a way just because of how primitive the whole thing was.

After some more DJing, around 1:00am Raekwon's DJ came out, played a couple of joints to warm everyone up, before entroducing Raekwon and Inspectah Deck to the stage. Raekwon did a "what up london?" before dropping straight into "C.R.E.A.M", followed up by "Can It Be All So Simple", causing mass madness in the crowd. A slight pause to reflect, before dropping into "It Yourz" which is when the madness in the crowd really reached an entire new level, which it consistantly stayed at through "Rainy Dayz" and "Trumiph", before he went into the more reflective "Heaven & Hell", which got the crowd swaying. He then did the olibigatory ODB tribute, "Shimmy, Shimmy, Ya" and "Brooklyn Zoo" being the joints in question. Inspectah Deck finally got something to do as they did "Protect Ya Neck", although most of his verse was call and response with the audience. Raekwon then went onto do all the joints people had been waiting for from "Only Built For Cuban Linx", "Incarcarated Scarfaces", "Verbal Intercourse", "Knowledge God", "Glaciers of Ice" and more. He then did a couple of talking sections about the industry, relations within Wu Tang, etc, before doing a couple of new tracks off "Cuban Linx 2" which both sounded pretty dope. He then did "Criminlogy" and "Ice Cream" back 2 back, which obviously caused once again more mass madness in the crowd, before doing the first verse of "Ice Cream Part 2", which went into doing "Wu Tang Clan Ain't Nuthin Ta Fuck Wit" over that beat. He then did the single offa "Lex Diamond Story", before dropping "Guillotine", and then ending by doing "Gravel Pit", before leaving the stage to mass acclaim.

As I expected, Raekwon put on a really dope show, going through all the classics that I could have wanted him to play, and sounding dope over all of them, even when doing some of the other rapper's parts. The only real disappointment was Inspectah Deck's apparant inability to rhyme, as there were quite a few tracks that he was supposed to be on that he didn't do verses from. The one verse we did get from him was "Protect Ya Neck", but that was mainly call and response with the audience meaning he only really ended up rapping half of it himself. I dunno what was up with him though, maybe he was ill or something. Overall though a great night, and it sounds like "Cuban Linx 2" is going to be a must buy when it comes out based on what I heard from it.

Pictures:

Jeru The Damaja

Raekwon

Short video of "Jeru The Damaja Up In This Bitch"
http://s39.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0OF6F4XFE9VCV2DDU60C0DZ1DI

On The Edge of Insanity · « **Reply #1 on:** October 16, 2005, 02:52:14 AM »

BTW, if anyone wants weed or coke in London, just walk down the road adjacent to the Jazz Cafe, I got offered drugs on four or five seperate occasions just down that one street.

Don Seer · « **Reply #2 on:** October 16, 2005, 02:59:22 AM »

He also played Plymouth on Friday Night (14th)...

but look.. it was a jungle/dnb night.. my mate mixes for "decode" (see under room2 it lists WIZZ) and he played in the second room there.. ( the club decode is from is in my town but its been shut down..

)

he says that when the jungle stopped and raekwon came on the room pretty much emptied and people piled into the second room for more DnB

On The Edge of Insanity · « **Reply #3 on:** October 16, 2005, 03:14:23 AM »

Some promoters can be really dumb like that, doesn't make much sense to have him on a DNB/Jungle night. Plus the people who actually went there to see Raekwon would have had to make it through all of that music just to see Raekwon. Would have made sense to make the room Raekwon was appearing in a hiphop room for the night surely?