Skepta @ The Rainbow, 10th May 2016
Skepta, The King of Grime as most know him, was at Birmingham Rainbow Venues this week, on the 2nd date of his pop up tour around the UK. The show was sold out within minutes after tickets only went on sale on 7th May 2016. This is no surprise though as the Grime MC’s new album “Konichiwa” is doing great in the UK albums charts and had hit number 1. This is a big achievement coming from a genre that is not usually accepted or even acknowledged in the UK.
Being as this 2nd show was in Birmingham it was only right that BBK affiliate DJ Preditah was onthe bill in his hometown, who defiantly shut it down and got the crowd hype with some Grime bangers.
Then there was Birmingham MC’s Dapz on the Map who performed his song “MURDAH” which has a punchy hook. He was also joined on the stage by Jaykae and then Tempa who brought out Lil Choppa, Sox and Scorpz. All these MC’s killed it on the night and was a big thing to be recognized as Birmingham leading Grime artists.
We then had the Boy Betta Know camp take to the stage starting with Frisco who performed some new material from his new EP “System Killer” which is out now. He was joined on stage by Shorty and Jammer.
As DJ Maximum selected the first track off the album “Konichiwa” Skepta took the stage to a massive uproar from his fans.
He didn’t just preform tracks from his new album though, for all his fans that had been riding with him from day one he performed some of the old stuff like “Ace Hood Flow” and “Same Sh** Different Day” and also done a Grime freestyle ‘spraying old bars’ and ‘slewing’ Devilman which was mad as he was in his hometown, but the Birmingham crowd couldn’t off cared less.
He ended the night with his latest single “Man” to which he brought all the Birmngham MC’s on stage and the Boy Betta Know team. The stage was full with everyone jumping up and getting ‘hype’ from the Grime King’s sick flows and metaphors.
Words and photographs: Chazino Suban