★★★★★

There’s electricity flowing through London’s Royal Albert Hall, the feverous crowd had snapped up tickets to see Grime veteran Kano perform at the iconic venue in a matter of minutes and as he emerges out onto the stage flanked by brass ensembles, drummers, keyboardists, an orchestra and even a choir you already know he’s came to deliver a performance that they’ll never forget.

As he launches into the opening tracks ‘Free Years’ and ‘Good Yutes’ from his latest record, the outstanding, soulful ‘Hoodies All Summer’ lights strobe and flash across Kano’s all white ensemble (With a peace sign emblazoned on his back) as he pounces across the stage, rapidly and succinctly flowing through each of his rhymes to a rapturous audience, there’s no doubt this hometown hero is a master of his craft, a live perfectionist who has been honing his skills for the past 15 years now. Despite being a forefather of the Grime genre, Kano has never lost the humility that has made him so endearing to listeners and fans. It’s that positivity that shines through the night like a beacon.

Kano’s not one to go for the glitz and glamour, instead placing his spotlight on more topical and personal subjects within his music such as ‘Trouble’ which with the accompaniment of an incredible gospel choir is one of the most moving, poignant and yet surprisingly hopeful performances of the evening. Instead of feeling at odds with some of his more raucous material, each song accompanies and flows into each other well. The spiritual nature of ‘Trouble’ soon transforms into total bedlam for beloved classic single ‘Ps & Qs’ in which pints pour down from the balconies and the Albert Hall vibrates and shakes to the pounding of thousands of feet. It’s joyful chaos and it’s hard not to feel overcome by the pure euphoria of the crowd. 

Whilst perhaps an unconventional venue choice (this being the Royal Albert Hall’s second only Grime gig) Kano shows why his East Ham roots and celebration of Grime culture is a natural fit for the prestigious classical venue, an orchestra and brass accompaniment add extra gravitas, emotion and power to every percussion and bass line whilst the Hall’s acoustics only amplify Kano’s sound. Whether it be the piercing violins on ‘Endz’ or the steel pan drums of ‘Can’t Hold We Down’.

The show moves at a relentless and joyous pace, a near two hour set flies by with Kano showing his appreciation, repeatedly thanking the audience and at one point pausing to declare "This ones emotional for me, f**king hell" as if his beaming smile wasn’t showing just how much he was enjoying tonights performance. He keeps chatter to a minimum however, focusing on performing track after track. Grime and Rap in general is a hard craft to perform live but each verse is clear sounding and delivered without a pause, even just on a technical level tonight’s performance is incredibly impressive.

Some shows have maybe one or two real ‘I was there’ moments but tonights performance is full of them, whether it be the pandemonium of ‘Garage Skank’ with its thundering brass urging on the crowd or the many special guests that add a communal and celebratory spirit to the evening, the unbridled joy of Ghetts as he joins Kano and D Double E for a triumphant ‘Class of Deja’ or the hysteria as Giggs powers onto the stage for a frenzied ‘3 Wheels Up’.

Kano draws from all the elements of the evening for an incredible finale, now surrounded by a marching band he brings the whole hall together in song, like a clergy for a moving performance of ‘The Sound’. 2019 has been an incredibly significant year for the London rapper, He’s released what may be the defining album of his career, the soulful and progressive ‘Hoodies All Summer’ as well as returning to the spotlight with the return of the critically acclaimed ‘Top Boy’ but if you were to ask anyone in the audience what Kano’s biggest achievement was… it would most likely be tonight because this was the performance that cements Kano as not just an icon for the genre, but as he declared fittingly during his opening number, Royalty.

Setlist:

Free Years

Good Yutes

Trouble

Deja (Puuuull Up)

P's & Q's

This is England

T-Shirt Weather

Can't Hold We

Teardrops

Got My Brandy

Endz

A Roadmans Hymn

*

Signs In Life

Garage Skank

Class of Deja (with D Double E and GHETTS)

SYM

*

Pan-Fried

3 Wheels Up (with GIGGS)

My Sound