It’s become clear that Bristol is currently one of the key cities in the UK Hiphop scene, so not only was I massively hyped to see one of the greatest producers in hiphop history share the stage with one of the rawest, most to the point MC’s in the game, I was also looking forward to experiencing my first hiphop night in bristol, a city I’d heard nothing but good things about.
The night started off with local DJ and the man behind Squared Roots, DJ Fingerfood dropping a banging set of 90′s hiphop to warm the crowd up. Then it was straight in at the deep end as Bristol crew Split Prophets tore up the stage with an endless amount of energy, a treat to watch live as you can feel the unity amongst the crew from their presence alone.
Next up it was fan favourites, High Focus and RLD’s Leaf Dog and BVA MC, accompanied by up and comer Smellington Piff who is making a lot of noise atm. I’m not gonna lie, I missed the majority of this set as I was out the back, waiting for and enjoying some jerk chicken but the part of their set I did manage to catch was dope.
Last up it was time for the legends to shine, Premo and Freddie Foxx entered the stage as the crowd roared an applause for the two boombap icons. They dropped numerous tracks from their joint album ‘KolleXXXion’ as well as a few others including the notorious track ‘The Militia’
Hype set from start to finish, with Premo dropping an incredible solo set in the middle, playing some classic Gangstarr joints as everyone paid their respects to the late, great G.U.R.U.
As we all got turfed out of the venue and the gig was over, the night was still not done, just up the road to our left there was a big crowd of people with some hiphop blasting out in the middle of the street, an unusual occurence at 3am in the morning. Naturally we went over to investigate and were pleasantly suprised to see somebody had brought a boombox and a mic and a street cypher was in full swing. MC’s hungry to go up next, at least 150-200 people huddled round in the cold watching and writers hitting up the surrounding walls.
The whole evening was a great experience and how a hiphop night should be. Bristol you did not disappoint. Bigups
By Joe Downes
Photography by Anis Ali
Video by Clem Samuel
