I had only heard of UK grime music about 3 months ago. Its roots are angsty, energetic; angry even. It’s fast paced, and kind of cocky, pulling direct inspiration from the generations of the hip hop community that gave birth to the genre. I wouldn’t say it’s easy to listen to. The general 140BPM rule or double time speed in the music requires an accompaniment of electronic nature, meaning you have to concentrate on the lyrics through a frequently intense dubstep background. I liked it pretty quickly as I noticed it creeping into circles of my friends, and was primarily intrigued by the story of the genre. So when I heard through the grapevine that local Brisbane artist TJ Quinton was organising a gig starring one of UK’s most recognised artists, Akala, I was excited about the idea. Ever more so, when I heard that Omar Musa, an Australian artist that I was familiar with as a result of his awesome gift at storytelling and creating spoken word. I had heard of Jimblah, but never listened to his music, and after a little research on him I was finally completely sold.

I got to the Woolly Mammoth quite early considering the 11:45 start for Akala, and enjoyed the last half of IAMD, a Brisbane based MC who was definitely a good choice for the opening act. There was only a small crowd when I first arrived, but enough familiar faces who were also appreciating this guy’s flow made it a promising night. IAMD performed with that classic colloquial Aussie Hip-hop style that I have really grown to love in artists like Tuka, Bliss’n Eso, Seth Sentry and Hilltop Hoods. He worked with his DJ really well, and is probably someone I’d keep an eye out for on the ever burgeoning  Aussie Hip Hop community. My only concern at this point was whether the clarity of the words through the microphone would become better. As a result of my determination to try and be little bit more familiar with Akala’s music, I did a little bit of preparation and got on the good old google machine, and found some lectures, interviews and music that he had made recently. I was blown away by his intelligence and his concise way of communicating; particularly on issues that are so often filled with so much deceitful jargon. So, as a result, I was very eager just to listen to the message that the music was giving, and to support a hip hop community that actually raps about things that matter. I’m not sure if it was just my inexperience in seeing hip hop music live, but I was really having trouble understanding exactly what IAMD was rapping, and thought it might be a later adjusted technical problem.

Omar Musa was the next artist, and I was also looking forward to seeing what his hip hop sound would be, as I am more familiar with him though his Spoken Word artistry. Omar exploded onto the stage, and I loved his energy and his carefully calculated verses that demonstrated his deep love and passion for language. Every single one of his songs was just enough testimony, just enough knowledge, and just enough of a lesson to make it a really relatable performance, and he had people jumping through a lot of his performance. The whole night was beginning to attract exactly the different sorts of crowds that you would expect at this particular sort of night; political activists nodding cooly through hipster glasses, dreaded surfers, the guys who all look they might be called ‘Steve’, cute little indie chicks, angry young bulls with hoodies, English lads who were all proclaiming their long love for Akala, and it created a really good crowd actually. Everyone loved the music, and by the end of Omar’s set the undertones of mutual appreciation began to further relax the crowd.

Jimblah came bouldering onto stage, spitting the words that reflected perfectly his experiences, and I loved that his talent at rapping, singing and producing music was highlighted so well that night. I was so shocked when he sang and it was beautiful, it was almost like it was smoothing the rough edges on talent which, when finished, created a really polished artist. His messages demonstrated his passion to tell his story and to tell the truth about huge racism towards the Australian Indigenous community. His political agenda was matched by the breaky sort of beats that he chose to accompany his music. The set ended well and the anticipation for Akala was pretty intense, and by this stage I had managed to shimmy my way to the front of the crowd.

Akala came out onto the stage, draped in an Aboriginal Flag, and a stage presence that magnetised. Before long I was watching people all feel his music and get so excited about witnessing such a talent so close. He was such a lyrical warrior, and represented the true sort of hip hop, the story behind why hip hop was allowed to be cocky, and why it had to be sort of outrageous but most importantly why it had to demonstrate understanding and above all a scholarly sort of knowledge of the world. Songs such as ‘Murder Runs the Globe’ had me singing the hook for days afterwards. He switched between heavy UK grime, to reading words that were poetry out of a book. I did enjoy the performance, and had fun the whole time, but I just had the slight feeling, that there was room for it to be better. I didn’t have the ecstatic after-awesome-gig feeling that so many people want, but it was a really entertaining night, especially because there were just so many people who, regardless of their political agendas or interests, were listening to messages and music that were worthy of listeners. I think it could of been improved by a better sound set up in all honesty, I think the venue was great and probably an appropriate size, however the acoustics limited the acts ability to clearly rap.

Akala finished the night with an awesome encore, and then greeted his fans immediately after the show. He was a really eloquent dude and patient with all of his dozen-beer-deep fans. All of the artists that Friday are worth paying attention to, but Akala really was the outstanding presence. Kudos has to go out to Tim Loydell, or TJ Quinton the organiser, who, several days afterwards sold out the Melbourne show too. The Mammoth hosted a successful night, and Akala is definitely a name to be remembered. 

- Annaliese Heard