"Whos that O to the Z ? // Another bad man inside the party"

Lethal Bizzle.

with Skinny man, Akala + guests.

Friday 23^rd November.

PLUG, Sheffield - £8

Smoking Ban - Skinny Man ( very low quality)

More fire - Flat Eric freestyle.

I always find PLUG sort of over organised, like maybe it used to be a death camp – how do they know which doors to lock, which doors to open? Its like a 3D computer game where all the baddies are bald northern bouncers.

We had standard militant door policy, checking ID for under 14s. Yes. It was an over 14 rave. So I got my I.D checked for an over 14 rave. Remind me, why did I grow this beard?

Inside it was local business. I had nearly flopped the whole team because I thought it would be awful., but then my friend NurkEye persuaded me and my wifey to attend. On the way there it was very cold.

We got through the nazi maze and it was pack-out, drew for the vodka+redbull, found the smoking area/ dodging young hooligans and the uni grime fans.

Skinny man was up first all toothy dropping bombs with a leather avirex camden town flavour. He really smacked the spoken word side of things /// he had the youth whooping and brapping for poems about child poverty. That’s an excellent look. The smoking ban tune is mad. Go buy it. Actually buy it. Its only a pound. Just buy it.

Also Skinny was really representing this website, he had the whole crowd chanting www.wateraid.org . It was kind of a deep moment. What made it even better is that he didn't even mention his new website www.skinnyman.co.uk which has just been re-launched sharpened up etc. Again, an excellent look.

Then AKALA came on. He annoyed me. Black shakespeare he is not. Some of the grime numbers were good, but where is he going with his new album? What the fuck is electro life? It was a low point.

Then, with much orchestra and loud introductions, I half expected Ricky Hatton to arrive on stage next, but it was the Bizzle, dark glasses and all. I can’t lie. He fucked it up.

First one was some old school grime thing, which I never even heard ( probably real famous…) and everyone including us went bananas. They had built up an amazing call and response thing which reminded me why anyone ever does call and response. It was like secondary school assembly. This side vs. That side etc. You could really see the effects – Bizzle and his hype man had the whole crown wrapped around their penises….- “ Where are you Sheffield? ” ERRUPTION../////

Then Ozzy-B came on for ‘Oi’ and fucked up the whole dance. I can honestly say that I went a bit mad. All the energy and vibes, and old memories bubbling around, the youthlings jumping with me.

It was deep.

I was so hype, that I could go along with the grindy stuff that he played for the next half hour. He was realy good I thought. We kept it more calm during Nirvana covers etc. But i respected the amount of hype he got from the crowd.

Had a debate on the bus home about whether arrogance makes a good performance. AKALA = very arrogant, but weird kind of stage presence, as Alice commented he was totally jerky and erratic, like a terriffying electro-grime-robot. We all know Lethal Bizzle is an arrogant motherfucker. I remember seeing videos about 6 mins long on youtube with him just rinsing Wiley in a carpark. No bars. Just a rant. So, he can hold attention. But also he filled the stage - story telling // charizma // charm leaking out into the sweaty mosh pit ...

Regardless, I still don't think even Bizzle was the black shakespeare.

Shakespeare was a pretty amazing man.

I think Lethal B is a lesser known victorian playwrite. Perhaps Ben Johnson. Someone like that.