The night grime took over the Albert Hall
Kano
Royal Albert Hall, London SW7
‘Welcome to my city!” roared veteran grime star Kano as the Royal Albert Hall exploded with joyous exuberance. This was effectively a homecoming gig for east-london rapper Kane Robinson, playing to his most devoted fans, but it was also something more.
His “welcome to my city” catchphrase is a despairing punchline on Good Youtes Walk Amongst Evil,a litany of everyday problems of poverty and crime in Kano’s home borough of Newham. But in this most august of settings, it took on the exultant tones of a conqueror’s boast. Much like Stormzy’s triumphant set at Glastonbury this summer, Kano’s sold-out show offered the opportunity for a marginalised pop subculture to take over a venerable space and demonstrate that it belonged there. Such was the exultant response, it was like a rave breaking out at the Proms.
Robinson threw everything at it, augmenting his usual line-up with a huge cast of extras. Dressed in shining white, he held centre stage as more and more musicians came on throughout the night, the visual impact of an expanding ensemble lending focus to the widening parameters of his sound.
The audience apparently knew every line, so that the gig was in danger of turning into one big shoutalong – but, crucially, you don’t have to be a grime aficionado to appreciate Kano’s music. The 34-year-old has been on the British rap scene since his early teens, demonstrating the verbal skills and creative ambition to push grime towards ever richer musical terrain.
While there remains a hard electro pulse at the core of his four-piece band, a live drummer brings a jazzy flow to the rhythms. On Monday, a five-piece horn section lent brassy warmth to tracks from Made In The Manor, Kano’s Mercury-nominated 2016 album. A 12-piece string section added lush depths to selections from this year’s masterful Hoodies All Summer, with the rest of the musicians falling silent at times to allow Kano to pit his punchy delivery against the sinuous tones of violins and cellos. Five backing singers added towering gospel choir blasts and sweet soul trilling to uplifting effect, holding the audience spellbound as Kano’s devastating anti-knife-crime drama Trouble broke down to a sorrowful refrain of “Trouble, trouble, I don’t want no trouble.”
Kano’s fame has been broadened by a co-starring role in the hit TV series Top Boy, where he plays brooding gangster Sully. His stage persona, however, is the polar opposite of that character’s insular soulfulness. Highly energised, Kano bounced around like an overexcited child in a playground, grinning from ear to ear. “This is emotional for me,” he admitted, suddenly lost for words. “Every time I want to say something, I don’t know what to say!” Instead, he let the music do the talking.
Kano rapped fast and slow, hard and soft, switching it up with swaggering confidence. Sometimes he would sing with an endearingly flat tone and gentle reggae inflection, surrounded by a 14-piece Caribbean steel drum ensemble on the gentle My Sound. When he paused dramatically during A Roadman’s Hymn, head bowed, to deliver the line: “Can I get an amen right now?” 5,500 people dutifully responded with the most boisterous “Amen!” you are ever likely to hear.
Guest rappers kept arriving to roars of recognition. A mosh pit broke out during an electrifying encore of 3 Wheel-ups with fellow grime star Giggs. You could feel the vibrations through the floor, as if the whole building was being shaken to its foundations.
By the end, there were more than 30 musicians on stage bathing in noisy acclaim. The toughest and most challenging modern British pop genre had laid its claim on Queen Victoria’s venerable showpiece. It won’t be the last time.