Music > Live Reviews

J Hus

The Nick Rayns LCR, UEA

07/12/17

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Afrobeat has had its biggest year to date in the UK, as recognised by a string of chart hits and a wealth of nominations at last week’s MOBO awards. As the genre’s leading man, J Hus’s live show is a celebration of its rising fortunes.

Rapper DC brought his strong lyrical ability to the stage first, a cool opening to an already packed crowd. Second was NSG who upped the energy bounding around on stage, peaking with hit tune Yo Darlin, a dancehall inspired banger well met by a lively crowd. Final support came from Young T and Bugsey, a pairing racking up impressive YouTube figures and definitely tipped to have a good 2018. They stalked the stage with confidence, leading a mass sing-a-long for their last tune 4x4.

J Hus was introduced by two frontmen, inducing screams from teenage girls across the LCR dancefloor. 2017 saw the release of his debut album ‘Common Sense’, which peaked at number 6 in the charts. The album is brilliant for live performances, blending carnivalesque vibes perfect for dancing, with more hard-hitting grime inspired tracks that lead to quite possibly the biggest mosh pit I’ve ever seen at the LCR. He also ran through crowd pleasers Samantha and Bad Boys, songs from Dave and Stormzy on which he features which made a great addition to the set list.

The first half of the performance could’ve been paced slightly better and at times it felt like J Hus and his two frontmen were waiting to get to the more popular songs of the second half. When it came though the energy levels went through the roof. Plottin and Friendly were the stand out tracks for me, and were delivered with style and swagger by an artist with a lot of reasons to be confident. The encore was of course MOBO certified best song of 2017 Did You See (did I mention, the DJ booth was inside the front half of a gleaming on-stage Mercedes-Benz?).

J Hus is pioneering a genre that looks set to be the biggest sound of next year. His live show brings energy and entertainment, bravado and bangers. Get tickets to see him in 2018? That’s just common sense.

Jack

My favourite album of the year, Common Sense, thrusted the 21-year-old rapper/singer J Hus into the limelight of British music. It’s combination of hip-hop, afro beat and dancehall veered away from the saturation of the grime scene and has provided something artists will emulate for years to come. In light of this, the ‘Bouff Daddy’ himself coming to the LCR had me in worlds of excitement to see how the monumental album would come across in person.

Arriving to the standard UK grime crowd in Norwich, consisting mainly of those who definitely had school the next morning, the soundtrack was the typical mainstream hip-hop to get people hyped up. Three supports followed – the first being a relatively unremarkable rapper DC, followed by a much livelier NSG. Their on-stage presence was massive, with 5 (possibly 6) of them jumping around and just generally having a great time. They focussed a lot on trying to get the crowd turned up, but not many people knew who knew were so it didn’t quite work out. After they were shouted off stage by the tech guy, Young T & Bugsey entered. The Nottingham duo, who have been rapidly rising on the same label as J Hus, Black Butter, only played around 3 songs but got a fantastic reaction from the audience. Their tracks about Mickey Mouse and imitating a police car by rhyming with ‘nee-naw’ were amusing to say the least.

The lights went out. The bonnet of a BMW in front of the DJ is revealed, and the sounds of the title track from the album begin. Light strips above and below the DJ illuminate J Hus in a mix of blue and red, and immediately I find myself frustrated – he’s performing over his tracks. This is an issue that is, in the least dramatic way, plaguing live performances at the moment, especially in hip-hop. Especially with the first few tracks, which were relatively low energy (he barely moved at all for the first 10 minutes) it just sounded bad, as the vocals from both tracks clashed and just sounded far too loud. Of course, the intention is that it fills the room more, but to me it’s a shame as you can’t properly distinct how the artist sounds.

Racing through some of the low-key tracks from the album, he then went onto some old loosies and tracks from his early mixtapes while, in true hip-hop fashion, shouting out the ‘fans from the beginning’. His t-shirt then comes off and we are treated to a rapid-fire mashup of his guest hooks on other artists’ tracks, which was great to hear as that is his huge strength as an artist. Following on from that, his biggest songs like Lean & Bop appear, with all the high-energy tracks from Common Sense such as Friendly, and the massive mosh pit creator Clartin. The reception from the crowd was crazy, and this was the time in the show where I felt like I’d finally cracked the enjoyable side of his live presence. Finishing with the best track on the album Did You See, we all sang along and took in the positive vibes, with him bigging up Norwich multiple times – I think we did him justice on his last tour stop.

I don’t think the album translated well into a live performance. Perhaps at a festival, or with a different crowd demographic, it would have created the right atmosphere, but with people very keen to turn up and go wild it just left some parts of the show very lacklustre and slow. J Hus did build up the energy well though, as by the end of the show it had ramped up perfectly. The use of backing track will always be the biggest problem however – when you have someone who clearly has a talent to be seen, it’s sad to see it hidden behind a bombardment of sound.

Nevertheless, J Hus is still a young up-and-comer, and he has plenty of time to improve and get more confident on stage. His music is exceptional at what it goes out to achieve, I just don’t think I’d be rushing back to see him in the flesh anytime soon.

Alex D