Joey Bada$$ @ UEA

It's exciting to see the future, yo.

by lizzoutline 18 November 2015

So the LCR is maybe 2/3 full for this early-curfew show from 20 year old rapper Joey Bada$$, who's been making waves since his first few mixtapes, and is no doubt en route to absolute stardom. Tonight he's most ably supported by fellow Pro Era crew members. Yes, I've got my dungarees on. Yes, I'm ready for a bad ass show. Hit me.

Nyck Caution gets the youths up and bouncing with some catchy tracks and a thumping bass. There are hands in the air all over the shop. The kids sure do love to show their love these days...none of that standing about nodding your head with your hands in your pockets that used to be so in.

CJ Fly follows up with some sweet-ass post-Daisy Age tunes. With loads of call and response going down and some very competant rapping, CJ's set is a taste of what sort of atmosphere we can hope for later. The crowd seem to know some of the choruses and are definitely into it until both CJ and the audience slow down and the set loses some of its energy towards the end.

Kirk Knight's style is minimal, slow and bass heavy, getting crowd going once again. The vibe becomes increasingly pumped, tops are removed, and we're ready for Joey.

Joey Bada$$ takes to the stage to calls of JOEY! JOEY! He immediately dives into perhaps his biggest hit Paper Trails. It sounds good, but not loud enough or quite clear enough..a perennial problem with DJ and MC's at live shows. That's a bit of a shame, but the lights are particularly good tonight and Joey's got confidence, but not arrogance flowing from him. Reeling through many of the tracks from his critically acclaimed album B4.DA.$$, we are treated to 95 Til Infinity (not to be confused with 93 Til Infinity, Souls of Mischief's belter) and No.99. CJ Fly joins Joey onstage to join in with my favourite track, Hardknock which comes in strong and hard and gets increasingly beefy with finally, some heavy bass, followed by Hazeus which gets me good and proper. During Teach Me, the ladies in the audience (very few, as bloody usual) are invited up on stage to shake their booty, which they do rather well and with no one making an arse of themselves. Just as the show feels like it's starting to lose its impetus slightly, as at probably every other live show across the world recently, we have a moment of silence to remember what happened in Paris. We feel lucky to be here and to be safe.

Hip hop sure has changed in the last 20 years. Back in the day it would be pretty rare to have a circle pit or experience your performer crowd surfing. These days hip hop is so much more minimal and slick, and with a decided lack of samples used from the past. But hey, it's 2015 and that's how things roll these days...it's not bad, just different. Times are a-changin'. Gleaming with sweat, Joey leaves the stage just before 10pm, but without forgetting to say thank you to us for coming and that he's had a lovely time. Good manners, mister. Joey Bada$$ brought some genuine and non-ego-led hip hop to a mainly white, rural city in Norfolk, and it was a great success (although it could have been louder...but I mostly say that about gigs anyway). Expect greater things to come from an already great scene leader. It's exciting to see the future, yo.