Kano @ the Waterfront

Grime granddaddy  Kano has been spitting since 2004, and with five sweet albums under his belt he’s finely tuned and crafted his sound to perfection. He’s worked with Damon Albarn, Kate Nash, Giggs, Skepta, Wiley and Gorillaz amongst others and been awarded and nominated for loads of awards, perhaps the most important being Buffest Badman Of The Year.

Norwich is not the most natural of grime cities, but It’s sold out tonight at the Waterfront and there’s a great vibe amongst the mostly youthful crowd. Support comes from Dapz, Tempa and Swifta Beater who are pretty confident and sound OK but aren’t able to get the audience going quite yet. There’s more potential from second support Jammz, who has a great flow and steps things up a bit. In between live acts we’re treated to some top notch DJ action from Jak Dat , a natural on the one’s and two’s, mixing like a boss. Really impressive.

There’s a thrill in the air when the man himself Kano takes to the stage, and he bowls us over with the first track from his new album, Hail. The lights are blinding, the bass almost knocks me off my feet, and he’s all over the stage like a rash. The crowd go bonkers.  It reminds me of Kanye’s opening track at Glastonbury, with the lights and the sheer showmanship of it, but there’s not a trace of Kanye’s arrogance or bravado in Kano. He’s a musician in the fullest sense of the word; he’s worked incredibly hard and has taken sufficient time to make these songs some of the most complex and advanced grime you’ll ever hear. But underneath the bone shattering, hair-on-end bass there’s reggae, hip hop, even some folk influences in there. This music is dense and it takes effort to peel away the layers of the Kano onion and delve deeper, but it’s oh so worth it.