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24 Hours in Hip Hop

The last 24 hours have been mad eventful - some crazy moments and some really budget ones. Lets wheel it back to 3pm Monday - I rolled into Bureau alongside some good friends and some colleagues to witness Chi-town's finest Common breaking down his new album Invincible Summer. If you haven't been to Bureau it's a small swanky central London spot and the room was buzzing with expectation as Common strolled in. After a few moments chatting to people Common kicked off the playback. The set list looked like this

I loved Be and Finding Forever but I have to say free of Kanye's influence dude sounds like he is having a party - the album sounds very European very upbeat and hopefully catchy enough for the pop kids. I had the pleasure of meeting Common and hanging out for a chat - tune into 1Xtra on Friday from 10pm to hear how it went down.


Common rapped the album at us which was a bit weird but at the same time was inspiring - Gladiator sounded stupidly big. To see more photos check here.

From there I rolled with DJ Semtex to hang out in Camden - have I ever mentioned I hate Camden and its flaming crack heads. We headed backstage in the Electric Ballroom which was so scabby you can't imagine to hang out with a crazy motherfucker named Ice Cube


Cube is in the middle of some long ass tour but we managed to shoot the breeze for a few minutes about Detox (are we ever gonna hear this?), movies and his love of the UK. From there we jumped in a cab across London village to Somerset House to watch more Chicago Hip Hop.

Lupe Fiasco at Somerset House - he tore it down in a major way. First time I met Lupe I wasn't sure that he had star quality. Today I eat my words the guy was on fire, the show was tight and the crowd were enthralled.


Saw a couple of tribers in the place - shout to Magdi who was making me laugh my arse off.


Lupe finished the show and next time he is a venue near you check him out because the show was definitely on point.


After that we called it a night although there was a small bid to find Redman who we'd seen in a green Volvo earlier on!

Wednesday was the exact opposite - big talk no results. We were meant to be meeting the full Wu Tang for an exclusive gig but as is their way there was a complete no show and we ended up sat around in Maida Vale for a couple of hours basically doing nothing...


Overall a pretty awesome couple of days - shame about the Wu but that's life. If you want to read Semtex's thoughts hit his blog here.

If you were at any of the shows let me know your thoughts: Common, Cube, Fiasco??


Illsun

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Redman in a Volvo?

Unknown said...

yer it was nuts he was pulling away from R1/1Xtra in a green volvo with Raghav - that sounds like i'm making it up but its the truth I promise!!

Luke GK said...

Illsun is my favourite.

Anonymous said...

lol if you were making it up you would have some imagination to but Redman, Raghav and a green volvo together!!!

Unknown said...

I think some of my lot brought him over - all the cash no flash

Anonymous said...

Do Ice cubes "Fours" count?

Unknown said...

I did think about trying to blag it as a 4 but it looked like a stretch

Anonymous said...

Im confused!!
"I had the pleasure of meeting Common and hanging out for a chat -tune into 1Xtra on Friday from 10pm to hear how it went down."

Are we gonna hear your chat with Common on Semtex's 1xtra show?

Or do you mean

Semtex had a chat with him and I was standing next to him with a mic.

lol

Unknown said...

fair point - i had a chat with him but we didn't record that partly because no-one knows who the hell I am and partly because I have a tin pot whiney ass voice.

On Friday you will get to hear Semtex and Common in conversation.

clear? hope so

LL said...

I saw Lupe at Somerset House on Monday as well, and he put in a great performance. I saw NERD in June and i thought that was good, but Lupe was soooooo much better.
I listened to his album again, and it just wasn't the same, after hearing it live.

Anonymous said...

illsun, how come you have one massive eyebrow? It always looks as though you're frowning or confused? Get your girl to sort 'em out....unless you like looking some Asian Liam/Noel Gallagher.

Also, what's up with Semtex's right arm? Is it real or a plastic one? Has anyone ever seen dude in a tee-shirt to see anything other than his hand?

Unknown said...

@ Anon

I'm not in the picture so not sure what you are talking about as regards my monobrow... are you talking about the other Asian guy... is this a racial thing??

I'm definitely rocking two eyebrows.

Anonymous said...

Relax illsun. I was only messing around. I know that other Asian dude (Mubi) isn't you. And it most definitely is NOT a racial thing. Us anon's may pop up, talk shit and stick together like homeless travellers, but we ain't down with racism, man!

As for Semtex's arm/hand, I'm not taking the piss. Just asking a honest question. Is it plastic? If yes, dude gets even more props from me for his skills.

Unknown said...

@ Anon - I was joking if you could see me I was pulling a Martin Lawrence face as I said the word Racial

as for Sem - yes he has one arm

Anonymous said...

All good, illsun. Plus, Sem should speak about that one-time. If received in the right spirit, that is some inspirational shit.

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