Words by Rowan Lees

Akala made his long awaited return to Cardiff after last year’s succesful Clwb Ifor Bach gig, bringing with him a host of impressive support acts.

Proceedings began with Deacon (whose interview with Quench you can read here) who gave a commanding performance on the tricky first slot of the night. We heard the brooding debut ÔÇÿNo EvilÔÇÖ and the crowd fully warmed up after the raucous ÔÇÿFreedomÔÇÖ from his soon-coming EP. He persevered through the breaking of a microphone cable, expertly holding the crowdÔÇÖs attention while it was fixed, and later revealed too that heÔÇÖd been persevering through a deadly buckfast hangover.

Stepping to the stage in a well cut, beige tan suit, and turning up the heat in The Globe was Denzel Himself. On stage with only a mic and a laptop, he skipped between his self produced bangers, only stopping to express his sincere gratitude to the early arrivers at the show. The music itself could be best described as a masterclass in tasteful distortion, the magnetic sound of the bass and drums bringing heads to a bop. Despite this, you couldnÔÇÖt help but feel that it all would have sounded a little better, a lot louder. Although with the fans gained on this long tour and prolific, auteur like production of new material, it surely wonÔÇÖt be long until Denzel is headlining shows, Himself.

AkalaÔÇÖs performance felt at times more like theatrical performance than a gig. The set was based around his most recent multimedia release Visions, the first (or maybe second according to a fan in Glasgow) rap EP to come with a comic book. Leaping out on stage to the backdrop of the first chapterÔÇÖs comic book style video, jaws begun to drop and excitement reached its peak. Even when dropping into old hits like ÔÇÿDat Boy AkalaÔÇÖ, the man himself maintained a thespian temperament and held the crowd in waiting for his every move. ┬áAt a venue named the Globe, and the day before the BardÔÇÖs very birthday, hits like ÔÇÿShakespeareÔÇÖ, rather ironically kept the crowd from sitting back to enjoy the show as theatre and instead put the crowd in a spin, spilling tins of Red Stripe all over each other.

Even reaching the end of the show, every line of the night was performed with a clinical precision that matched the music videos of a younger, ÔÇ£rougher around the edgesÔÇØ Akala playing on screen. Never losing the talent that brought him fame, itÔÇÖs clear Akala has kept his tongue sharp for tour and hopefully for new projects to come. There were no mentions of new music however, the jaw dropping ÔÇÿVisionsÔÇÖ being on display, rather he promoted his new ÔÇÿCivilisationsÔÇÖ documentary premiering this Saturday on the ÔÇÿraasclart BBCÔÇÖ. How many rappers do you know who can do that?