Review: Jedi Mind Tricks (@jmthiphop) Live At Islington Academy

“A lot of emcees…a lot of rap­pers out there, you know, they lucky to spit one hot verse, maybe drop an EP.  man Vin­nie Paz been put­ting this shit down for 20 con­sec­ut­ive mother­fuckin’ years, record after record, clas­sic after classic…salute that motherfucker”

Eso­ter­ic dropped that quote on stage in front of the sold out crowd at the Jedi Mind Tricks show on April 11^th at Isling­ton Academy. This simple line encap­su­lated the career of one of the illest under­ground emcees and co-founder of one of the greatest groups that our cul­ture has pro­duced. Des­pite, of course, leav­ing a lot essen­tial details out – the depth of the con­tent, the largely inde­pend­ent releases, the men­tal health issues – the Army of the Pharaohs/Czarface emcee cap­tured a lot of the things Vin­nie Paz and JMT are so deeply respec­ted and will be so widely remembered for –the pro­lif­ic con­sist­ency of the highest grade, raw, rugged, uncut, hard­core Hip Hop. That’s why the show was sold out, that’s why they always are, (“that’s why you copped my shit 9 times at the same store”) and that’s why the crowd saluted the per­form­ance with an almost con­stant mosh pit. Ded­ic­ate fans reflect­ing the work of a truly ded­ic­ated emcee.

The ven­ue was full as soon as the doors opened. People had been queuing for hours before, try­ing to get hold of a tick­et. Before the main event, the crowd were blessedby some of the best under­ground tal­ent that Lon­don has to offer. Rep­res­ent­ing the inter­na­tion­al grass­roots Hip Hop organ­isa­tion End of the Weak, the organ­isers of the UK chapter – founders DJ Snuff and Kissy K and former UK Cham­pi­on Mas Law – brought out a crazy line-up. Sus Bully, Da Flyy Hoo­ligan, Gen­es­is Elijah,Phili N Dotz and cur­rent Cham­pi­on Gee Bag per­formed their bangers before Kropz, Con­sensus and one dude called Apex Zero were brought into the circle for a cypher that got crazy. Raw lyr­i­cism, genu­ine free­style, bat­tling, polit­ic­al com­ment­ary and more were on dis­play, high­light­ing mul­tiple levels of the art of the emcee – exactly what EOW stands for – set­ting the tone for the main event.

As Mas called out the introductions…the crowd were gassed! Even with a warm up that dope, these fans were there for one reas­on only. The noise when 7L came out to setup, fol­lowed by Eso­ter­ic, was a mad­ness – and the level went even high­er when the Pazmani­an Dev­il akaIkon The Verbal Holo­gram aka Box­cut­ter Pazzy hit the stage. The mosh kicked off INSTANTLY. Shit got so rowdy so quickly that Vin­nie Paz stopped the show in the second track to get two girls pulled out of the crowd to stop them from being crushed. The show con­tin­ued in the same vein all the way through, as Vin­nie and Eso­ter­ic ran through clas­sics from solo, Jedi Mind Tricks, Army of the Pharaoh, Heavy Met­al Kings and Czar­face albums, with the hard­core sup­port­ers down the front spit­ting every mem­or­ised word. More than a few fist fights broke out, man­dem surfed the crowd, ladies were on shoulders, people were pulled out the crowd dehyd­rated and battered – cas­u­al­ties of the con­tinu­ous mosh. Secur­ity couldn’t drag out every­one who was rais­ing up, mean­ing the night went down, etched into the memory of every­one involved as yet anoth­er raw as fuck Jedi Mind Tricks show.

The livest responses came when ‘Heav­enly Divine’ and ‘End of Days’ dropped, but the most poignant part of the night was Vinnie’s ded­ic­a­tion to the recently passed legend Sean Price, taken too early in August 2015. Echo­ing many of the Hip Hop com­munity who knew Sean P per­son­ally, Vin­nie spoke of him as a broth­er and vowed to nev­er let that broth­er die as he lives on through his music. When “Blood Runs Cold” dropped the crowed respon­ded the way Hip hop heads should; they got as hype as pos­sible and spat the bars as loud as they could.

The show was ILL, liv­ing up to the expect­a­tions of those who have seen JMT before and, I’m sure, inspir­ing anoth­er gen­er­a­tion of fans in the same way I was when I first saw them live. The energy expressed and reflec­ted off the crowd showed was evid­ence of a per­son who has mastered their craft. Before the show I was able to build with Vin­nie for I AM HIP HOP and GLOB­AL FAC­TION and he said, quot­ing his fath­er, that he feels he’s got­ten to where he has because “it’s not work if you love it” and that he has to be in the stu­dio weekly. He is proof that with that level of com­mit­ment to an art form, or any chosen dir­ec­tion, it can bear fruit, can take you around the world, can build you a com­mit­ted fan­base, even when you are posi­tioned largely out­side of, even opposed to, the mass media machine.

The full inter­view with Vin­nie Paz will be com­ing soon on I AM HIP HOP and GLOB­AL FACTION’s plat­forms. While you’re wait­ing, if you want some more raw lyr­i­cism, reach End of the Weak’s first round of the 2017 Emcee Chal­lenge, this Thursday 27^th April 2017 upstairs at the icon­ic Ritzy Cinema in Brix­ton. There are still pos­i­tions open to emcees who want to enter the com­pet­i­tion and test out their skills. You can find EOW UK on Face­book: https://www.facebook.com/eowldn/ or email them for more info at EOWLDN@GMAIL.COM

Pho­tos by KT Wat­son (www.ktw.photography) 

Keep up to date with Jedi Mind Tricks on their Offi­cial Face­book Page. 

To see exactly what you missed out on check out the foot­age from Glob­al Fac­tion and I Am Hip Hop Magazine:

[youtube]https://youtu.be/fSnwdpop9WY[/youtube]