REVIEW| HIP HOP BRUNCH LDN CELEBRATE THEIR 5TH BIRTHDAY (@HipHopBrunch)

By Mark Mukasa • On Reviews ,

hiphopbrunchOn Sat­urday 11 May, Hip Hop Brunch LDN cel­eb­rated its fifth birth­day at Clapham Grand.  My first impres­sion upon approach­ing the ven­ue was that there was already a con­sid­er­able queue wait­ing out­side thirty minutes before the doors opened. In just five years, Hip Hop Brunch LDN has proven immensely pop­u­lar and has picked up rave reviews in the Metro, Even­ing Stand­ard and Time Out.

The premise of ‘hip hop brunch’ is admit­tedly odd. As a lifelong South Lon­don­er, whenev­er I think of brunch in Clapham Junc­tion, the imme­di­ate men­tal asso­ci­ations fix­ate on smoked sal­mon, artis­an cof­fee and yup­pies order­ing baby­ci­nos for their pugs. Brunch def­in­itely doesn’t call to mind 2pac’s icon­ic diss track Hit ‘Em Up, which was one of the first songs that kicked the event off.

Hip Hop Brunch LDN does change the nar­rat­ive on brunch and day­time party­ing in gen­er­al. Here’s the premise: every Sat­urday and two Sundays a month at a secret loc­a­tion in Lon­don, from 12 PM to 5 PM, a ven­ue trans­forms into a blend of a deli­cious brunch exper­i­ence and an after­noon Hip-Hop party.

Between 12 PM to 1 PM guests are treated to one hour of bot­tom­less cock­tails and fol­low­ing that a deli­cious three course menu, all topped off with a won­der­ful playl­ist fea­tur­ing old school and new school Hip Hop. Everything is fit­tingly Hip Hop themed includ­ing the cock­tails, with the mango fla­voured slush­ie with premi­um gin being aptly titled ‘Meth­od Man Go Brazy’. Hip Hop Brunch LDN also fea­tures a Hip-Hop quiz, Hip-Hop karaōke as well as a live Hip-Hop band. A chance to win a tem­por­ary tat­too drawn by tat­too artists is also avail­able. I opted for a won­der­ful depic­tion of Nas’ face tat­tooed on my arm, although the tat­too artists can draw almost anything.hip-hop brunch

Togeth­er all these ele­ments com­bine to cre­ate a quirky and mem­or­able exper­i­ence that fosters a superb party atmo­sphere. Plus, because it is an early after­noon Sat­urday event, it doesn’t carry the risk of a huge hangover the next day or even a dreaded late-night jour­ney home that anoth­er week­end event might have. In fact, a chilled relaxed vibe and a hyped energy coex­ist at Hip Hop Brunch LDN. It’s a great place to sit down, eat, drink and take in the ambi­ence, but it is also hard to not start dan­cing as the playl­ist cycles through clas­sics like B.I.G’s Hyp­not­ise, Missy Elliot’s Work It and Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz Get Low.

Due to its pop­ular­ity, tick­ets to the event do tend to be fully booked weeks in advance and the secret ven­ue of each brunch is announced the Tues­day before the event, which prob­ably makes get­ting a tick­et on the door poten­tially dif­fi­cult. How­ever, the event makes for a fab­ulous day out with friends and is well worth the early bird tick­ets. For fans of hip-hop or for any­one look­ing for some­thing dif­fer­ent, it’s a per­fect way to spend the weekend.

Click here to grab your tick­ets to the next event www.hiphopbrunchldn.com

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Mark Mukasa

Mark is a South Lon­don based writer and avid fan of all things hip hop. He’s also an MMA and his­tory enthu­si­ast who tries to keep his love of animé under wraps.

About Mark Mukasa

Mark is a South London based writer and avid fan of all things hip hop. He's also an MMA and history enthusiast who tries to keep his love of anime under wraps.