REVIEW | ONYX LIVE AT THE JAZZ CAFE

By Salfreckles • On Uncategorized , , ,

It’s been a long long time com­ing & I have a con­fes­sion to make.…I’ve been lov­ing Hip Hop for around 4 dec­ades, how­ever, this was my first time see­ing Onyx live. Why? Life, rais­ing my chil­dren, and more recently the pan­dem­ic, and four can­celled shows had paused oppor­tun­ity until this moment, finally the stars aligned, and oh! what a night — Onyx delivered the kind of raw, unfiltered energy you’d expect from them in the 90s, with it came the oppor­tun­ity to exert any pent up energy, throw­ing gunz in the air with consent…I soooo needed this today !

The even­ing began with a mix­ture of styles, bridging homet­owns from Queens, NYC to Brix­ton, Lon­don. CLBRKS was up first with an inter­est­ing laid back style fol­lowed by the con­trast­ing heavy bassed Black Lion Soci­ety who brought undeni­able energy.

Then on comes Rayza step­ping up to the mark, open­ing a new can and spray­ing us with his skills, his own remix “10 Rap Com­mand­ments,” built on the soundtrack of Big­gie’s 10 Crack Com­mand­ments brought a famil­i­ar sound with a twist on the lyr­ics that the crowd clearly appre­ci­ated, sud­denly the mood shif­ted, gears had changed up and my ears relaxed into my kinda Hip Hop sound. Backed by DJ KPryme — KRS-One’s son (cue someone drop­ping the joke, “does that make him KRS-Two?”), Rayza showed his mic skills with good friendly energy and stage pres­ence, he paid homage to the UK scene by bring­ing out Craze 24, Calipo, 2Badder, and Logic Army. It was a cool touch, giv­ing space to and acknow­ledging that Hip Hop cul­ture is act­ive here in the UK, I respect that. Craze 24 & Calipo made me chuckle when he acknow­ledged them all being in ‘The Jazz Caff!’ it’s Lon­don innit!

Rayza really got the crowd engaged, handig us over to Onyx with his song ‘Back to 95’.…

The crowd’s anti­cip­a­tion was now built up for Onyx. When they stormed the stage to “Raise It Up,” in big puffas, Onyx tees and Stick­y’s Onyx Ewing sneak­ers! the crowd was already primed, the duo’s voices cut through with power and author­ity. Their stage pres­ence com­manded respect, and the audi­ence was theirs from the jump. Crowd par­ti­cip­a­tion wasn’t option­al — they had us in the palm of their fists!

They ran through the ever pop­u­lar “Throw Ya Gunz” and “Shif­tee,” with Rayza pop­ping back & drop­ping a free­style in between. I would’ve loved “Atak of da Bal-Heads,” but hope­fully there’ll be a next time. What was clear was the con­nec­tion, the two-way energy — artist to crowd, crowd to artist — the essence of the hip hop effect!

The high­light? Sticky Fin­gaz swinging from the Jazz Café bal­cony dur­ing “Last Dayz.” I’d heard stor­ies of this from friends who saw them years ago, I thought maybe those days were gone yet my hopes were answered, wit­ness­ing this live was the cherry on the top of the Ice Cream Monday. He leapt back onto the stage, embody­ing the kind of fun yet wild, raw energy that defines Onyx. This wasn’t nos­tal­gia — this was raw, liv­ing for today Hip Hop energy I know and love!

Of course, no Onyx show would fin­ish happy without a united jump up to their best known tune. just when it seemed they were done, they returned for the encore, Fre­dro ask­ing if he was so high he for­got to SLAM !? and the room erup­ted. Every ounce of energy left in the crowd was poured into that track. No crowd surf­ing this time — maybe we’re all get­ting a little older — but the vibe was elec­tri­fy­ing it kept me on a music­al high all week.

After their set, they came back out to meet-and-greet, I got my “BACDAFUCUP ” cas­sette signed,  They gave genu­ine time to fans, chat­ting, laugh­ing, and show­ing appre­ci­ation; proof that their con­nec­tion with the crowd goes bey­ond the stage.

The Jazz Café often proves to be the per­fect ven­ue : intim­ate enough to lock eyes with the per­formers, feel the sweat drip (ummm!), be at one with (most of) the crowd, yet spa­cious enough to let the energy breathe. And yes, the ques­tion always lingers with artists from the ’90s — do they still have it? Onyx answered with a resound­ing YES. Their pas­sion hasn’t dimmed

For me, this gig was more than a show. It was medi­cine after a drain­ing day in wet Decem­ber. Hip hop is an anti­dote to low mood, pure and simple. Onyx proved them­selves still tight, still vital, and still cap­able of leav­ing you on a music­al Hip Hop high. I went to work beam­ing the next day!

Pro­moters, take note: That pre­vi­ously can­celled Onyx and Lords of the Under­ground gig would still be a dope combo cos I wanna hear their tune with Snow­goons ‘What’s Up” liiiiive — please.

Until then, I’ll hold onto this night — worth the wait, I fully recom­mend the Onyx experience! *****

-Sal­Freckles

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Salfreckles

Sally Mur­row aka Sal­freckles is a Lon­don­er who works in early edu­ca­tion, she has a back­ground in graph­ic design and finds inspir­a­tion for her art from hip hop rhymes and culture.

About Salfreckles

Sally Murrow aka Salfreckles is a Londoner who works in early education, she has a background in graphic design and finds inspiration for her art from hip hop rhymes and culture.