REVIEW | CLALI 2NA (@Chali2na) & KRAFTY KUTS LIVE

On arrival in Eclectic Brixton a great mix of people at 12pm we caught the end of Renegade Brass band it was decent but the MC not so understandable. Then there was some groovy beats played by the DJ Apollo Brown which got the crowd grooving, to then be followed by Planet Asia; the previous time I heard of him was on a Swedish hip hop record Up Hygh- Speak yo Piece which was hard to understand and didn’t really fit the chilled out vibe atmosphere of the night.

Moving on to MC supernatural was a great feature in between where he was free-styling whatever items the crowd was giving him, it really uplifted the crowd before the main act! Krafty Kuts opened with the sample of the Jimi Hendrix song “kiss the sky” with Chali 2na bossing the mic on the first track: “Do this for you”, “Coming thru” from Chali 2na album “Fish outta water” which was released in 2009, it was the 4^th song and one of his most famous hits outside of playing in Jurassic 5. Next up was “Welcome to Terrordome” followed a few tracks later by “Hands high” a song that was made by Krafty and 2na which was a crowd-pleaser.

It felt like there wasn’t enough presence on stage there was something missing(Akil, Marc7, Soup maybe.) The performance then moved on to the Dynamic duo Dynamite MC with Chali 2na a great presence and powerful sound and it’s a shame they didn’t play more than 2 songs because they were killing it!! “It ain’t my fault” was the best of the two off the new album “All 4 Corners” another banger. After a couple of songs it was they overplayed it a bit with too many old school beats, so it lost it’s momentum and was too stop start for me.

There was a sick drum and bass song they played before the end of the set which I had never heard by Chali 2na — which was a pleasant surprise. But all in all the gig lacked something, so I am not sure whether I would go again. Maybe I was spoilt for choice after watching J5 with Cut Chemist and DJ Nu Mark playing hit after hit, I really felt that there need to be more MCs on stage. Nonetheless Chali 2na is still one of my favourite MCs, like my friend put it he has flow like a additional musical instrument, and that is what made the night.