Giggs - The Landlord Headline Show Review- Kieran Lewis (Level 3 English)

Well, here we are. Finally. After many years of mishaps and violations by the MET police Giggs has finally done his first headline show,’The Landlord’. If you missed the show then you can find the footage of the whole show on Link Up Tv. So let’s talk about the show. At the start of the youtube footage you can see everyone loading up and getting ready for the show. This is usually a side that we never see when it comes to shows and the artists. Giggs then shows us that he is spiritual and gathers everyone in a circle with conjoined hands in prayer, thanking God for allowing the show to go ahead. Wonderful.

It then skips to a shot of the fans inside the venue with their phone torches on just as Giggs comes through the smoke on stage with the Landlord sign hanging over the door. Giggs then kicks off the show with a song ‘The New Shit’ which is the last track on the album. A nice touch I would say as people usually begin from the front of their albums. We are then greeted by the second song of this monumental evening, ‘The Blow Back’. By now the crowd is hyped and singing the lyrics word for word. They might as well have been performing themselves! “I could’ve rocked the Armani’s… BUT MAN DROPPED THE GABBANA’S” When Giggs dropped this line the whole place was shaking, the crowd was hyped to the max, and there was a connection like no other. The connection between artist and fans! There can only be one word to describe such a moment. Extraordinary.

Giggs then transitions to the best song on the album (in my opinion) titled ‘Savage’. The crowds reaction was instantaneous, a roar of excitement came from them. You can see that the love is real. This is when Giggs really became the performer I had hoped he’d become. He rapped his verse word for word while still maintaining his control over the stage, as a performer this is a very hard thing to do because it requires extreme breath control and stamina. So props to Giggs! By time the second chorus came Giggs already had the crowd singing the words, this was the perfect lead up for Giggs’s friend named ‘KYZE’ to come out and shell the rest of the song. This was powerful and it shows that the audience had listened to the people who featured on the album rather than skipping them. They then share a genuine embrace and KYZE disappears off the stage while Donae’o comes on to perform the most catchiest song of the album, ‘Lock Doh’.

The moment the instrumental starts the crowd is yet again quick to react. An exponential amount of ‘aye’s began to fill the crowd as the crowd was getting ready to sing their hearts out to the chorus. In fact, Donae’o really didn’t need to sing the chorus because the crowd was already doing that, but he done it anyway. When the second part of the chorus comes Donae’o shows his power over the audience by commanding them to jump, and they followed. Giggs then proceeds to shut down the show by rapping the first and second verse, and whenever the hyped lines came, the crowd already knew what to do. Insanse.

Now it’s time for the extra performances. Our first candidate, the legendary KANO. He walks out of stage and he receives an extremely blazing hot welcoming. The audience goes mental. THREE bars into the chorus and the song had already received a wheel-up. For those of you who do not know what a wheel-up is, it is the most prestigious award a Grime Mc or Rapper can receive. This is when the DJ pulls the track all the way back to the beginning because it’s deliverance to the crowd was executed flawlessly. I have never seen such a thing happen so quickly into one song. Even when the song restarted the atmosphere inside the room still did not change, the sense of community was immense and I am proud to watch Giggs and Kano be the key players in this. Kano didn’t even need to start his verse, the crowd done it for him. He then proceeded to continue his verse with the fans joining in. By time the second chorus came in the crowd was on fire, mental, yet showed no signs of exhaustion. When Giggs’s verse came up the crowd already knew what they needed to say. I cannot stress enough about the energy inside that venue, it was crazy, the loyalty regarding the artist was shown that night.

With that song done Giggs does not allow his fans to rest and JME appears to perform ‘Man Don’t Care’. Yet again, the second quickest wheel-up I have seen was awarded, FOUR bars into the song. If you was there it would be so hard to believe it. And the fact that the fans new the ending of every line from JME is outrageous. I don’t think I’ve seen such stage chemistry between artists, from Giggs to Kano, and from Giggs to JME. I am in awe.

Overall, the show was a complete shut down and if anything, it should go down as a historic event in the history of UK Rap and Grime. That’s all I have time for today as it’s been a long day. Kieran Lewis, out.