Leeds Hip Hop Scene

Another Friday night of hip hop infused goodness at the Fav. New Bohemia have been good to us these last few weeks with the likes of Braintax and Kids in Tracksuits providing the soundtrack to our night. This week Jehst is the big name on the bill and I was excited as I’d not seen him before and after playing his gritty bleak albums - ‘Return of the drifter; Falling down to death’ I knew I was in for some belting anthems to get on down to.After my rendezvous with a box of chips from the legendary “Big Bite”, my hand was stamped at the Faversham door, and the night commenced. DJ Andy H was on the wheels of steels dropping resident “part of the furniture” hip hop classics such as “Shook one pt. II”, and perhaps somewhat predictably “Witness The Fitness”, followed by a lashing of a Tribe Called Quest, which always goes down well. Support act Sir Smurf and Conspicuous stepped up to the plate next, admittedly I hadn’t heard much from these guys, so I was intrigued. Strangely what ensued was Conspicuous asking the audience what year they were born in, name dropping 81, (his birth year), 82, 83 etc along the way. To be honest I grew a little concerned as the audience seemed to be made up largely of 86ers (18 years old) and I’m sure if he’d kept going 87,88s leaving me feeling oddly old at 23.

The high plains drifter opened his set by dropping old favourite “Under the Weather” which was a cruel a irony due to his current state of health. Support was served in the name of Asaviour, who gave Jehst the back up he needed, due to him suffering with the flu. Along the way he dropped resident classics Citizen Smith and ESP. Although overall I felt his performance was hampered by vocal constraints, and Asaviour just didn’t grip the audiences attention, as well as say Mystro who backed Braintax up a couple of weeks earlier. The set was brought to a close with High Plains Anthem which energised the crowd, and added some much needed participation. Overall not a bad gig for the price of admission, but the main act could have done with a few doses of lemsip to remedy the vocals.

Anokh Goodman