Leeds Hip Hop Scene

Wow, what an amazing band Breaking The Illusion are. They’re a thrilling mix of taut rock riffs, rapping, and bouncing reggae 2 tone-esque beats and an electronic zest. They’re kind of The Clash meets The Specials meets Dizzee Rascal and more in-between. Fronted by a very enthusiastic frontman he and his band are here, as the bands name might suggest, to break down the illusion that we might be living under in society etc etc, and they do it with a massive jumping up and down sense of humour too. If anyone has seen their genius Leeds city centre based video to ‘Never In A Million’ will understand what Breaking The Illusion are about.

Last year Breaking The Illusion quite rightly won the Futuresound Competition at this very venue, this gave them the opportunity to play Leeds Festival. At Leeds Festival they were put on at the criminally early time of 11.30 in the morning to hung-over revellers, but still they got on with the job of putting on a swinging, bouncing, and all round powerful performance.

Tonight they return to the Cockpit, supporting the underwhelming Mr Hudson And The Library, and there’s a fair sized crowd for B.T.I to get their manifesto across to and well and truly entertain at the same time.
And well and truly entertain  they do, as for the first 2 tracks they blast through some rocking hip-hopping tinged riffage, with a spectacular, visceral and animated performance, particularly on ‘Never In A Million’. B.T.I take their foot of the peddle for ‘Lucky Thing’ which brings in some reggae, bouncy, sunshiny vibes, with some particularly brilliant elasticated bass lines from the bass player, who goes through some dancey shapes not unlike a certain Paul Simonon. Their trademark tune ‘Mr Bouncer’ arrives like a punch to the stomach and get some heads nodding and arms waving in the crowd, and some great scratchy guitars too. Then they go back to full throttle on the brilliant ‘Live Talk’ which is a cross between rock and grime, and should go down a storm.

It’s B.T.I’s frontman’s descriptive lyrics which he brings to life on stage which is at the centre of this brilliant band. This band should go on to bigger and better things, and they really should get more peoples head nodding in synchronisation, as they have tunes and ideas aplenty.

Ben Bradford.