Coming up to the doors of Brixton Academy we had to laugh when people brazenly stepped up to the door expecting to buy tickets; are you mad a one off concert with two of the biggest people in reggae-dancehall, Movado and Gyptian, you already know it’s a sell out.

So after letting out a little d-low laugh then producing our tickets courtesy of PhatNights we found our way downstairs but soon discovered we weren’t going to be able to see anything but a sea of people in the sold out Brixton Academy we ended upstairs in the seating area which looked even busier.

By time we got to the circle area Gappy Ranks Stinkin Rich got wheeled the most amount of times before the story of Ranks tenuous journey from Switzerland just to get there pleased the crowd even more who were overly live already just from the support acts’ performances. In fact a lot of love was shown for the dancehall music supporters, Robbo Ranx thanked the crowd for their role the most important role as fans. Then a brief DJ interlude before a band change and then Gyptian took to stage with his signature blend of consciousness mixed with his love for women. Seriously he actually sounds so perfect and on point if you closed your eyes and forgot about the thousands of other people around you in the legendry Brixton venue you could have swore you were hearing the track on the radio.

There were the most amount of people on the stage, front, back, side, they smashed it, and put all these other hip hop entourages to shame; they definitely misunderstood the term watching from side stage. The longest ever version of Serious Times followed (not like I’m complaining) before Gyptin gave us a load of verses in some reggae twist like every track of the last ten years; it went from Backstreet Boys to Jaheim just to give you an idea. But let’s be honest it went on for a little too long like Gyptian had no back catalogue when he has more than enough to sing his way through. But things got better once he directed the theme to women.

It was closer to midnight when Movado hit the stage after one big introduction, imagine every hit track in a row with enough pull ups that’s what Movado’s set was like, literally he didn’t stop to speak for all 25 minutes straight until a brief wind down, only minutes later when things turned to a next hype.

By time it came to certain tracks it’s like Movado didn’t even need a mic the crowd were doing it for the gully god each and every time. Movado gave the crowd the cheesiest grin a gully man can possibly give before the opening to Hope and Praise. He made a brief comment about having love for Jamaica full stop listing everyone from Beenie Man to Bounty Killer to the surprise of some even mentioning Vybz Kartel. Definitely an appropriate end to a trouble free concert proving that dancehall music deserves the recent success and mainstream embracing it’s been receiving; now I wonder if and when Buju will make it…lol

Thanks to PhatNights for the hook up also check out interview we did with Movado earlier in the week here.

Tags: Dancehall, Gappy Ranks, Gyptian, Movado, Online Review, PhatNights, Reggae