Concert Review - House Of Pharaohs

Make no mistake, the creative collective/rap group House of Pharaohs, individually from various parts of London, come together to be the underground kings in the UK music scene and their performance at Electric Ballroom in Camden, London was evidence of that fact. The crowd was packed with fans, creatives and other musicians that left inspired and patiently waiting for their time to take the stage.

The show begins with the energetic DJ DAMNSHAQ on the decks warming up the crowd for the first performer 'Fr Joey'. Actor Nathan Hector was the host of the show, orchestrating the event and calling out for the 'energy crew' to make an appearance in the crowd. DAMNSHAQ possessed a high energy set that already had the mosh-pits opening up with a hardly full capacity venue at this point, coming front and centre to take the excitement of the crowd up a notch by doing the Blockboy JB 'shoot' dance that fizzled out a dance circle in the crowd, rewarding him with all the attention.

Soon after Fr Joey takes the stage and goes straight in with no introduction, smoothly walking back and forth on stage, speaking to the people on some 'real rap s**t', as his DJ described. His music went from a more melo tempo to melodic and finally a crowd jumping soundtrack as he performed his recently released single 'Switch'. On another note, his hype-man definitely earned his pay for the performance.

After another music break, Knucks, a Kilburn Native takes the stage. The clarity in his performance gives you no choice but to pay attention to the North West London lyricist, commanding the stage with an effortless swagger while moving in and out of subtle dance moves. His hypeman gives a nice balance to the performance, ad-libing and rapping along to songs at impact lines. This was my first encounter with Knucks music and he is definitely on the New Wave radar. Close to the end of his set he performs 'Vows' produced by himself. The crowd goes wild as he skips over the instrumental with his intricate then catchy flow.

Next up on the set-list was M Huncho. At this point the crowd in in a tireless state and M Huncho takes full advantage. Taking the stage to perform hits like 'Come Up', Hate to say and 'Mad about bars', of course the crowd went off consistently through the set, showing love and screaming the melodic lyrics of M Huncho. Not much to say about this one other than - shutdown.

At this point the crowd has been waiting for hours for the HOP collective to take the stage with the consistent 'H-O H-O H-O' chant throughout the show. The house of Pharaohs take the stage and immediately the excitement in the audience is felt.The phone cameras go up and it suddenly seems much tighter to move around,the whole stage takes the stage all at once as they switch mikes from one member to another like clockwork. The energy during his performance is at such a high level and there is so much to witness, from Sam Wise looking into the crowd for the ragers, to Blaze's subtle dance moves to AJ jumping in the crowd soon after they take the stage, Kevin ripping his verses and Danny Stern taking centre stage with the drip. The stage is packed but at every moment that a members verse is blaring though the speakers they take centre stage and give the active vibe back to the crowd. The lively performance Bandana Clips showcased his unique and important role in the collective, jumping into the crowd as they performed their hit song 'RWM' and calling for everybody in the back of the crowd to come closer and get the party lit. 'RWM' as their fan favourite was their final song as Blaze introduced the song with his impactful opening lyrics that the audience did not fail to scream articulately. At this point the drinks are flying from both sides of the stage and its nothing but mayhem. HOP also performed a new song that may be featured on their next project and repeatedly gave thanks to their fans for coming out to show love. Overall the show was a dynamic exhibition of the artists soon to be at the top of the UK rap scene in years to come. A definite recommendation from the New Wave Team for you to be at the next HOP showcase.