Award Tour Part I Dekefex - 14/07/02 Ya boy Kobes nearly didn’t make it to this one… Having been detained by passport control (At the request of anti hip-hop government forces, no doubt) I was given three hours to get from my yard out in the sticks to the Brix to witness the return of the Lootpack to our fair shores. The night started out with a set from DJ IQ. Now this kid has to be seen to be believed. At the age of 15 (he’s only just finished his GCSE’s) he’s got skills that turntablists twice his age would kill for. With the Under 18 DMC finals coming up he proved that he would be a worthy champion, reducing two copies of M.O.P’s "Ante Up" to so many piles of desiccated vinyl and driving the crowd wild. We could have a future world champion in this kid… He was then joined by Gemtoy’s Malarchi who ran through a few new numbers to polite applause. It was only when the host, Champions of Nature’s Apollo, invited him to spit acapella that he really lit the stage up. Malarchi must, by now, be preparing material for that beast that seems so elusive to British rap artists – the second album – so keep ya ears and peepers peeled for him… Next up were, Diversion Tactics, a group from round my way, comprising 1999 British ITF Champion Jazz T, producer Dr. Zygote and MC’s Squeaky Da Rixter, Barron ACJ and The Chubby Alcoholic. They hit the stage determined to have a laugh and their party lyrics and hard beats struck a chord with the Friday night revellers. With an album due out at the end of the summer the boys gave every reason for people to check them in the future. After a solid performance from the vocalists, Jazz and Zygote ripped a four deck scratch session that got the crowd well and truly open. A few choice selections later, Brummie 5 Per Centers Moorish Delta took the stage, complete with flag bearers. MC’s Cypher, Jawar and Malik grabbed the crowd’s attention and refused to let go, dropping no-nonsense hardcore verses. Amongst the screams of "BUMBACLAAART" and the excited leaping the Delta brought out 57th Dynasty’s Oshin and Rawality, a female emcee who looked like she could eat Kim and Foxy for breakfast and quite a few of your favourite male emcees for lunch. After ripping acapellas and a little freestyle MD were out, leaving the stage for Fallacy and Fusion who just happened to be in the house. Along with hype lady Big Lynne, Danny Vicious stepped up to rip – you guessed it – "The Groundbreaker". A skipping instrumental gave the MC’s the chance to drop a couple of acapellas and the excuse for three rewinds, but with all technical difficulties sorted, that horn sample dropped and a few decent sized pieces of plaster must have come off the walls as the crowd lost the plot. In the wee hours of Saturday morning the Lootpack finally took the stage. Although Madlib is missing (Check the Wildchild interview to see how busy the man is) the boys bought crew with then from back home and MC’s Ohno, Medaphoar and DJ P-Trix add considerable talent to the truncated line up. After running through a couple of solo numbers and a ridiculous scratch set, the core members from "the crew that rocks fresh" are ready to do their thing. DJ Romes took his station behind the one and two’s while Wildchild grabbed the mic and ran through favourites such as "The Anthem", "New Year’s Resolution" and "Weededed". The man known to his mum as Jack also dropped some tunes from his forthcoming album on some world premiere ish. Finally, having ripped a good hour long set the Cali boys had to catch a flight over to Copenhagen to get home. Well it’s a bit further away from North London but due to public transport (or lack of) they probably got home before us…. - Kobi | profile © ukhh.com 1999 - 2002