Killa Kela @ Higher Learning, Cardiff This wouldn’t be the first time Kela blessed the city of Cardiff, but what made this interesting was that Rahzel was playing the next night in a different club. So I wasn’t really sure what attendance was going to be like, plus the mighty *cough* Tim Westwood was playing on the same evening just down the road. Despite people scaremongering about the need to get tickets, I decided not to bother, so was rather happy initially when I found The Toucan to be relatively quite. Once I was in though, I realised this probably wasn’t ideal for a rocking night. Still, Ruffstylz started dropping some bangers like Atmosphere’s ‘Flesh’ so I soon forgot all about it. As more and more tunes were dropped by Stylz and The Captain the floor soon started filling up. Once the bboy tunes started to play, every inch on the dance floor seemed to be filled with bboys or people desperate to see what was going on. Sadly I missed the action as I was politicking, but if it’s anything like what I’ve seen at the Toucan before, the ‘Uprock Addicts’ would have represented! Now this is when the club got a little sour, because Kela’s emcee, MC Trip announced that Kela was only just this side of the River Severn, not good news. A rather annoying wait took place, but thankfully it wasn’t in vain. As soon as Kela came on stage the whole crowd’s attention seemed to be transfixed from beginning to end. It started off with MC Trip basically asking Kela to give him a snare, kick etc. Once Kela put all the requests together the crowd rightly gave out some praise. Kela obviously aware who was playing the next night, wound the crowd up with a taster of Rahzels ‘If your mother only knew’. Then dropping into some drum and bass patterns with his emcee going along for the ride, well impressive, but it maybe went on a little too long. Still Kela pulled out some banging shit afterwards, with even a rendition of Soul 2 Souls ‘Back To Life’ which was heavy! By the time Kela was wrapping up the show, the atmosphere in the Toucan was the best I’ve seen it. Thank god then for the impressive tune selection by Kela’s deejay! The whole crowd seemed to be really getting down with all the recent club tunes, with tracks like ‘Groundbreaker’ getting spun. The whole stage was awash with the acts and loads of people just getting their moves on. I only wish some of the people who’d gone to Westwood would have come to this instead, cos the party was definitely going down in the Toucan that night. After the 45 minutes of jamming we were treated to a little more beatboxing be special guest Dr. Box who did a quality rendition of Louis Armstrong’s ‘All The Time In The World’. By that time it was time to go home, but you could see that everyone was buzzing and still up for more. Still it was time to get a kebab and reflect on an unbelievable show. The best night out I’ve had in a long while, made not only by Kela and his support, but by the wicked attitude of the crowd on the night… big up yourselves! It’s nights like this that make you understand why Higher Learning won a Welsh Music Award for best hiphop night! If the next Higher Learning is anything like this, you’d be fucking mad to miss it! The Next instalment… Toucan Club, St Marys St, Cardiff 06/03/03 The Colony and DJ Skully (UK DMC Champion) with support from Direct and Kascade - 2Hip | profile © ukhh.com 1999 - 2003