The UK rap pantheon is a sprawling and varied landscape full of innovation, trendsetting sounds and speaker-busting anthems. Within it, 27-year-old Tottenham wordsmith and OFB frontman Headie One stands tall, backed by a slew of well-received projects: from his 2019 mixtape âMusic x Roadâ to this yearâs âToo Loyal for My Own Goodâ. That said, even with a stacked resumĂ© behind him, Headieâs debut LP âEdnaâ â which came out in 2020, and is rich with a travelled range of bangers â still stands as the rapperâs magnum opus in the eyes of many fans.Â
Last year, the pandemic temporarily put Headieâs plan to embark on the âEdnaâ Tour on ice. Make no mistake, though, this closing London show is a spectacle to behold, and well worth the wait.
The sheer size of the venue â and its jam-packed number of attendees â feels illustrative of how much the rapper has developed over the years. Itâs also neatly fitting with the glitzy, cinematic nature of the âEdnaâ record itself. Stepping onto the stage in a snow-white outfit, Headieâs ascension is met with pyrotechnic sorcery as he lights up the arena, puppeteering his cheering fans. Wasting no time before employing theatrics, the MC calls upon his backup dancers for the trap-tinged âBumpy Rideâ before North London’s M Huncho takes to the stage to trade verses with Headie. Itâs the first of the showâs many guests.Â
With song-swapping coloured backdrops behind him, Headie switches gears to the RV-assisted âKnow Betterâ. Transporting fans back to 2018 for his first major hit, the song and its imitable âshhâ retorts result in gleaming audience feedback as they rap alongside him, word for word. Next up, he slows things down âfor the ladiesâ, bathing the venue in a glowy, pink hue during âYou/Meâ â tapping Mahalia to deliver a welcome R&B-cloaked breather. It doesnât last long, however, before things are back up to a fever pitch. The song âBothâ â sampling Ultra NatĂ©âs â97 house classic, âFreeâ â is another worthy highlight, as the track’s dance and drill fusion morphs itself into a fitting mid-show crowdpleaser.Â
Headie keeps the guests rolling through as he brings out afro-swing duo Young T & Bugsey for their collabs âPrincess Cutsâ and âDonât Rushâ â offering up a head-nod-inducing parade of flames and fine-tuned dance routines in the process. And keeping in line with Headieâs frequent collaborators, grime legend Skepta also pops up for âTry Meâ and âBack to Basicsâ, trading verses for a hard-hitting double act of stage-shaking 808 drums and bravado. And concluding with arguably his biggest track to date, âAinât Ait Differentâ sees him summoning AJ Tracey to rap alongside him. As the two MCs spit their respective verses, it musters up the best moment of the night.Â
Once he bows out, the roomâs left in a euphoric daze of excitement, and the âEdnaâ Tour feels like a fitting bookend for this chapter of Headieâs journey. Pulling from a vast index of records to interpolate, reimagine and solder into his drill motherboard, the MC demonstrates a kind of musicality not â typically â associated with his peers. From the gummy afro-swing melody of âEverything Niceâ to the embattled drill ensemble of âPound Signsâ, Headie is sure to put his musical variety before his stage presence: a positive for some and a detractor for others, depending on what you value. Still, the show keeps eyes peeled for what he’ll will do next. If heâs filling up Wembley in the fourth year of his established career, who knows where heâll take his drill armada next.
Headie One played:
âTeach Meâ
âBumpy Rideâ
âDaily Duppyâ
âPound Signsâ
â2 Chainsâ
âKnow Betterâ
âYou/Meâ
âEverything Niceâ
âPrincess Cutsâ
âDonât Rushâ
âTry Meâ
âBack To Basicsâ
â18HUNNAâ
âBothâ
âHear No Evilâ
âColdâ
âOnly Youâ
âAinât It Differentâ
The post Headie One live in London: a star-studded run through the greatest hits appeared first on NME.