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Adelaide came to see a hip-hop show, and got a rock show instead at Thebarton Theatre when Nas – œEscobar’ came out all guns blazing. Armed with a seven-piece live band, including – no joke – a trumpeter, the New York rap superstar provided something more akin to a heavy metal show than the classic urban performance more associated with his name. Not that the Adelaide punters dared to complain: considering the undisputed king of east coast hip-hop has already flaked on the South Australian crowds twice in the past years, just to see him walk out on stage was more than enough for most of his local fanbase tonight.

Covering just about every classic from his vast back catalogue, from Illmatic [1994] to Untitled [2008], Nas hardly stopped between songs, plowing through what seemed about 20 of his best tunes – Shoot Em Up standing out among the highlights. What appeared to be a male-only crowd went berzerk over older hits If I Ruled The World [Imagine That] and Street Dreams in particular, despite the fact that Nas actually left out most of the verses to the majority of the songs. Although the sound coming from Thebarton’s stage was purely metallic and raw as guts, interestingly enough, it worked wonders as the backdrop to one of the most respected MCs in the history of hip-hop. Who would have thought that completely recreating his bouncy classics would result in such incredible results?

Although the overall performance was nothing short of a knock-out, it’s a shame that despite passionate chanting from the crowds, Nas refused to make an encore in the end, leaving his Adelaide fans a little high and dry. Still, generally positive comments were heard from the punters post-show, many surprised at tonight’s unique delivery, but most just relieved they finally got what they paid for in 2009.

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