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Four reasons why Villa is the best hip hop venue in Perth:

1. The stage is intimate and sits in front of a deep pit surrounded by raised viewing levels.

2. The sound system hits you so deep inside your chest it could be used as a defibrillator.

3. Security has good judgement. ie only stepping in to kick out brawlers not tokers or off their headers.

4. You can see ‘backstage’ through the windows above the stage- backstage is an interesting place at a hip hop show.

Add a little bit of first solo tour Raekwon magic into that atmosphere and it makes for one hell of a gig.

No bullshitting here; due to prior engagements the support acts for this review were missed. But when it’s the ever reliable Fdel and Buda, it can safely be said without seeing them that they would have left punters in the perfect frame of mind. Upon entering at 11:15 it looked as though this is exactly what they’d done.

Wu Tang disk jockey, DJ Symphony, had taken warm up duties by this stage and wasn’t short of a few amping words. The ever present Wu Tang wings were flying to the chant of “WU TANG WU TANG”. Symphony took control of the chant- “When I say Wu you say Tang… WU?” “TANG!” “WU?” “TANG!” The pit was filled with a volatile level of testosterone.

In between scratches Symphony sent big ups to 2010 NBL champions the Perth Wildcats- “I hear you guys have a team called the Perth Wildcats here?”

Sensing the crowd was well and truly riled up, The Chef and his crew entered. They weren’t skimming on the excesses as they threw down a pile of towels, a litre bottle of vodka and a bottle of champagne.

It was a male dominated realm, only a dash of lady love filled the walls but still Rae’s crew found some to go back stage after the show. It seems Australian girls are popular amongst the US hip hop community:

“Hello Perth it’s great to be back in Australia… lotsa beautiful women… lotsa people driving on the left hand side”. were Raekwon’s words in his first call out to the crowd.

Dj Symphony then dropped C.R.E.A.M. The dedication to the Wu was evident in the room as peeps bounced to the seminal piano line and went word for word with the verses.

But this was the Only Built For Cuban Linx II tour and so that was what was mainly heard. Rae allowed some time for where it all began though, playing such original Cuban Linx tracks as Ice Cream, Knowledge God and Criminology. The tracks didn’t have the cinematic effect they do on the albums; instead the listener became actor rather than audience.

The first scrap of the night suitably came about as the Mortal Kombat sounding intro of Surgical Gloves pulsed out. Some committed fists flew before the beat was cut and Raekwon stared at them with the question:

“Man why you guys have to do that shit?”

The scrappers were evicted and the track restarted. Black Mozart had the room forgetting they weren’t Queens gangsters as they chanted its chorus- “you gotta get that money no matter what you do”. Gihad had them la la la-ing as Raekown spat lines over the top.

But the peak of the OB4CLII tracks came with the Dre produced Catalina. The Chef seemed to think so too as he stopped and started the intro a few times to add his own dialogue to its lead-in sample. The teasing made the drop that much better when Raekwon finally let it run. Its funky soulful production had the most stagnant of watchers hanging from the ceiling.

The ceiling would have been a toxic place too. A thick plume of weed smoke was drifting there all night. This seemed to become even more toxic after Rae removed his cap and payed homage to “the most real person he had ever met”, ODB. Expectations he was about to drop newest ODB tribute Ason Jones were dashed as he went with the more popular choice of Shimmy Shimmy Ya. A burning plastic synthetic scent went up and hovered for the rest of the night as the punters shimmied.

By the end of the show it felt like it had been a two hour epic rather than one hour of power. Raekwon managed to spit two hours worth of tracks into half the time. He breathed a sigh of exhaustion as he said “wooo we’ve done a lot of songs tonight”.

The show was wrapping up as the second scrap broke out and more punters were evicted. Raekwon told the crowd it was one of the most real hip hop scenes he’d played to:

“Forget Sydney, forget Melbourne, when I go home, it’s Perth I’m going to be telling everyone about”.

He didn’t seem one for tokenism so it was easy to believe him. He hung around after the show for autographs, while Philly began his closing set. Unfortunately for the local dj, people seemed more interested in watching people punch on outside. Police rocked up eventually and everyone bar the evictees were moved on feeling pretty damn pumped about the show they had just seen.

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