Drapht @ Metro City, Perth(20/05/11)

Sun 22nd May, 2011 in Gig Reviews

All the heat and enthusiasm had gathered at Metro City for the homecoming of local aussie Hip Hop hero Paul Ridge, aka Drapht. All levels at Metros filled up rather early as Elefant Traks’ battle master The Tongue graced the stage and took the energy up working his way through class tracks The Punch and recent single The Show to an appreciative crowd.

On an “A” List of who’s who in Aussie Hip Hop support, next up was Obese Records’ Mantra who rapped his way through tracks off his debut Powers Of The Spoken before finishing with crowd favourite I Hereby Stand.

As the crowd grew restless and the drink lines went past ridiculous, the time finally came and the lights went dim, Drapht’s familiar nasal whine boomed through the PA and he bounded on stage and straight into his latest album’s starter and title track Sing It (The Life Of Riley).

Dressed in simple skinny leg jeans and standard tilted flat brimmed baseball cap, Drapht’s quick and exact vocals were lost in the mix which would unfortunately be the way of the evening, however his energy and effort made up for it during Where Ya From and Don’t Wanna Work.

It was five songs before Drapht addressed his home crowd and pulled out the old shout-out chestnuts to all the pretty ladies before breaking into his verse from his cameo in the Hilltop Hoods The Blue Blooded as it blended into The Money. He was clearly enjoying being home and the sold out crowd lapped it up.

The crowd got a stage dive pre-warning before Drapht launched himself into the front row mid-way through Down. Much has to be said for Drapht’s right hand man Bitter Belief, who never let a rhyme go unfinished and supported without stealing the limelight at all, except during his one solo number which allowed time for Drapht to splash down his face and rest up for the show’s second half.

The crowd lifted up a notch for Falling, an obvious favourite for all in attendance. While Drapht raced his way around the stage, bouncing off the drum kit podium, The guest list grew larger with 1200 Techniques’ NFA taking centre stage in a “R.I.P. Jimmy Recard” shirt to help Drapht spit through Bali Party before the familiar Nirvana About a Girl-esque intro to radio favourite Rapunzel had people heaving towards the stage.

Funkoars’ mad man Trials was next to join Drapht for The Paul The Dan and Take The Party With Us, and he was mighty entertaining to watch, looking like an angry caveman and half head banging to the beat, he brought an energy unmatched by the previous guests.

Sound Man missed its mark with the lyric “Turn It Up Sound Man” being misheard by the lighting team – for some reason the lighting became blinding during this track, to a point of half the audience focusing on the floor til the technical difficulties were rectified.

Time had flown by and all that was left was the swan song that made Drapht a commercial success and number one album selling artist, Jimmy Recard was the perfect way to end the main set, before the lights dimmed and the Eulogy Of Jimmy Recard boomed through the house speakers signalling the beginning of the encore. It was short lived with the finest track on Life Of Riley, R.I.P. J.R. Drapht bounced back out to spit a middle fingered salute to the one Jimmy Recard, and with much love spread to the Perth masses, the show was over. A solid performance from one of the front-runners of Aussie hip hop.