Tribute acts often leave crowds disappointed. It is usually due to the artist trying and failing to reinvent a sound that has long passed. But occasionally, you get a tribute act that is inventive and original, simultaneously emulating the idol and keeping the performance original.
Fortunately for those at Indigo at the 02, tonight was an example of the latter. Soundcrash booked the talented Yasiin Bey (aka Mos Def), to rap and sing over producer J Dilla’s beats. This wasn’t going to be your usual instance of a group of DJs spinning records and 10-minute rambles over their tributes.
Coming on late with only 45 minutes before curfew didn’t bode well with the audience, but Bey quickly won over the crowd by beginning to rap over ‘Believe In God‘, off J Dilla’s posthumous album Jay Love Japan.
The audience were treated with a wide selection of tracks off most of Dilla’s albums, including Donuts and Jay Stay Paid. ‘Gobstopper‘ and the Kool & The Gang-sampling ‘The Diff’rence‘ pleasantly surprised the audience, with Mos avoiding a predictable selection of Dilla’s expansive discography.
The Rene Cosy-sampling ‘Fuck The Police‘ featured some amusing audience participation. Yasiin moved onto some stellar Dilla tracks the Detroit producer made for other projects, including ‘Feva‘ by Q-Tip and ‘The Questions‘ by Common. He then reverted back some of tracks J Dilla rapped over, playing ‘Champion Sound‘ off the J Dilla and Madlib collaboration album, Jaylib.
Mos Def often freestyled on top of beats whether it was rapping or singing. When Mos wasn’t freestyling, he rapped words from his own songs over huge Dilla beats with silly bass lines and snapping snares. The crowd heard lyrics from the Mos Def solo tracks ‘Travelling Man‘, ‘Supermagic‘ and ‘Ms Fat Booty‘. We were later treated to some of Mos Def’s eponymous collaborations, such as ‘Respiration‘, a track Mos recorded with Talib Kweli under the Blackstar imprint.
Yasiin dug deeper in Dilla’s back catalogue, testing the biggest Dilla fans by playing obscure banger ‘On Stilts‘. “This track came out the year Michael Jackson died, literally just after he passed. I think Michael Jackson would have really liked this one,” Yasiin said before giving one of his best performances of the evening.
There were so many Dilla classics Yasiin could have rapped over, just not enough time for all of them. It was a surprise to not hear tracks like ‘Won’t Do‘, ‘The Red‘ and ‘Drop‘ by The Pharcyde. Despite this, it made the set more interesting – you could go to any other Dilla tribute night if you wanted to hear those songs.
After playing a soulful rendition of ‘Travelling Man’, Yasiin retired from the mic while the DJs dropped L.T.D’s ‘Love Ballad‘, a gorgeous soul track sampled by Dilla for De La Soul’s ‘Much More‘. While the song closed the show, Yasiin handed out roses to the fans on the front rows. While having clearly ran over his set, he carried on handing out the roses obliviously, until the security guards finally managed to put an end to all of it.
Whilst the more obscure Dilla songs kept the show fresh and interesting for the revellers, it also manifested itself as a true reflection of Mos Def as a genuine fan of Dilla’s music, and certainly not someone who was trying to make money off a tribute show.
