Believe The Hype

So, again, a young prodigy enters the stage for real, and the hype machine blows up with tales of a true heir to the throne of hip-hop's finest, as opposed to another plumped up pretender. But on the evidence of Monday night's show here in London town, and the strength of rhyming that we have all known for a while from his official long player (leaked a few weeks back), it appears to this writer that Lupe Fiasco could well be the real deal. Helped by unusually crisp sound quality at the intimate Islington Academy, Mr. Fiasco delivered a humdinger of a show with biting lyrics, incredible delivery and an energetic and captivating stage presence. The story of his trials and tribulations with labels is a familiar hip-hop tale to a degree, and can be found easily elsewhere, but it appears that the Jigga man has done well to stick by this particular talent from Chi-town who he first signed up over three years ago. It is highly unlikely that Lupe would have ever slipped through the cracks completely, as his skills, and crucially his writing, are clearly a cut above the current crop vying for the crown of "most likely to". But this show just confirmed it. I don't know what they are putting in the Chicago water at the moment, but the Windy City is blowing hard, and it's far from hot air.