It was Sunday.  It had been raining all day, I was cold, I was wet… and the queue stretched for what seemed like miles… and miles… and miles.  For some retarded reason The Forum decided to adopt airport level security (clear plastic bag, metal detectors and no fluids over 25ml) for the conscious rapper’s London show.  I guess they feared terrorism by textbook or something.

It was all good though, because while people outside waited, those inside waited too.  Even those of us who turned up late, queued for about 45 mins to get in, still waited because there is only one thing longer than Forum, and that is the Mighty Mos himself.

I’ve seen Mos a few times now, and he is ALWAYS late – “I needed to get new shoes,” “I was caught up in airport security”… my dog ate my homework.  Hey, at least he didn’t get arrested this time, so actually made it to London instead of spending it on bail.

Mos Def is an actor by trade and is one of those creative types.  He had a clear drum kit set up on stage which he would play with from time to time (you can’t really call what he was doing drumming).  This actually added to the show, and it was good to see he doesn’t take himself to seriously.

The show peaked and troughed and despite the new album being very good, the newer songs did not seem to translate well on stage.  It was cuts such as Close Edge that really resonated early on.  A Michael Jackson tribute (which included more playing with drums) and a little two-step to Rock With You provide some light respite to the heavier content from The Ecstatic.

However, when he dropped Black Star tracks, Respiration and Definition, the crowd got hyped and he never turned back as he fired out the classics.

This was not Mos’ best performance, however it was still a lot of fun – and as much as I wanna be annoyed with him for being on a longers, any man who makes 1,000 odd hip-hop fans sing to Simply Red at the top of their lungs is pretty special.

Soulside Funk

Ps. Left the Forum to find we had missed the last tube.  On a Sunday.  Work on Monday.  Cheers Mos!