Stratford-raised rapper J Hus has just kicked off his tour and showed fans why his album Common Sense is going to make history. Ahead of his debut release Common Sense, J Hus has taken the UK music scene by storm. He is definitely the underdog of the music industry.
Opening acts Young T and Bugsey gave some motivational words to fans about being from St Anne’s in Nottingham; despite its reputation, they have got to where they are now and this ‘shows anyone can do it’. They performed some of their latest tracks such as Gangland Featuring Belly Squad and No Mickey Mouse. This duo was a great choice for getting the crowd hyped, they brought a lot energy.
In between acts DJ Jay Mac gassed the crowd with old school bangers from London MCs such as Giggs and Sneakbo. The popular Brummy rapper Mist was also played. It was refreshing to see such support of home-grown artists in the UK.
” A special guest performance from Lotto Boyz was delivered.”
Then a special guest performance from Lotto Boyz was delivered. The pair have been releasing non-stop hits since their rise to fame last year. They performed ‘hitlist’, ‘bad gyal’ and ‘no don’, generating a crazy mosh pit which they encouraged. It seems they wanted the energy crew to get ready for the main man himself J Hus.
“You’re about to see Mr Ugly live in the flesh” is what the hype man told eager fans. Only critique I can give is that J Hus’ hype men were lacking energy, which calmed the crowd after mosh pits that Lotto Boyz initiated. I really hate the delay of bringing out artists, but this was more than a stretch. They said that the police were called so J Hus couldn’t come out to perform after all. Then he surprised fans and came out to “baby I’m coming” and shouting “fuck da Feds”. It was evident this was all done as a ploy to hype fans even further. The screaming that occurred during his arrival was phenomenal at that point.
‘Playing Sports’ was performed, which came from his last EP, as well as ‘Free Up’. I have personally witnessed the growth of the artist from his SoundCloud days when he first dropped ‘Dem boy pagan’. His concert took me back to first year as he performed his GRM Daily freestyle which I guiltily know all the words to.
“He seems humble and relatable”
One of the most noticeable things about J Hus is that he seems humble and relatable, he was not wearing any flashy brands, just a plain top and jeans, compared to other grime artists who take pride in wearing sports brands such as Nike and Adidas etc.
There was plenty of merchandise on sale with the upcoming album cover on t-shirts. There was also a snapchat filter for fans to promote the event with. Very clever marketing there.
If you were one of the many people wondering why the artist also refers to himself as ‘Fisherman’, well, it was clarified at this concert. J Hus has “More hooks than a fisherman.”
He is not wrong, as his performance to ‘Samantha’ and ‘High Roller’ sent the crowd crazy. There is no disputing that every feature J Hus has jumped on this year has done exceptionally well, hence the reason his recently released album ‘Common Sense’ was so highly anticipated.
J Hus did not hesitate to preview more tracks of the LP, such as ‘Closed doors’ which he said is “one for the ladies”. ‘Clartin’ will be definitely be one of the man-dem in opinion as he and the hype men performed a gunman skank with gunshot sound effects. This resulted in a moshpit which seemed to be standard procedure at this type of event.
“The interaction levels between the artist and audience was legendary.”
The crowd calmed down when he performed ‘Plottin’, the garage track on the album, where the chorus goes like ‘don’t think I’m shy because I’m quiet I’m just plottin’. Pretty catchy right?
‘Lean and Bop’ was one of the biggest crowd pleasers, and reminded me of when I first saw his live dance to this track at Wireless festival in 2015. The hype man threw water over people when DJ dropped ‘Friendly’, then J Hus jumped into crowd. The interaction levels between the artist and audience was legendary. His current chart climber ‘Did You See’ was the highlight of his entire show, because he crowd surfed as every single person in the audience sang along.
The night ended with J Hus telling fans that those who pre-ordered the album would get to meet and greet the artist. I spent the rest of the night networking with the team and met the mastermind behind the music, J Hus, and producer Jae5 convinced me to pre-order Common Sense.
The concert gets 5/5 stars. Common Sense is out now on all platforms!
Amani Dauda
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