Rap fans in Abu Dhabi are a lucky bunch, with Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Jay Z and Kanye West all having stormed the capital in recent times. That lineage was extended at du Arena on Friday with a trio of debut performances in the city.
The prolific East London grime godfather Wiley opened proceedings, nodding to his latter-day chart success, via Heatwave and Wearing My Rolex, and his grimy beginnings, with snatches of his breakthrough 2004 single Wot Do U Call It?
It took until Rick Ross for the youthful crowd to truly come alive, however, with a set heavy on his latest album, Mastermind. The rotund Floridian rapper’s relative lack of movement wasn’t mirrored by the crowd. Our only gripe was that he derailed the energetic, club-rocking momentum by regularly switching tracks after only one or two verses.
The Grammy-winning Seattle duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis have developed a flair for working an audience, even though their 75-minute set stretched a little thin. Macklemore, aka Ben Haggerty, was an almost cartoonish live wire, dressed in a black vest and skinny jeans, with fetching pink high-top trainers. Alongside his behind-the-decks partner Lewis, he socked it to anybody who might daub them with a one-hit-wonder tag, aided by live strings, brass and backing dancers.
They dropped that song (Thrift Shop) surprisingly early to a riotous response. Same Love unrepentantly covered brave subject matter. And while Can't Hold Us shouldn't match Thrift Shop, it caused similar uproar, driven by its rave-esque keyboard line.
The encore was slightly surreal, featuring Haggerty’s glam rock alter ego Sir Raven Bowie (replete with mullet wig) and an ode to his Irish heritage. But the brevity of the pair’s back catalogue was demonstrated when Can’t Hold Us was dusted down for a second outing.
There was no disputing Haggerty’s heartfelt intent, however, when he paused to laud “the most diverse audience” that he’d ever played in front of – it felt like a moment of genuine sincerity all too rare in 21st-century hip-hop.
•Read about Macklemore's social media posts about Abu Dhabi here
aworkman@thenational.ae
