De La Soul

IndigO2 at the O2 04/12/11

De La Soul keep the faith twenty-three years on!

Tonight sees an impressive line-up of experimental hip hop fusion brought to us by the OneManMelt team. The Indigo is the perfect glammed up club venue for Ian Scott to set the tone by resurrecting all those Old Skool favourites, those pioneering classics that changed popular music. Yeah sure, it might be a Sunday, but within these walls, we all secretly know it’s a Saturday. And right about now, the crowd is nicely warmed up for Birmingham based rap-jazz collective Da Mighty Elementz.

While these guys may profess to be hip hop through and through, it’s evident from the mix of influences on display that DME are not just treading safe ground. In suits and ties, they strut the stage, referencing The Specials and reflecting on the youth of Britain being flushed down the tubes by our ruling political parties. It puts us on the right path – a journey of experimentation that encourages us to question.

Next up is the slightly ill-fitting ‘L’. He’s the odd one out by his own admission, stating curiously that it wasn’t his choice to be here tonight. (You don’t want to support the hip hop gods of De La? Well then who do you worship?) Unsurprisingly, his is the only act tonight that suffers the drag factor of predictability. Thematically, it seems to be all about the ego, the success, the girls, the yeah yeah whatever. As soon as the vocoder kicks in on the chorus, it’s obvious that this train is heading for Yawnsville. Auto-Tune the News is very popular on YouTube . If it works as a comedy cliché these days, why are people still slapping it all over the music that’s supposed to mean something to them? Sorry, we're bored of people singing like Johnny 5 in Short Circuit.

The thing is, it’s perfectly competent and ‘L’ is ticking all those Capital Radio boxes, so we're sure lots of people will love it. In the short term. But will the crowds still be going wild for his stuff twenty-three years from now?

Thankfully, the faith is restored when Clement Marfo & The Frontline take to the stage. A veritable melting pot of musical excellence, Clement Marfo & The Frontline were recently listed in MTV’s Ones to Watch for 2012. And you’d be a fool not to watch. It’s a perfect hip hop-rock-funk-soul hybrid. It’s a spellbinding stage performance. It’s nigh impossible to categorise. It’s a mighty behemoth of a show.

Glorious soulful vocals (no electronic gimmicks required) fuse seamlessly with rhymes, disco era keyboards and indie rock guitar riffs. Whether it’s Parliament, Pavement, Cee Lo or De La that takes your fancy, surely there’s a little bit of something for everyone here? We haven’t been this unexpectedly uplifted since we caught Unklejam setting metaphorical fire to an afternoon V festival stage a few years back. It was obvious then that they should have been headliners and it’s obvious now that Clement Marfo & The Frontline are ready for big things. Hey UK, it’s your job to make sure these guys get the breaks. Don’t let us down.

So here are the new pioneers raising the roof to welcome those D.A.I.S.Y. Age daddies of De La, the original hip hop boundary breakers, the Buhloone Mindstate boys who transmitted live from Mars and set the world alight in a way that will never be forgotten. Auspicious much?

Obviously De La Soul are bloody brilliant. You don’t need us to tell you that. Anyone who went to the Indigo on Sunday was still partying at the breakadawn.