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J Hus’s one-night-only show at the Royal Albert Hall, celebrating the five-year anniversary of his album Big Conspiracy, begins with the British rapper’s sister and collaborator iceè tgm reciting a poem in front of a black curtain. “It all starts with a question,” she posits. “What is the big conspiracy?” By the end, the show leaves even more unanswered questions.
When the curtain falls, it reveals a small symphony orchestra placed behind live band the Compozers. Hus opens with force: Helicopter, Triumph, Fight for Your Right, Fortune Teller, Reckless, and No Denying come in quick succession. He spits with braggadocious swagger, jumping from a protruding platform into the throes of the adoring crowd standing in the stalls. Even looking up towards the gallery, the venue’s grandeur feels entirely fitting for commemorating such a heavy-hitting UK No 1 album, which has become embedded in British rap, Afrobeats, dancehall, and general culture over the past five years.
But sound-balancing issues persist throughout. The orchestra is barely audible and placing them behind Hus, while logical for crowd interaction, doesn’t seem to have been accounted for in the mixing. Hus offers no insight into his decision to introduce classical elements and hardly speaks throughout.
After that vibrant (if somewhat rushed) opening run, he vanishes and we reach the show’s nadir. For 15 minutes, throwback hits Common Sense, Bouff Daddy, Dem Boy Paigon and Friendly play through speakers with minimal accompaniment, and energy ebbs exponentially – dangerously – from the audience.
Returning with 2019’s Daily Duppy freestyle fails to jumpstart the evening. Even the orchestra members, idle, begin filming on their phones. So when Play Play finally drops, its impact is dulled: a disappointing moment for Big Conspiracy’s biggest song, which cemented Hus’s status as the godfather of Afroswing.
There are still spellbinding moments, though. For Big Conspiracy’s title track, strings swell as fog fills the lower stage and Hus performs seated on a stool next to iceè tgm; during One and Only, he stands at the end of a platform, illuminated by a single spotlight. Hus’s hooks are in a league of their own but are sometimes underappreciated, so the tenderness lent by this staging helps to amplify his melodic gifts. It’s a shame, though, that when Hus closes with 2023’s Who Told You, leaving Repeat, Big Conspiracy’s third-biggest track, notably absent.
Hus himself is an engaging, impulsive performer and his catalogue will go in the annals of British music. But this experimental return to live music, coming after an arena tour was cancelled in 2023 and never rebooked, needs a clearer vision. The crowd leaves with questions about how rigorously planned this all was, despite the spectacular moments when venue, band, orchestra and rapper align perfectly.
