25TH JANUARY: The London School of Economics was given a wake-up call to underground UK hip-hop culture with some classically sublime street poetry from the Foreign Beggars outfit. What started out as a fresh winter’s evening with a couple of tinnies turned into a beer throwing, mosh-pitted, bop fest. A crowd some hundred strong made it out, and were grooving to the opening DJs before the first MC even appeared. Once Skinnyman landed on stage the room rumbled and heads started nodding to the beats and rhymes laid down by the man himself and DJ Blakey. The performance was good, but short of electrifying; neither Skinny nor the night had hit their best. Yet.

The night only truly began when Stig of the Dump and Dr. Syntax hit the stage... I say hit, I mean he somehow made it up there whilst defying all known laws of physics. Stig is larger than life; in fact, I think you’d say more like meta-human! But the duo cooked the place like some sort of greasy fry-up: words and lines flowing out like it was meant to be. Self-donned ‘Speccy and Fatty,’ they spilled their guts as a two man team for all to absorb...And grind to! Lurking to the side of the stage was Lady Isa, who jumped right in to broadcast melodic dimensions to the boys’ tunes. The crowd went wild for this girl, probably as their release after the anticipation of spying her stageside all evening. As her voice glided around the room, the Foreign Beggars (MCs Orifice Vulgatron and Metropolis) pounced and made their entrance. A few flawless a cappellas and blindingly quick verses later, the crowd was pumped and more than satisfied.

The show ended with the lot of them invading the platform and rocking out to a rendition of 'Killing In The Name Of' by Rage Against The Machine that blew me away: a fitting ending for some of the best spitting I’ve heard in a while...

TEXT/PHOTOGRAPHY: GEORGE WETZ