Kung Fu: 6th Birthday Live Review

Last night, Fabric (Address) was the venue for the 6th Birthday Party of Kung Fu - one of Camden's, if not London's, if not the UK’s premier mic combat arenas.  However, this being a birthday party, sheathing all swords and showing love was the proper ettiquette.

        Me and my crew arrived fashionably late as usual, only to find the tightly packed ravers far too busy encouraging DJ Sarah Love to pull up some classic Big L for the 4th time to notice our entry.  No matter.  Doc Brown, Jehst and Ransom were all doing their thing properly, and the Bootcamp click were in all the way from the US to bless a full hour set.

        Although the night was called Kung Fu, and the full wall video installation in the main room was playing extracts from chop-socky flicks all night, there were no battles, no cheap verbal shots and no tears before bedtime.  Quite a feat considering the 90/10 lion/lioness split in the house, and that mans were representing from all over the country (special mentions to the Leicester crew in the house), but not all together surprising.  With Rodney P hosting the evening and people's champion Skinnyman moshing with the people, the vibe was real nice.

        Fabric managed to add a little something to the mix too.  It has the appearance of a cross between a Manhattan warehouse conversion and a railway shed; all bare brick work, neon blue spotlights, exposed metalwork and leather sofas - A long way from the Underworld, even if the cheap import beers cost £4 a bottle were a little hard to swallow.  However it is a testament to the state of UK hip-hop to see club owners selling beer in bottles without concern over them becoming makeshift weapons.

There seemed to be about 8 liquor bars inside the club, however since hip-hop honeys usually gather in the light rather than the dark, while Heltah Skeltah, Sean P and the rest of the Bootcamp did their thing, which incidentally was a hands-in-the-air, sing-a-long thing due to the real heads in the crowd getting real excited after every ½ bar, I went off to the second room to cool off and listen to DJ Penfold play a mix of UK and US club bangers to a small but receptive, and mainly female crowd. Cagney and Lacey (ahem) from Hampstead were internally vibrating (sitting by the bar looking stush) when I caught up with them, but they were happy enough to keep my company for an hour.  

Unfortunately I find it difficult to be in two places at the same time, so I wasn’t able to take in all of the Bootcamp set, which DJ Sparks (Unusual Suspects) assures me was deep, or to get down to Skinnyman’s bashment/afterparty on New Orleans (which is probably still going), but as all wise martial/Hip-Hop artists know, it is better to pick your battles carefully and then fight to the death than to let someone else pick and then fight for your life…