Infomatics were powerful and urgent; Maverick Sabre, a fine guitar player, was reflective and poetic. On the bill courtesy of Hot Press and the Music Show, they demonstrated that Irish hip hop has found its feet...
And so to the main act: lyric-wise, the Mercury Prize winning Speech Therapy ticked just a few too many boxes for me – the absent Dad, the cheating boyfriend, the childhood on the bad side of the tracks. Not that you can blame Speech Debelle: it’s the life she’s lived. Tonight though, she brings a more club-friendly mix of reggae, jazz and acoustic to town that, with the help of a stellar trio of musicians, swiftly blows away any preconceptions.
Mischievously bounding on stage, her attire of checkered hoodie, jeans and glasses only reinforces the feeling that we might have interrupted the 26-year-old spitting rhymes in her bedroom. What’s more, she’s in an especially playful mood tonight, cajoling the crowd into an unstoppable extended chorus of ‘Go Then, Bye’ and joking about the NME’s reaction to her Mercury win: “It’s like the world is comin’ to an end, man!” Lyrically, it’s fascinating to hear her follow sentiments that are timeless (“I’ve been hurt and it’s not an excuse/ It’s just a reason”) with something so current (“I can’t see see your face on Facebook/ cause we’re not friends on Facebook”).
Close up to her in the Academy 2, in all its cramped, sticky glory, it’s clear there’ll never a more perfect time or place to listen to Speech. Her smooth raps are flawless and her words never get lost among those messy strings that flooded the album.
When a fan requests title track ‘Speech Therapy‘, the infamous record’s closing lyrics become Speech’s parting words. Admitting she doesn’t like performing it live (this is only the third time she’s done so), she closes the gig with the line “This is my speech therapy/ This ain’t rap.” Well, it isn’t and it is, Speech. Bloody lovely rap too.