Sunday feeling a little bit tired after sleeping in a tent we awoke and livened ourselves up hoping to catch The Skints with Grime MC Rival, which unfortunately we missed.
Walking past the BBC Radio 1 Dance Tent I was enticed in by some banging tunes played by 99 Souls who I’m ashamed to say I’d never heard of before, but this is what I love about festivals finding new artists! The DJ’s got me raving as soon as I stepped into the festival!
I headed over to the 1Xtra Stage next to catch Isaiah Dreads. The young, West Country, Grime MC who pulled in a decent crowd even though it was early and had people singing along to his lyrics which included ‘Wait For Me’ off his recently released mixtape. You could see he had impressed crowd, some who hadn’t heard of him before too.
Fekky was the next live artist we chose to see. His live performances always win over more fans for him. He set the stage alight more than I’d ever seen before, with pure energy and charisma. Performing tracks such as ‘Still Sittin Here’ ‘Way Too Much’ ‘Hot Boy’ and more he sprayed water over the crowd and handed out plastic cups filled with champagne. His two surprise guests brought a huge buzz especially when General Levy came out performing ‘Incredible’ and fellow South London don Sneakbo who performed ‘The Wave’.
Taking some chill out time we headed to the NME/BBC Radio 1 Stage to watch a band completely unheard of to our ears; Glass Animals and yet again they won us round. It’s amazing what listening to a band live can do and how it can change your perception. I really would advise checking them out as they blend R&B, soul, hip hop and indie.
Next up was Young Thug the American rapper who made his debut appearance in the UK at Reading Festival and what a chaos he caused over in 1Xtra. He certainly made an impression on festival goers with his incredible energy and stage presence, showering fans with water who knew every words of his lyrics.
Excitedly rushing over to the NME/BBC Radio 1 stage I knew I had to catch Jamie XX live and in all his glory. The DJ literally left me in awe and dancing for the 30 minutes I witnessed of his hour set. The atmosphere of the crowd was pure entrancement. This set was definitely another favourite of the weekend, and one I had never witnessed before.
I caught some of South London’s Stormzy set over at 1Xtra. He played again to a full house where the energy was high performing hit ‘Not That Deep’, ‘Shut Up’ and more, bouncing all over the stage with the vigor transferring to the crowd. Krept & Konan were next up on 1Xtra and they drew even more of a crowd performing tracks from mixtape ‘Young Kingz’ such as ‘MDMA’ and ‘Don’t Waste My Time’ and also tracks from their new album ‘The Long Way Home’ such as ‘Freak Of The Week’. The South Londoner’s also shut down their performance bringing mad energy and special guest Yungen on with them.
West Coast, American rapper Kendrick Lemar was up next on the main stage where he brought the mood up and down performing hits from his album ‘To Pimp A Butterfly’ and ‘Good Kid M.A.A.D City’ such as ‘Bitch Don’t Kill My Vibe’, ‘Swimming Pools’ and more. He showed Reading why he deserves his mainstream success as he lit up the stage.
The next two artists I wanted to watch were luckily at the same stage (BBC Radio 1 Dance) and finished off the Sunday night perfectly for me. Hudson Mowhake was first and warmed me up nicely for the headline act over at the dance stage BBK. Hudson Mowhake shone with his amazing productions mixing hip hop, soul and electronic and I was amazed to be in his presence while he stood on stage.
The Dance tent suddenly became more and more packed as it seemed like the whole of Reading Festival had come to watch Boy Better Know for their hour set with Frisco coming on stage first, followed by Jammer and then the rest of the crew through from Shorty to Skepta, JME, Maximum and Solo 45. They performed a whole host of tracks such as Frisco’s collaborative ‘Walking With The Elephants’ with Shakka, ‘Shaky’, ‘Too Many Men’, ‘That’s Not Me’ ‘It Ain’t Safe’ and ended with ‘Shutdown’. They showed Reading why Grime will always live on and why they are the Grime Kings.
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