The Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow The rapper and TV star, enhanced by a choir and even a sousaphone, is equally adept at storytelling and moshpits
Early on in this broiling and boisterous gig, Kane “Kano” Robinson emerges from a maelstrom of strobe lights to make his first proper address to the audience. “Hey Glasgow, welcome to my city!” he shouts. From any other artist, it might sound like a cocky conquerer’s boast. But East Ham’s most prominent MC and sometime actor is just reiterating the refrain of Good Youtes Walk Amongst Evil, his impassioned 2019 snapshot of London’s soul-crushing inner-city pressures. Live, it sounds like an alarm-raising documentary, one soundtracked by skittering hi-hats and plaintive tubular bells.
It is just the latest distillation of Kano’s fractious praxis. When he first came to prominence as part of grime’s initial surge in the early 2000s, he combined clear-eyed street-level reportage with crafty bursts of badinage: here was a fluid storyteller able to match the brashest beats.