REVIEW: Akala at The Wedgewood Rooms in Southsea

I was honoured to have been one of the people to witness what can only be described as a modern-day Shakespearean adventure of audio wonder, word wizardry and politically philosophized poetry.

This tour celebrates the 10 year anniversary of his critically acclaimed debut album It’s Not Rumour, but true to form he played a vast collective of songs, raps and spoken word poetry that cut deep on the emotional spectrum, taking feelings of love and hate to a whole new level.

Known as Mr Fire in The Booth, he did not let us down, bringing Charlie Sloth’s Radio 1 show of the same name live to the stage for his last song that was voted for by the people and at the same time well received.

Taken from his book Doublethoughts, Akala performed a spoken word piece about a character who is born and reborn throughout history at sites of conflict, in a way that truly illustrates his lyrical genius.

Although huge on the hip-hop scene, he remains humble to his core, staying after the performance to sign autographs and impart knowledge to a crowd of happy recipients.