Redman & Erick Sermon concert review

By Bhavna Malkani

The Forum, Kentish Town, London - 3rd August 2003

It was an excitement to know that Redman was coming into London, along with Erick Sermon. Being a big Redman fan, I was hugely disappointed with the fact that his show which was scheduled in September 2001 got cancelled twice. Firstly the show was postponed for the week after September 5th due to Redman’s undeclared, 'personal reasons' and secondly it was cancelled due to the terrorist attacks on September 11th. After that, we never heard of a rescheduled date. Almost two years on, Choice FM announced the return of Reggie Noble and Erick Sermon and yes, I was going to be one of the first to purchase tickets for the show, as there was no way I was missing this show.

On a hot august afternoon, I arrived to find the line, as per usual, going all the way around the building of the Forum. Luckily the wait wasn’t too long as soon as we stepped in, I could tell this was going to be a hot show as old skool tracks were being played from the likes of A Tribe Called Quest, KRS 1, and early Wu Tang, which the crowd were most definitely feeling.

Shortly after, the supporting acts began to filter on to stage. The first hip-hop group, Blarny did not get much love from the crowd – especially since it was announced that one of the members were from Blue, not a good move considering the crowd was bopping to Big L a few moments before. Other acts included a Texas rapper by the name of Showtime, artists from Up Rock records, Nottingham talent Bad Manner and the return on Ice Berg Slim. However I would have to say my favourite act was Killa Kela; a beat boxer from London – who ended up creating beats from Neptunes produced tracks for Britney and Jay Z, purely from his mouth and included all the lyrics; extremely entertaining and the crowd that night would have definitely agreed.

Sounds from DJ 279 and Shorty Bliltz returned to continue the build up of Redman, including playing a tribute to Biggie, 2Pac and Big Pun. During this part of the show, De La Soul had come out to party on stage, which was a pleasant surprise.

The wait for Redman wasn’t as long as other artists I had gone to see, and he made his entrance with Diggy Doc, from his Malpractice album, a perfect way to open the show. Dressed with a Phili’s Jersey and baseball cap, Reggie Noble continued with tracks including, Rock Da Spot, Pick it up, I’ll Be Dat, and Jersey Yo! What I loved about the show was the way that Redman interacted with the audience. He would encourage the crowd to say “f**k you” to him and then turned around and said, “wait a minute, f**k all of you”. Another comical moment was when he was teasing the crowd with throwing a bag of weed into the audience, which he eventually did after quite some time.

Redman then took a breather and introduced Erick Sermon to the stage, who’s performance was short lived. He performed tracks from his later works including, Music and React. Redman returned to the stage to perform one of my favourite tracks, Smash Somthin’, which in my opinion, without a doubt rocked the forum the most. He also performed an old skool track, How to Roll a blunt, and other tracks from the Malpractice album. I was however hoping for a few more old skool joints, especially from the muddy Waters album. Nonetheless, the show was wild and full of energy that you would forget the little flaws in the show.

Another memorable moment was after Redman announced that he was looking for a large woman to come up on stage. Questions in the past have been raised over his preference for the larger lady, as they prominently appear in his videos. Before long one fearless and freaky girl got up on stage and ended up doing a little lap dance on him; off course he and the rest of the guys in the audience had no complaints.

The show was not complete without Red and Meth’s club banger, DA Rockwilder. Although Method Man did not make an appearance, Redman certainly represented and tore the roof off when performing the track – especially when he threw himself into the crowd and also mentioned it was his birthday. To summarize Redman’s performance, it was entertaining, hyper and vibrant; it was just what every funk doc fan had ordered – an outstanding performance.

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