Sway

Sway were supporting The Streets

A support act able to hold the attention of an audience who have come to a venue to see someone else perform & who are typically just wishing you off the stage is a definite feat & in a theatre the size of the Manchester Apollo it could just about be classed as a miracle.

As the main support on The Streets’ current tour, the man hyped as the saviour of the UK rap scene, Sway Dasafo was able to do not just that but more. With his DJ already set up at the back of the stage, Sway walked on with his trademark Union Jack Bandana over his face & his hands in the air to the strains of ‘God Save The Queen’.

While the cavernous Apollo may not be the best venue for displaying your Rap technique, Sway was instantly able to fully engage with the crowd. From the outset, the 23-year-old North Londoner managed to grab the audience’s attention with his MC skills & distinctive lyrics, getting them to bounce or sing back to him on command.

Even Sway’s heavier subject matter seems to be approached with quick wit & intelligence. After dedicating his second song ‘Slow Down’ to all the potential troublemakers in the audience, Sway then moved on to the subject of credit card debt with the song ‘Flo Fashion’. Even with such a potentially dull topic, Dasafo still managed to keep the people at the front of the stage gleefully singing ‘Swipe Swipe’ at the top of their lungs throughout the whole track.

Constantly pacing the front of the vast empty stage & rhyming at incredible speed, it’s easy to see why Sway won a MOBO hip-hop award even before the official release of his debut Album ‘This Is My Demo’. Several of his tracks were performed as a cappella style skits, including ‘Download’ – his ode to illegal music downloading while others included some interesting samples, such as the memorable sound of The Specials’ Ska Classic, ‘Ghost Town’.

An enthusiastic verse of MC Hammer’s ‘Can’t Touch This’ & a joke demonstration of his beat boxing ability between songs kept the crowd cheering right to the end of the half hour set.

Having released ‘This Is My Demo’ independently through his own Dcypha Productions, Sway must now be garnering serious corporate attention. As an artist, he’s managed to create music that has merged his world-class rhyming skill with a distinctly British flavour that manages to be light-hearted without crossing the line into parody.

There aren’t many artists that could stand on an almost empty stage & without the aid of props, lighting effects or even an instrument hold an audience captive the way Sway did at the Apollo on Thursday night. It may have been a short set, but for an artist playing in a supporting slot to convert the masses into rabid fans for even 30 minutes, it’s no wonder some in the music media have dubbed Sway the Messiah of the British rap movement.

FUTURE GIGS

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