Spotify’s Who we Be Live completes a triumphant hat trick of sold out events with an epic return to Ally Pally. After shutting down Brum in the summer, Who We Be Live made its welcome return to the iconic Alexandra Palace; and with a line up consisting of some of the biggest UK and stateside names, it’s little wonder that the show was another sell out. It seems that the Who We Be Live is currently the only event that can put on a show with such a great array of talent, and was deservedly recognised for this at Q Awards earlier in the year, bagging the award for ‘Best Festival/Event’.
The inaugural Ally Pally show had heavyweights like Dizzee Rascal, J Hus Cardi B and Giggs – so the bar was high, but as we’ve come to expect from Who We Be they most certainly came through bringing the likes of French Montana, Tory Lanez, Craig David, Ghetts, NSG, Raye, AJ Tracey, Chip, Not3s and Lethal Bizzle all together under one roof.
One of the scenes most exciting collectives, NSG; made sure the show got off to a bouncy start with their Geko assisted and Jae5 produced banger “6:30”. Ghetts wasn’t far behind accompanied by young Veteran Chip, and one of the hottest newcomers Ambush as they emphatically set the stage alight with energetic performances.
The best thing about Who We Be, is the different range of artists that they bring through; it’s not all hype – there’s most certainly time for some mellower offerings with the likes of songstress Raye providing the audience with some wavey vocals with tracks like “Cigarette” and “Decline”. Although the ante was upped very shortly after with a surprise performance from viral sensation Unknown T.
Legendary grime MC Lethal Bizzle took fans on a journey through his extensive discography, although the set time constraints meant that we were getting definitely going to get the finest select cuts from his impressive catalogue. Modern day club favourites like “Rari Workout” got huge reactions from the raucous crowd as JME and Tempa T joined Bizzle on stage. As you expect with a Lethal B set, calls for the track that was once banned “Pow” were never far from the audiences’ lips. Lethal most certainly heeded their calls, and Chip returned to the stage with JME as both its original incarnation as well as the 2011 version were performed.
Not3s, AJ Tracey and Tory Lanez alld did bits during their sets sending the 10,000 strong crowd berserk; the latter even crowd surfed to close out his riotous set. Craig David once again helped offset the hype by serenading the audience with his timeless classics “Seven Days” and “Fill Me In” as well as a remix of Robin S’s “Show me Love”.
Serial hit maker French Montana brought the roof down with his epic set list, and two incredible guest appearances from Steff London and Krept and Konan – who not so long ago sold out this venue on their own! Who We Be Live has quickly become the flagship event for the scene, it will be exciting to see what 2019 brings, catch up with what went down at the Brum incarnation of Who We Be right here.