On Monday night I was lucky enough to attend the London stage of Akala’s current UK tour.

It was my first time seeing Akala do a headline set, and I was definitely not disappointed. Nor, if their shouting, dancing, smiles and applause meant anything, were the two hundred other people crammed into the upstairs arena at the Islington Academy.

Akala’s set was a great representation of his energy, diversity, passion and intelligence. Never one to conform to the norm, he did the whole set with a live drummer (yeah – a really effin’ good one), and a lot of the instrumentals in his set were basically hard rock (those of you familiar with his latest album, Doublethink, will know what I’m talking about!)

However, the fact that the music wasn’t all ‘standard’ hip-hop definitely didn’t stop anyone from shucking out and having a great time – Akala’s ability to get a dancefloor moving is something special. From the very beginning, the entire crowd was fully involved in the show, chanting ‘Wele-wele-wele-wele-wele-wele-weleeee’ along with the first track (the classic ‘Freedom Lasso’). It was inspiring to see people get down to such diverse and intelligent sounds.

Akala played a fair few tracks off ‘Doublethink’, including ‘Psycho’, ‘Find No Enemy’ and ‘XXL’, in addition to treating the crowd to a bunch of classic material, including ‘Roll Wid Us’, ‘Shakespeare’ and ‘Bullshit’ (which he introduced by saying: “Now if I were to say that we invaded Iraq because we were genuinely concerned about it attacking us, what would you say?!”).

The tracks were interspersed with Akala sharing his ideas about the state of society and in particular the music industry. Pointing out that this is his fifth fully independent headline UK tour (not bad for a 26-year-old!), he said that it was clearly possible for artists to maintain their independence and not sell out to the corporates.

The sad fact is that the corporates are not going to push conscious, intelligent music. Not because people don’t want to hear it, but because the big labels have a vested interest in keeping people stupid. Akala pointed out that the recent ‘Yours and My Children’ release had a phenomenal reception the few times it was played on commercial radio – for example, Mistajam played it and had 100% positive user feedback – and yet it received relatively little airplay on the big radio stations.

Because the radio stations don’t support the music, it doesn’t sell as well as the playlist bullshit that gets cranked out all day, and therefore the music industry can claim that people don’t want to hear what artists like Akala have to offer (“sales figures don’t lie”).

Actually most people would *love* a break from the bullshit that gets pumped into our heads in the name of ‘urban music’. Most of us have had just about as much ‘crack rap’ or ‘sex rap’ as we can handle. A lyrical discourse that glorifies black-on-black violence or a negative attitude towards women frankly does not represent the ideas of the vast majority of people, and yet the music industry insists on pushing the same old tired nonsense. Where is the music industry catering for people who respect the culture and who want to hear artists representing intelligently and positively?

Akala summed his points up nicely with a very moving performance of ‘Find Your Enemy’:

They can keep the charts
All I want is your hearts
Call it black radio – don’t make laugh
So is black music all about tits and arse?

Shouting out Lowkey, Akala told the audience: “We are part of the resistance to the (for want of a better word) bollocks they want us to buy into.” He encouraged the crowd to question the motives of the corporates and the state, and to constantly seek to improve their knowledge: “Whoever told you that being uneducated is cool is trying to oppress you”.

The set ended on a high: we got to hear an exclusive new track, ‘One More Breath’, from the forthcoming live album; then he did an acappella of his F64; then came ‘Find Your Enemy’, and the classic ‘Comedy Tragedy History’ to round it off.

All of the 15-20 people I spoke to after the gig were massively impressed and deeply moved by the set. Akala is one of the great voices of our generation – an uncompromising artist with deep humanity and endless respect for his artform and his audience.

If you get the chance to catch one of the remaining shows of the tour, don’t miss out! So far the tour has seen Akala visit Birmingham, Glasgow, London, Cambridge, Southampton, Tunbridge Wells, Liverpool, Sheffield and Hertfordshire. The remaining gigs are:

• Oxford on Friday 12 November
• Winchester on Saturday 13 November
• Leeds on Monday 15 November
• Manchester on Tuesday 16 November
• Bristol on Wednesday 17 November
• Bournemouth on Thursday 18 November
• Exeter on Friday 19 November

More info from http://www.tourdates.co.uk/akala

Check out Akala’s F64
Lyrics to Akala’s F64
Buy ‘Doublethink’ on iTunes
Check out ‘Yours and My Children’
Follow Akala on Twitter