Warehouse Project: Giggs

Warehouse Project nights are usually reserved for some of the world’s best dance music. Big name DJs and prestigious producers love playing the all-night venue. It is, then, always interesting when something else comes to town. In this case, something else is London rapper Giggs.

Giggs is one of the biggest names in grime right now, hot off the back of his new mixtape, Wamp 2 Dem, which just entered the UK charts at number 2. Yet before he takes to the stage to close the night at 3AM, there’s a host of other acts to delight the audience.

DJ Target shut down the main room at half 11, playing grime hit after grime hit, from mainstream tracks like Stormzy’s  Shut Up to some deeper cuts, like Giggs’ The Blow Back, which gets a big response, with crowds dancing and shouting alone.

In Room 3, Just Banco, Two4Kay and Sleazy F Baby take to the stage at 1AM for an hour combined set, a great choice from three of the strongest local rappers going at the moment. The three link up on Habits which is a set highlight, along with a guest performance from Tobi Sunmola, another local hero playing a new track Wild Wild East.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BaWI7qqn0mG/?taken-by=two4kay

Back in Room 1, Devlin gives an energetic, excitable performance. His aggressive flow suits the live environment well, though some of his beats are a little lacklustre, especially when compared to the bassy, trap style that we’ve just left in Room 3.

Nadia Rose followed Devlin, and she got the room bouncing with a similar set of full on grime tracks, and her half hour stage time allows the slightly-samey tracks to not become too one-note and keep the excitement and tempo up.

Charlie Sloth is last to take to stage before the headliner. The newly promoted BBC Radio One DJ gives an hour long set where he drops bangers and mixes them into another impeccably – there isn’t too much more to say. Sloth is at the top of his game, he understands his audience and gives them exactly what they’re after.

Now, it’s finally time for Giggs. By 3AM, the crowd has been waiting for ages to see the Landlord on his first show since he dropped his latest mixtape, Wamp 2 Dem. The set includes a fair few tracks from that release, which only came out last Friday, though people are already rapping the lyrics along.

Set highlights include the multiple rewinds on tracks like Drake’s KMT where Giggs’ now iconic Batman line is screamed back by the packed-out crowd. There’s mosh pits all over the floor and the crowd is quite clearly passionate as fans as Giggs is at performing. There’s one stark dissapointment though – after all that build up, it’s a disappointingly short set. We’re all out of the doors way before 4AM.

Despite its brevity, this was a strong performance from the most on-the-minute in grime MC right now.