Lovebox spread its arms wide to welcome London on its opening Friday, with a party vibe that turns Victoria Park into a celebration of the capital. Headline sets from Run The Jewels and Major Lazer may have topped the bill, but grime – the current soundtrack to this melting-pot city – won the day, with huge sets from Stormzy, Giggs and Kano.
Lovebox, originally conceived as solely a dance event, now feels hardwired to the musical pulse of the happening, the current, whatever its flavour. Not pretence, just truth. Fitting, then, that Big Narstie, grime’s larger than life presence, should take to the Fabric stage, a tent curated by one of London’s most respected clubs, to set the afternoon ablaze.
The 30-year-old, like many grime names performing on the opening day, has had to work and graft to see his genre breakthrough. After near single-handedly resurrecting Craig David’s career with the pair’s collaborative ‘When the Bassline Drops’ single last November, the MC finally found a platform a decade on from picking up the mic.
Now he’s arrived, Narstie’s focus is to unite – fronting the tongue-in-cheek, yet deadly serious Base Defence League (BDL) - a movement taking unashamed aim at the far-right English Defence League (EDL). But if the same football chant mentality is humorously encouraged, the message could not be more different. As ‘BDL Anthem’ states “man don’t care about colour, BDL my brother…white, black, Chinese, Somali, it’s all BDL my brother”. At a time when London feels more independent than ever, desperate to remain in the EU and recently promoting Sadiq Kahn to mayor – the message of ‘one love, no colour, no creed – our England, a new England’, feels telling, necessary, and very much the battle cry on these streets right now.
Out on the main stage, the new-wave jewel of grime’s mainstream surge, Stormzy, delivers an electric homecoming set. As his crew scream "Who’s here for grime" to huge cheers, the message could not be clearer. This is who, and what, the crowd want. Grime is the sound of the underground, riding a wave to the top and Stormzy represents that – no major label support, just a man of the moment.
Opening with ‘Scary’, a track warning this scene, and Stormzy himself, is more than just buzz, it’s difficult to argue as the aggressive tone never lets up.
Born and bred in London, it’s little surprise to see him beam at the sea of bodies before him, "this is fucking beautiful – I haven’t performed in London for over a year," he yells, "let’s go one-hundred’. And sure enough everyone does that.
‘Standard’ is equally self-assured, with its catchy sample whipping the crowd, but the heat rises up a notch with the arrival of Lethal Bizzle. The partnership delivering bars that has everyone harking back to the days of Fester Skank.
But there’s still time for to push the overdrive button, with Stormzy delivering the double salvo of the mammoth ‘Shutup’ and ‘Know Me From’. As ‘Scary’ makes clear “be afraid”: all this support and his debut full-length album hasn’t even dropped.
Away from grime, Elrow brought their Brazilian samba party to the carnival spirit of The Tropiskarnival Bandstand, featuring George Privatti, De La Swing, Alan Fitzpatrick, Patrick Topping, Richy Ahmed, and headed up with Joris Voorn. While over on the Visions stage Darq E Freaker, Star.One and Snips destroyed the tent with a DJ set of unrelenting rap classics, that, literally, almost knocks the DJ booth over.
Back in the expanse of the main stage, American duo Run The Jewels hype the crowd with their energetic, genre fusing style that mixes bass, big beats and rap to offer something akin to the Beastie Boys on steroids.
But for all the jump up enthusiasm of tracks from their eponymous album, Elp-P and Killer Mike also deliver a serious message. "It’s good for us to be here to realise both countries are run by arseholes" rages El-P, before the pair launch into ‘Lie, Cheat, Steal’. As dedications are also made to victims of police brutality, the line “kill, everybody’s doing it”, hits hard.
However, the main stage is vacated in favour of true headliner Kano – East London’s own – who storms the Fabric tent, unsurprisingly rammed to capacity (and more). The huge queue outside beg for entry, but it’s a strict one in, one out policy as the Made In The Manor (MITM) MC delivers a career spanning set that reads like a history of grime.
Tracks from MITM dominate early on - ‘This Is England’ to ‘New Banger’ and ‘Endz’ providing a run-through of conscientious social comment and jump up rave – but decade old classics like ‘P’s and Q’s’ get perhaps the most fervent roars. Kano is joined by both Ghetts and Giggs as the show draws to a close, with the latter joining to spontaneously perform a second helping of ‘3 Wheels-Up’. It’s breathless, vital and everything London prides itself on.
Out on the main stage, Major Lazer deliver a bombastic headline set of dance hits, rehashed and spun with pyrotechnics, smoke cannons and twerking dancers, but this American model ain’t British. This is England.
In the words of Kano, the real headliner, the real pied-piper, and scene leader is heading back to his manor, “I’m from where Reggie Kray got rich as fuck East London, who am I to mess tradition up?”
