“Make some noise for Dr. Dre!” yells Anderson .Paak to a packed Brixton Academy. Tonight is the Californian musician’s first ever show at Brixton Academy; announcing the gig less than a week ago, it sold out within seconds. No one knew then – despite it being a Dre presents night – that Dre would come on stage for ‘Still D.R.E’, which only added to the feeling you’d won the musical lottery.
It comes off well and definitely doesn’t detract from it being an Anderson .Paak show. “Tonight isn’t about me, it’s about this man; he’s destined to be a superstar,” says Dre, as he leaves the stage after his brief cameo. It’s a beautiful moment in their recent history as creative partners: Dre allowed .Paak (who is a great rapper, a raspy Bobby Womack-esque singer, punk rock drummer) six guest spots on his recent album, Compton; and signed him at a time when he supposedly wasn’t signing any artists.
Dre’s the second legend in the industry to prophesise about .Paak’s future to my ears. "I'd like to see him in five years. I think he's going to be (even more) massive," said French hip-hop legend Wax Tailor when I met him ahead of .Paak’s 80,000 cap free, non-ticketed, show in the streets of the Canadian city. I’d like to see him in one year from now; he’s that good.
Compared to Montreal, the Academy with Apple and Dr Dre Beats is a far different sort of gig. It means the seated area is filled with industry and the floor is predominantly those who were fast enough to click the internet for a ticket. This split of having people who work in music and fans can sometimes take away from the raw behaviour you get solely from ticket buyers. The problem doesn’t exist tonight, though: everywhere is filled with people going nuts; people’s brains rewire to a happier place in response to the genre-mashing five-piece.
After Dre left the stage, a handful of cuts allow as much space for the old school gospel/jazz sonics as do metronomic 808 samples and .Paak’s rapping. It’s not a new mixture; but the way they execute it makes it somehow definitive.
Things get more clubby and eerie when the trap of new, unreleased, cut ‘Bubblin’ sees BPM rise and .Paak takes his orange camouflaged top off, stripping to his t-shirt to get those on the pit floor even more frenzied. The guitarists on either side of him blast smoke cannons like a couple of Ghostbusters, before assuming their positions in the shadows.
“This song is about my mama,” he tells us before leading into ‘The Season/Carry Me’, which is taken from his album Malibu. It’s a song that’s struck a chord since he contextualised it in interviews throughout last year. He spoke about his mother having to go to prison for declaring her winnings at a casino, and his father brutalising her to the point of near mortality with LA Weekly. His openness in interviews is reflected in his emotional purge in the way he delivers his lyrics; everything shoots straight from the heart.
His love of Otis Redding and Bobby Womack comes through on ‘Put Me Thru’ and it’s a fairly chilled out on record but takes on a more visceral form live as .Paak hammers the drum kit with all might of a hardcore or punk drummer and the melodic splashes of a jazz pro. He remains seated at the kit for to sing the J Dilla-esque jam of ‘Heart Don’t Stand A Chance’ which is laid back apart from a burst into to a frenetic prog rock guitar solo.
The next notable shift in energy is ‘Am I Wrong’, which sounds like the best song Daft Punk never wrote or a sultry neo-soul cut by Snakehips. The frontman spoke of his love for electronic music and clubbing, and there’s a real summery feel here – it’s at this point his spell has fully been cast over the adoring audience.
He ends the set on the glitch-choir future classic ‘Lite Weight’, roughly an hour after bounding on with Dr Dre. There’s no encore, but he leaves us eager to catch a full headline set double this length at the nearest available opportunity. This guy has Superbowl halftime sets, Coachella headline sets coming his way. This was an extraordinary performance.
Anderson .Paak and The Free Nationals played:
'Come Down'
'Still D.R.E.' (Dr. Dre cover) (with Dr. Dre)
'The Waters'
'Glowed Up' (Kaytranada cover)
'Bubblin''
'The Season / Carry Me'
'Put Me Thru'
'Heart Don't Stand a Chance'
'Get Bigger / Dang'
'Til It's Over'
'The Bird'
'Suede (NxWorries song)'
'Am I Wrong'
'Lite Weight'
