REVIEW: Ghostpoet at Esquires, September 29

FROM playing festivals around the country to headlining his first national tour, it has been a whirlwind few months for Ghostpoet.

Performing on the Main Stage at Esquires on a hot September evening, the London-born rapper swaggers on stage wearing his trademark trilby hat.

Ghostpoet (aka Obaro Ejimiwe) kicks off with a succession of laid-back tracks from his debut album, Peanut Butter Blues And Melancholy Jam, which have the crowd instantly swaying along to his sweet synth beats.

Fusing together a style of music he describes as “experimental electronic hip-hop”, the rapper’s poetic musings on modern life are illuminated by rhythmic injections of drums and guitar.

Ghostpoet’s lyrics are easy to relate to and delivered with refreshing honesty. He even talks of his own struggle to make it as a successful artist, as he recalls: “I keep on writing, writing. But them folk ain’t biting, biting.”

It is the variety of his music that sustains the audience’s interest, and while many tracks off his Mercury Prize-nominated album have the power to hypnotise, more upbeat numbers, notably Survive It, receive an energetic response.

This charming 24-year-old is even more exciting live and it’s not hard to see why he is one of the most hotly tipped acts of the year.

If his new song Hampton South is anything to go by he is certainly a name to watch.