Nas, Brixton Academy, London

It's ironic that the first word uttered by Nas, just before he arrived on stage, was "peace".

It's ironic that the first word uttered by Nas, just before he arrived on stage, was "peace". It's even more ironic that a politically aware, intelligent hip-hop artist such as Nas should have to deal with the spectre of violence at his rare UK shows. When he played at the Forum in 2003, there was some crowd trouble at the front doors. But a gig a few days later at the Astoria passed without incident. It was hoped that the same would happen at this Brixton Academy show. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.

Nas's return to form over his past few albums, caused by his lyrical beef with Jay-Z and, more crucially, his mother's death, has regained him the hip-hop-hero status he earned with his debut album, Illmatic. Before the madness, everything was lovely. Nas began with the slow, haunting "A Message to the Feds, Sincerely, We the People", the opening song from last year's Street's Disciple. From the start, he had the crowd eating out of his hand and rapping his lyrics for him. When he began his medley of Illmatic songs, the intensity increased considerably. Songs such as "Represent" and the singles "One Love" and "The World Is Yours" were truly breathtaking.

Nas seemed to be running through his albums chronologically: just before the pandemonium, he performed a few songs from his second album, It Was Written. Again, it was the singles, "Street Dreams" and "If I Ruled the World", that banged the hardest.

He was just commenting on the similarities between London and New York hip-hop fans when the first gunshot-like noise rang out. It failed to cause much fuss. It was only when two more shots were heard that everyone in the place began frantically surging toward the exits. But no one was hurt, and almost as quickly as the confusion had begun, it ended.

Within a few minutes, a now-shirtless Nas was back on stage telling the crowd how much he loved hip-hop. To prove it, he had LES, his DJ, play a few hip-hop classics such as A Tribe Called Quest's "Award Tour". That was followed by a rousing performance of "Made You Look". The opening lines to its chorus, "They shooting! I made you look", took on new significance. Half-way through the first chorus, Nas announced the arrival of Dizzee Rascal, who appeared onstage to spit a verse over the beat.

That was the last song Nas performed. Before the venue was completely emptied, LES played Pay As You Go Cartel's "Know We" and Lethal B's "Pow" to show the crowd that he respected British street music. This was followed by a brief, Nas-less performance of his current single, "Just a Moment". Quan, the latest new-blood signing to Nas's Ill Will label, performed his part of the song with style and enthusiasm.

LES then announced that the police wanted everyone to leave, and that everyone was going to be searched. That's when those who hadn't already left made a beeline for the exits.