Tinie Tempah, music review: Rapper's commercial hits and grime roots make for a confusing show

O2 Brixton Academy, London

Tinie Tempah at O2 Brixton Academy (@_xxfranki)

In tonight’s one-off show, Tinie Tempah (real name Patrick Okogwu) gives Brixton a taste of his grime/dance/hip-hop/pop backed by the ever-steady DJ Charlsey.

It’s a dizzying display as the rapper performs a raft of commercial hits from his debut, Mercury-nominated album, Disc-Overy, to his 2015 mixtape Junk Food and all the collaborations in between, charting his musical history with the aid of some special guests and a blinding display of lasers.

While Junk Food featured appearances from Wretch 32, Stormzy, Giggs, JME, combining underground hip-hop and grime tracks with some of the biggest names in the UK urban music scene, tonight Tinie Tempah focuses on playing his chart successes.

Taking tips from Beyoncé’s live show, we’re introduced with documentary-style footage, projected onto a brightly-lit tower block, showing clips of Okogwu’s childhood through to achieving his first number one.

Opening with pyrotechnics for “Hitz” and "Pass Out,” Okogwu – wearing a blue denim jacket and white jeans – shouts: “Brixton, I'm not going easy on you tonight!” and prowls the stage with JME on 2015’s “Been the Man”.

From the 10-year old track “Wifey”, and “Sometimes” from G-FrSH’s Alfie EP, Okogwu jumps back into the Labrinth-produced glossy pop of “Wonderman,” “Earthquake” and “Written in the Stars”. Blending rap, electronica and dance with big build-ups and soaring choruses, the Junk Food numbers (“Auto Gas”, with MoStack and Big Narstie) feel out of place.

A swift costume change and Okogwu returns in a black satin boxing gown, punching out more chart toppers: “Written in the Stars” and “Not Letting Go”.

At times, it feels like Okogwu is curating his own retrospective, taking us on his 10-year journey from early raps to his biggest commercial collaborations. He waxes lyrical about travelling the world, number one hits and his grime roots all in one breath. It would be fine if Okogwu were a bit older, but at 27, it feels a little early to be curating your own live, musical autobiography.

On “Turn The Music Louder”, Katy B joins the stage, with a freshly bleached fringe and the night ends with “Girls Like” and pumping Swedish House Mafia hit, “Miami 2 Ibiza” amid blinding flashes, brash beats and tawdry rhymes.

Tinie Tempah seems like a dichotomous character: splitting himself between commercial and the underground. While his ability to straddle different musical genres and scenes is certainly impressive, when it’s all clumped together in one flashy show, it sounds confusing.