Live Review: Citizen Kay

Citizen Kay's Preach is the perfect opener – a really ostentatious, electric guitar-driven track with a gradual drum build-up that equates to instant head-nodding. The song sounds too big for this small stage and we can easily imagine it performed in front of thousands of anticipating fans with Citizen Kay making an entrance through a trap door onto a stage filled with smoke. It's instantly apparent Citizen Kay has an irrepressible charm and charisma and his cheeky grin would even make your mama coy. His extremely enthusiastic drummer doesn't let all the attention go to Kay, thanks to animated facial expressions and flailing arms.
Raise A Glass featuring The Brass Knuckle Brass Band receives high rotation on triple j and is clearly Citizen Kay's most well-known track, with patrons singing along to every word. This track is exemplary of Citizen Kay's distinctive style, harmoniously blending live instrumental elements with rap. Again, there are no subtleties in his music but rather trumpets, saxophone and drums accompanied by slick hip hop rhymes and a funky dance solo that sums up his effervescent character. We get the feeling that Kay and his drummer either go hard or go home.
The personable Kay chuckles over a minor technical difficulty and introduces his newest song, Manage. Dissimilar to aforementioned songs, Manage is about love gone wrong and is a bit more focused on hip hop beats while still sneaking in layers of organ and drums. Closer YES! revisits the heavy brass layered with up-tempo beats – if you weren't dancing before, you are now. The crowd has merged in front of the stage by now to get in on this final danceable track, the title of which pretty much sums up the affirmative feelings we have for this talented, youthful rapper. Yes, just yes!
It's all a little depressing when the song finishes. Citizen Kay channels the likes of Kendrick Lamar and Lupe Fiasco and we're happy he represents Australia in the international hip hop scene.