Live Review: Nas, MC Dusk

Why – just why – would you choose an actor to support the greatest MC this side of Rakim?

Sure MC Dusk aka Abbie Cornish’s performance wasn’t the trainwreck we were all expecting. In fact it was something much worse: perfunctory. Her DJ knew his stuff, Jane Tyrrell made a welcome cameo, and Dusk’s quick-fire flow was passable, but otherwise this was simply an exercise in ‘dull’. Why Def Wish Cast, Brethren or even some genuine up-and-coming MC wasn’t given the support slot is beyond me.

Nas paid tribute to the classic formula and prowled the stage accompanied only by DJ Green Lantern. Billed as an Illmatic show the man wasted no time in giving the crowd what they wanted with the strains of album opener The Genesis announcing his presence on the stage. From there the flawless MC ripped through Illmatic in sequence (except for bringing Represent up the batting order for some strange reason) as the world blew up around him.

Every lyric of every track, whether it was the frantic Halftime or the solemn One Love, was recited by a crowd who intimately knew this record. We all could have gone home happy after It Ain’t Hard To Tell, but Nas had more in store for us with (among other offerings) a troika of classics from It Was Written, the boom bap genius of Made You Look and a powerful rendition of the reflective One Mic. Quite simply: the king of hip hop had returned: yeah, Nas you can have your crown back.