Camp Lo at Thekla, Bristol review

Image: Camp Lo 

When it comes to nineties golden age hip hop, you can always count on Sip the Juice to land one of the genre’s legendary names for an unforgettable show.

In their five year existence, the Bristol promoter collective have brought over the crème de la crème of 90’s rap talent from the states to the city. Including the likes of Jeru the Damaja, Beatnuts, Large Professor, Diamond D, Lord Finesse and Lords of The Underground to name a few.

Keeping with this consistent form of quality bookings, thursday night saw the team haul in unsung rap heroes, Camp Lo, straight out of NYC.

Comprised of emcees - Geechi Suede and Sonny Cheeba, The Bronx rap duo are perhaps best known for their 1997 breakthrough single ‘Luchini’ (AKA This Is It), taken from their classic debut album Uptown Saturday Night. Released at the height of the bling era, the LP was warmly received by enlightened rap fans, but slept on by the wider hip hop community – who weren’t quite ready for the duos Blaxploitation-themed narratives and 70’s street slang.  

Almost twenty years on, despite unfortunate setbacks in between that prevented the success they deserved, the Lo are still going strong and continue to release music independently.

Given that it was a drizzly weeknight, the gig managed to haul a reasonable amount of devoted fans aboard the Thekla. And all those in attendance were keen to witness a rare UK performance, live and direct from the New Yorkers. Sip the Juice’s resident DJ’s warmed up proceedings with old school hip hop jams to psych the crowd up, until it was time for the main attraction to hit the deck.

Stepping onstage around 9pm, with the kind of sartorial grace and swagger you can only expect from emcees with stage names like Sonny Cheeba and Geechi Suede, the duo launched straight into an energetic show.

The set was made up of all their classic joints, largely drawn from Uptown Saturday Night, as well as select tracks from its follow up Let’s Do It Again and 2007’s Black Hollywood.  

Like the majority of hip hop gigs there was plenty of interaction between the emcees and the enthusiastic crowd. Whenever the crowd weren’t swaying their arms up and down to upbeat, party numbers like ‘Black Nostaljack’  they were nodding their heads intently to the raw, hard-core bars and beats of ‘Swing’ and ‘Krystal Karrington’. 

It was on hard hitters like these where Camp Lo greatly demonstrated their tight lyrical skills, and effortless fluidity in the way they exchanged verses. They nicely balanced out the set-list with smooth cuts such as ‘Sparkle’ and ‘Coolie High’, where their juxtaposition of killer flows across Ski Beatz mellow productions proved to be most astounding.  

Fans were also treated to newer material, including ‘Cold Retarded’ from last year’s Ragtime Hightimes, which sounded as fresh as their more classic work, that in hindsight, was clearly ahead of its time.

Unsurprisingly, their monster hit ‘Luchini’, appeared towards the end of the set, once the anticipation for its airing was sufficiently built up. It only took the first few notes of the vibrant horn riff before the audience rocked the boat. And then came the recitation of the rappers quotable lyrics about pulling off a diamond heist and sippin’ Armaretta.

Although some of Camp Lo’s esoteric rhymes require an incisive ear to get ones head around, something that simply can’t be ignored is their individual dazzling lyrical flows. And throughout the live performance, both Suede and Cheeba proved this mic skill remains in fine tact.

Not to mention the unmistakeable sound of their individual voices - despite having aged in years, both still stand out amongst the swarm of new voices that currently exist in the rap game. The only nearest comparison - in terms of voice and flow patterns - to a degree is Clipse aka Malice and Pusha T. They're perhaps the best rap duo to emerge since the turn of the millennium, which signifies Camp Lo’s enduring influence on later emcees.

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Camp Lo head to London this May.