05 November 2009 (gig)
05 October 2009
A disappointing crowd of only around 100 people came to check out the latest winner of the Mercury music prize at Belfast’s Stiff Kitten venue. By the end, all believed they had found a new friend as the warmth and good humour of the south London rapper quickly won over the punters. Of course this would count for little if the music was rudimentary or repetitive. It wasn’t. On the contrary, it was an evocative mix Debelle’s lilting and illustrative lyrical linguistics accompanied by a highly accomplished three-piece band that treacle-coated the street-level subject matter to produce a highly digestible musical treat. A genre mash-up saw the Debelle lexicon presented on a platter of jazz, funk, soul and hip hop that at times resonated of the best of De La Soul. The curious rather than fanatical crowd was obviously unfamiliar with her work and received her introduction to the material with a metaphorical shoulder shrug. The conclusion of every tune was however greeted by warm applause with Spinnin’ and her album title track Speech Therapy scoring particularly well on the clapometre.
It must have struck Speech, real name Corynne Elliot, that the only black faces on show tonight were on stage. But Belfast easily recognises urban grime and in Debelle they recognised a girl after their own heart. In fact she stole it.
