Lyrical Alliance To Perform With Talib Kweli

Interested in hip-hop from all around the world? How about that gritty live shit straight from Bed-Stuy in New York? Even better, if someone were to combine the two would you be able to contain your excitement until October without succumbing to the giddy rush of anticipation that would surely lead to your dying day?

Let’s hope you answered yes to those questions, because 16th October’s Dash Arabic Series – Lyrical Alliance showcase is going to knock your socks off.

Though it originated in New York, hip-hop knows no global boundaries. The Four Elements can be practiced by kids in Beirut just as well as in Queens or Brixton – all you need is a beat and the spirit to rhyme. This is the point of the Lyrical Alliance, which puts the premier hip-hoppers of the Arab world up on stage with the best of the world’s hip-hop crop and lets them do their thing. This time, the Lyrical Alliance crew will be rocking with BK’s own Talib Kweli.

Already rappers and DJs of considerable renown in the Arab world, the Lyrical Alliance will be working out new material using as a springboard the legendary Mu’Allaqat poems, which are a group of seven poems by Arabic poets that are considered to be the best works of the pre-Muslim era. They’ll then perform these works in a series of concerts over Europe, culminating with the performance featuring Kweli.

Tickets are £22.50 plus a booking fee, but you’re lucky to find yourself some lunch for less than ten quid these days, so considering you get to see one-time performance that may very well go down as legendary, it’s not that bad a deal. Doors are at 7pm, and it takes place at Roundhouse in London.

Check www.roundhouse.org/uk as well as http://www.dasharts.org.uk for more details.