Loyle Carner Inspires Crowd At Tate Britain Gig (Review)

Surrounded by old iconic artwork including ‘The Lady of Shalott’ by John William Waterhouse, UK Hip Hop artist Loyle Carner swaggered on stage alongside his co-producer Rebel Kleff to perform tracks from his EP “A Little Late” at Tate Britain's BP Loud event last Saturday.

Jokingly mentioning he was going to try and censor the lines “Of course I’m fucking sad, I miss my fucking Dad”, he opened with the first track off the EP, ‘BFG’. These lines were all it took for the audience to be opened up to the raw and heartfelt emotion that he gives through his music, after his Dad sadly passed away earlier this year.

With these real life problems involving love and loss being the key incentives behind the EP, it made the performance emotionally engaging and creatively inspiring. Showcasing these clever phrases, smooth guitar riffs and bop-along beats made it a crowd pleaser, interacting with the audience as he did so.

Clearly having a strong bond between him and his family, Carner showed this to be the driving force behind his song writing, giving thanks to his Mum in particular through out the set. There was no trace of the "bad boy" facade that often used to be associated with rappers, only the love for combining music and poetry.

Loyle Carner doing his thing on stage with iconic
paintings as a backdrop 

Unfortunately, there were a few technical problems during the performance but he carried on regardless, doing a few tracks and pieces of spoken word without a mic. He also gave a promo of the song "Baby Grey", which he had been asked to write in response to one of the Turner prize pieces.

My favourite tracks from the EP are 'October ft Kiko Bun' (I also recommend a watch of the animated music video for it) and the ode to his father, 'Cantona'.

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