London rappers Wretch 32 and K Zorro teamed up with Nashville musicians (drummer Dominic Billett, singer-songwriter Joe Pisapia and former Roots bassist Owen Biddle) to reinterpret their own hip-hop tracks as Southern rock songs at north London’s Nambucca last night for a one of a kind Jack Rocks show. If you weren’t lucky enough to be there, here’s what happened.
The rapper was on fine form during his pre-gig interview, telling NME he wasn’t nervous: “Nerves don’t happen any more, man. That stopped happening years ago. This is just what I do. Like you don’t get nervous to breathe, because it’s something you do every day. Music is just something that I’m always doing. I love [performing] and I’m happy at the reaction, but there ain’t nerves.”
London singer-songwriter Polly V Pearce was on hand to lend her soaring voice.
Wretch opened with his high-energy 2011 debut single ‘Traktor’, which boasted both blaring, siren-like synths and soulful backing vocals, summing up the eclecticism of the evening.
“I linked up with some incredible musicians from Nashville,” Wretch said, before explaining that, combined, the songs he played all told the story of a relationship, from the good times to the bad times and everything in between. “It might touch you,” he added – and he wasn’t wrong.
