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‘This is The O21!’ 21 Savage yells, closing his marathon two-hour set against a waterfall of cascading fireworks, combining his name with the venue he’s staking a claim to… close enough! His stoic exterior has dropped to reveal genuine elation for a homecoming that’s been a decade in the making; to mark the occasion, his fans are sporting tees emblazoned with the words ‘legal citizen’.
31-year-old Shéyaa Bin Abraham-Joseph is now a stalwart in the Atlanta rap scene, but was born in London before moving to the US at age seven. In 2019, his undocumented status meant he was detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and threatened with deportation. After a lengthy legal battle, Savage was declared a ‘lawful permanent resident’ in October – hence the merch.
Tonight (November 30) Savage is finishing a victory lap around the country. He’s performing for the first time in London with a whopping 33 song setlist, split loosely into three sections. For added extravagance, he enlists J Hus, Central Cee and Popcaan to do minute-long performances of their biggest songs.
Savage’s hypnotic flow and ominous instrumentals make him particularly captivating on records, though this doesn’t necessarily translate to his live performances. He’s practically shouting throughout the set, more like a traditional MC than the breathy wordsmith we’re used to: the whispering verse on ‘Don’t Come Out The House’ is delivered, strikingly, at full volume.
Nevertheless, he is a natural showman. His rapid delivery of guest features, like Nardo Wick’s ‘Who Want Smoke??’, gets a rapturous response despite being just 30 seconds long. The same goes for a crowd-pleasing stint on Post Malone’s ‘Rockstar’ and cult favourite ‘Peaches & Eggplants’, where the comical line of, “She got a tattoo right by her bikini that says, ‘Eat me’’’ gets joyously propelled off the walls by the 20,000-strong crowd.
While ‘ball w/o you’ and ‘Out For The Night’ showcase his prowess as a lyricist, the atmosphere in the crowd falls flat in the second act. To salvage it, a hat-trick of Hus, Cee and “Poppy” – as he referred to Popcaan – fire up energy levels for the closing act. Their appearances, combined with visuals of the capital and head-to-toe looks in local designer Mowalola, reinstate this idea of Savage being welcomed home with open arms.
Despite two chart-topping solo albums and a Grammy for Best Rap Song (‘A Lot’), it feels like he’s never quite been taken seriously. His issues with ICE were first seen as a joke – but look who’s laughing now. The closing song ‘Rich Flex’ has the crowd breaking into moshpits and screaming, “21, can you do somethin’ for me? / Can you hit a lil’ rich flex for me?’”. It’s so powerful he does it twice. Savage’s chance to perform in the UK has been robbed for so long that just to be here, celebrating his career thus far, feels like a deliciously anarchic triumph.
21 Savage played:
‘Runnin’
‘Glock in My Lap’
‘Don’t Come Out the House’
‘No Heart’
‘Who Want Smoke??’
‘Many Men’
‘Dip Dip’
‘Walk Em Down (Don’t Kill Civilians)’
‘EA’
‘Red Opps’
‘Broke Boys’
’10 Freaky Girls’
‘ball w/o You’
‘Ocean Drive’
‘out for the night’
‘Privileged Rappers’
‘Mr. Right Now’
‘Spin Bout U’
‘X’
‘Peaches & Eggplants’
‘a&t’
‘On BS’
‘TOPIA TWINS’
‘Creepin”
‘m y . l i f e’
‘a lot’
‘Rich N***a Shit’
‘rockstar’
‘Major Distribution’
‘Jimmy Cooks’
‘Knife Talk’
‘Bank Account’
‘Rich Flex’
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Pixies have unveiled four previously unheard tracks, all written during the period when the band were putting together ‘Bossanova’ and ‘Trompe le Monde’.
The four recordings come from between 1987 and 1991 and are now available across all digital streaming services for the first time. They originally appeared as two bonus 7” singles included with the limited-edition remastered pressings of ‘Bossanova’ and ‘Trompe le Monde’.
Among the tracks is the Steve Albini version of ‘Dig For Fire’, recorded in late 1987 while the band were working on ‘Surfer Rosa’. The song was later reworked before appearing on ‘Bossanova’ almost three years later.
The collection also features ‘Punk Loop’, an unreleased jam recorded during the 1991 sessions for ‘Trompe le Monde’ and originally labelled ‘Punk Loop’ MSTR. Another addition is ‘Brackish Boy’, a track first written with Pixies before being rerecorded by Black Francis for his self-titled solo debut in 1993. The newly released version was mastered directly from the original album session tape, without any additional post-production.
The fourth track is ‘Go Man Go’, written by Black Francis and Kim Deal while the band were recording ‘Bossanova’ and The Breeders were working on ‘Last Splash’. The song did not make the final tracklist of either album, although The Breeders performed it live on a few occasions in the years that followed.
The track made another appearance in 2023 when The Breeders included it in the 30th anniversary reissue of ‘Last Splash’.
Pixies have marked their 40th anniversary throughout this year, including a UK and European tour over the summer. During a conversation with NME at Mad Cool Festival earlier this year, guitarist Joey Santiago revealed that the band were still making progress on new material.
“We’re always in the works. Same formula,” he said. “We have a break coming up in October and we’re gonna get together and piece more songs together.”
The band's latest studio release is 2024’s ‘The Night The Zombies Came’, which marked their first album featuring bassist Emma Richardson. They are also scheduled to tour the US with Queens Of The Stone Age in 2027 as part of the upcoming tour.
