[Concert Review] J Hus ‘Common Sense’ For a Superstar In The Making

Tonte Bo Douglas

One thing I can definitely say, is the UK scene is on the rise yet again and it doesn’t look like stopping anytime soon. The levels just keep rising. There’s no way you can see what certain artists and individuals are doing and not see that stars are being formed before our very eyes.

J Hus is an example of that.

J Hus recently came to Brixton Academy to perform his first show in London since his album ‘Common Sense’ came out earlier this year. As it turned out, one of my favourite albums this year, was followed by one of my favourite concerts this year.

J Hus was supported by acts NSG and Young T & Bugsey who performed earlier in the night. I wasn’t too familiar with NSG’s individual songs, but there was definitely a vibe that I was feeling. I’ll definitely go and check out more music. I was a lot more familiar with Young T & Bugsey who performed popular tunes such as ‘4 x 4’ and ‘Gangland’.

This is a simple thing, but I appreciate having a DJ actually play songs to warm up the crowd before the show. It really helps build the energy of the crowd. Having nothing is just lazy, simple as. Tunes were played before the main show, we all got hyped, good spirits, happy. Just how you want the crowd to be before the show starts.

All the warm ups complete. Now time for the main show. I legitimately didn’t know what to expect. UK concerts can be really good, or very disappointing depending on the level of performance the artist puts in. J Hus comes out. What I will say before anything, is the stage setup was absolute quality, with a huge bucket hat saying ‘Common Sense’ on it in the background. The stage looked bright, dynamic, colourful and provided a great backdrop for the show ahead.

What followed was about an hour and a bit of songs and to cut a long story short, it was entertaining throughout. He performed almost every track from the ‘Common Sense’ album, started off on a calmer vibe with the title track – ‘Common Sense’ and tunes like ‘Closed Doors‘, ‘Sweet Cheeks’, ‘Like Your Style’, ‘Bouff Daddy’ got the people vibing. You could see he was setting the mood, getting the mellow tracks out the way first and the crowd was fully in tune.

As the show went on, he started upping the tempo. He did ‘Plottin’ – one of my personal favourites. Then the appearances came. Mostack made an appearance for ‘Fisherman’. Krept and Konan made an appearance for ‘Get A Stack’ off their latest project ‘7 Days’. and Dave too showed up to perform ‘Samantha’. Funnily enough, I wasn’t actually expecting any appearances so this definitely added to the value of the night.

By the time he got to the energy tunes like ‘Clartin‘, ‘Spirit’, ‘Dem Boy Paigon’, ‘Friendly’, the crowd was already in full mosh pit mode. People were flying about. The levels were too high. I loved every minute of it. He finished the show off with his biggest hit to date – ‘Did You See’ (my UK song of 2017).

I’m personally very critical of UK artists for needing to work on their stage presence if they really want to be stars, but J Hus had it. He just had it. He carried himself like a true star on the stage, the presence was there. He was fully performing on stage, dancing, and he just looked like he had a good time up there. The live instrumentation for most of the songs by ‘The Compozers’ was a great touch and enhanced many of the songs performed. You can see that this guy is fully mastering his craft and is ready for the big time and I reckon his label see the same thing, judging by what they’ve put in to his most recent video for ‘Bouff Daddy’ which doesn’t look like they spared the budget on at all.

All in all, hard work and improvement have taken J Hus from the streets of East London, to the future worldwide stage. I couldn’t be happier for him.

Words by ‘Talks With Tonte’

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