M Huncho’s Sold Out Headline Show

Guten Tag you ain’t no German

Nestled in a quiet corner between Soho’s sex boudoirs and quirky bookshops, Borderline is just that.  Smaller venues are often underrated for the madness their walls barely contain, especially when the main stage area is underground. The corporate evening rush home never realises there is a hotbed beneath their very feet. A missed coach, half an hour of bad directions and confusion whilst freezing to near death left me flustered when I arrived late, thinking I’d missed the best parts. Low expectations quickly lifted after a packed floor let me know I’d arrived just in time to secure a place that 5’5 me could see the stage from.

Cold temperatures outside left most of us unreasonably stiff, myself included. DJ Stutz and Uncle Bantzzz attempted to loosen us up, along with solid performances from D1, Berna and RK. The tradition of putting smaller artists on stage first is one I’m 100% behind, as the bad habit of sticking to what I like to hear unless something else is forced into my eardrums is one I’m looking to break in 2018.

Kenny Allstar’s unapologetic genre supremacy presented itself in a short set of strictly UK drill.  Specialised song selection built a slow but steady bop among us in anticipation for the real deal.  The man said “I create movies” so when the tech guys induced a smoky blackout on stage, 300 of us knew what was coming. When M Huncho finally made his entrance, a lot of noise followed.  As expected, the infamous balaclava made an appearance and stayed on for the entire night. From nine fifteen onwards on Thursday evening, every bar was finished word for word by the crowd. The blackout did little for our snapchat stories but made the experience feel more immediate and intimate. Most of us lost our minds at the first play of A Man (Remix); followed by Reload and Repeat which allowed us to gather our thoughts briefly before losing it all over again. The centre of the crowd was marked by a gentle mosh while the perimeters were reserved for cooler cucumbers.

As with most shows, too many men on stage had the potential to take away from the real headliner and make it feel more like a university rave than a show. Shows in general always feel like a sausage fest.  It was nice to see the few women present enjoying drill and I hope our numbers continue to grow in the future.

Between the madness, there were more sombre moments that allowed us to appreciate Huncho’s work rate as an artist. GRM came out with a plaque recognising his 1 million views within his first year of beginning, quite the feat. It’s no surprise that the rest of his videos are creeping closer and closer to a million views on YouTube. As someone who had been supporting Huncho’s rise from the beginning, it was only right for Kenny Allstar to be present when he was awarded. The palpable love and self belief between them was cute to see, before getting back to the lyrical crud talk.

2017 seems to have been the first of many for M Huncho and the exclusive performance of his newest track “Bandz” hints that he has much more in store for us.