MS BANKS SLAYS VALENTINES ON HOT SAUCE TOUR
The Hot Sauce Tour powered by Voxi takes ‘Chicken Shop Date’ on the road with the Birmingham leg being held at the impressive Mama Roux’s in Digbeth on Valentine’s Day, headed up by Ms Banks.
Dubbed as Nicki Minaj’s favourite rapper there has been a steady hum of interest around Ms. Banks which seems to finally be becoming a real buzz with an upcoming Brit Awards performance with Little Mix in the bag, things finally look set to erupt for the hard-working UK artist.
Chicken Shop Date is a YouTube phenomenon in which host Amelia Dimoldenberg uses both fried chicken and flirting to successfully lure an endless stream of rap and grime stars in for her interviews, which have previously featured stars such as Shaggy, Sean Paul, Lady Leshurr and Big Narstie.
The evening kicks off with some deadpan comedy from Amelia who arrives onstage on a scooter, awkwardly missing her spotlight and apologising for not holding the event inside an actual chicken shop, “there’s just too many of you”. Luckily she soon reassures the crowd that there is tasty free fried chicken from UK street food kings Only Jerkin’ on offer.
Photography by Hot Sauce Tour, Powered by VOXI.
DJ Damn Shaq gets the crowd hyped up with a grime and rap set, both DJing and MC’ing and encouraging people to jump on stage, dance and do their thing. Everyone is jumping around and grinding, there’s even a touch of daggering in the mix!
There’s a warm welcome for first live act Jay1, a rapper originally from North London who moved to Coventry and launched his music career from there, kind of the opposite move to the norm which happily seems to be paying off. Jay1 has an easy going flow and his melodic single “That’s My Bae” gets people bouncing along nicely. Laid back “Good Vibes” is exactly that and “Becky” shows off his lyrical flair.
Amelia is soon back on stage with her quirky comedy antics and DJ Damn Shaq takes over again for a while before the main event. The crowd goes wild as Amelia introduces Ms Banks and she takes the stage immediately commanding the attention of every single person in the room. Her rapping style mixes grime, dancehall and hip hop. The summery ‘Day Ones’ has the room romping, smiling and shouting. The mid-tempo fierce but bouncy ‘Come Thru” gets people clambering for the stage but it’s new single “Hood Bitch” that really sends the audience over the edge – and in the best possible way. Banks soon invites her female fans to join her on stage to dance and grind through the empowering track which really showcases the star’s lyrical skill and impressive flow.
Mazzy Snape
