Blanco Is Back And With A Smile [Show Review]

On a Thursday night in Tufnell Park, the queue to enter The Dome seems endless. Wrapping around the corner and flowing all the way down the street. This is unmistakably a London crowd. Meaning that no one person is alike to the next. All down the line, you can hear whispers of who people think the London rapper will bring out. Every conversation is laced with one thing, nostalgia. For fans, Blanco seems to represent a time in their life as opposed to a thing they like. In London, when Blanco goes away, the world doesn’t continue without him, instead it stops and waits. The crowd reminisce as they chat to each other: “I’ve been listening to Blanco since I used to wear wired headphones”, “Pull up is the first liked song in my entire spotify”, “For us, Blanco is our time at sixth form”. 

Though Blanco can represent nostalgia, he’s still at the forefront of UK rap’s future. Having Damzz open the show proves he’s still tapped in as ever. “Damzz is the next thing up, you heard it here first”, some young boys tell me as we enter The Dome. As Damzz takes the mic and gets into his flow, the music cuts. What could’ve been a disaster, was instead a moment to prove himself. With no mic or music, Damzz rapped harder and louder through the crowd's yells of encouragement. Confidence like that is rare to find in someone who's on the come up. 

After hours of waiting, the first signs of Blanco come out in the form of his live band. They play the unmistakable intro for “This System”, the trumpet ripping through the venue. Though a technical difficulty stops Blanco from coming out for that first beat, it all works in his favour. The crowd is hungrier than ever. 

“I’ve never performed with a live band so that was a unique experience. Doing a live band and London together, it felt different, I took more pride in it.” Along with his pride, Blanco’s joy was evident. This is a man who is happy to be here, and is here to stay.

After taking us back and forth between tracks like “Sombrero” & “Ponzi Scheme” off his new project “Gilberto’s Son” and classics like “Shippuden” & “Memphis”, Blanco took the crowd way back with his first surprise guest, NSG. The entire crowd OT Bopped to the Hackney boy’s. 

Blanco had no shortage of star studded surprises. With NSG, Sainte, Finesse the Kid and Ace Kash all making appearances. The Dome was the who’s who of UK rap for the night. 

Blanco can control a crowd, literally. At one point, he split us down the middle, into “Harlem” on the left and “Spartans” on the right, before repping his OG group with “Call Me A Spartan”. Speaking before “Son Of A Refugee”, Blanco brought the room back to reality. “Obviously this is close to me. I’m the son of a refugee. Any refugees here tonight we love you. We are all refugees.”. 

He capped off with “Brilliant Mind” and ended everything where it started, Kennington. Speaking after the show, one of his favourite things was “The fans. They knew every lyric, that was sick”. 

Blanco is back and he’s anything but blank…