Loyle Carner hailed his headline performance at All Points East as “one of the best days” of his life as he hyped the London crowd with poignant lyricism and guest appearances from Tom Misch and Jordan Rakei. The London-born rapper, 29, entertained the 35,000 strong audience with hits from across his back catalogue during the gig held in his local area at Victoria Park on Saturday. Guyana-born poet John Agard and activist and former youth MP Athian Akec joined him on stage for his biggest show to date to speak about racial identity, knife crime and to send a message of unity following the riots across the country in recent weeks.
A post shared by Uber One presents All Points East (@allpointseastuk) After hyping up the crowd further with his track Plastic, he told them: “This is one of the best days of my f****** life.” Agard performed a rendition of his poem Half-Caste, which addresses the negative connotations of the term and inspired Carner’s following track Georgetown. “He’s a real legend.
Without him there’s no me – I follow in his footsteps”, the Mercury Prize-nominated rapper told the audience. Carner, who often addresses social and political issues through his confessional hip-hop, turned his attention to knife crime in the UK next by delivering a punchy rendition of his song Blood On My Nikes. Akec to deliver the powerful speech he read out in the House of Commons during the annual Youth Parliament meeting in 2018 aged 16 and now features in Carner.