DJ Yoda – History Of Hip Hop @ Clapham Grand Review

DJ Yoda is quite the all-rounder. Between us in our group we had previously seen him play at Royal Albert Hall with a marching band, doing a Sci-Fi themed set and a Reggae set.

Hip Hop was the focus of the night this time round – an audio-visual crash course in Hip Hop over the last 40-odd years, with many classic cuts but even more that I didn’t recognise. The crowd was about 50-50, with die-hard Hip Hop fans v people more like me, who didn’t know too much about the genre, but were more interested in DJ Yoda’s take on this particular style of music.

I felt that his approach this time round was more encyclopaedic than the tongue-in-cheek style he is usually known for, as he led us through one video sample after the next, in rough chronological order, expertly blending into each other.

My night therefore ended up being a bit more ‘academic’ than normal – as someone who doesn’t know Hip Hop too well, I was still able to pick out influences on the genre that I had only previously read/heard about, e.g. the influence of disco, the introduction of rapping and its shift towards materialism.

Clapham Grand was the ideal setting for the night. With its raised stage and enormous screen it provided some really awesome visuals of DJ Yoda silhouetted against the greats.

Of course, if Hip Hop isn’t your thing or you can’t afford the trip to Ibiza, there’s always his excellent Stranger Things Mix Tape to give a feel for how good DJ Yoda can be at his best.