REVIEW: Akala & Katibeh Khamseh – Celebrating Sanctuary London

It seems like Rich Mix is a venue that just attracts interesting, culturally conscious events like moth to flame. Earlier this year I went there to see Addictive TV perform their Orchestra of Samples show, which turned out to be a masterful, mind-blowing exercise in celebrating the global significance of music.

Last week I found myself back there again, this time for an event set up to concord with Refugee Week, headlined by the legendary UK rapper, journalist, poet, activist and entrepreneur Akala. The night was laid on by Counterpoints Arts, a foundation set up to promote creative material by and for refugees and immigrants settling in the UK. I don’t think there’s ever been more of a need for organisations such as that than there is now.

Accordingly, Akala wasn’t the only name on the bill. Katibeh Khamseh, a Palestinian hip-hop group who manage to almost entirely embody that culture within their membership (MCs, a beatboxer and a graffiti artist). Sadly all the good will in the world can’t stem the unreliability of public transport and as much as I’d have liked to see their full set, I only caught the tail end. I can still say with some authority that they are an amazing group. Arabic suits rap beautifully anything, with it’s rhythmic form and emphasised, sharp consonant sounds, but even beyond that the production on their tracks is almost uniformly gorgeous. By dint of The Way of Life, a documentary I saw at Boom Bap, I’ve been trying my best to delve into more global hip-hop and these guys were a wonderful addition to that hunt.

There’s something so wilfully compelling about gigs with such an impetus on awareness and support and you could feel it just from walking through the crowd. Sure, Akala was the strongest draw but it’s virtually impossible to be a fan of his and not have some kind of social conscience, it resonates through all his work. Before he hit the stage though there was a short spoken word performance from the evening’s compare, Kayo Chingonyi, a Zambian poet who has gained a startling reputation both for his written and performed work, as well as the workshops he’s run across London and beyond. His emotional, impassioned poetry was the ideal preface for the main event.

Akala’s name has been on a lot of people’s tongues of late. This is all thanks to an appearance on Frankie Boyle’s well intended but rather inconsistent post-election ‘autopsy’ and the release of the barnstorming new album Knowledge is Power II, his first full LP in 2 years and a sequel to his 2012 mixtape. Even taking those things out of the equation, he was a perfect choice to headline this event. Akala has been an outspoken supporter of refugee rights for basically his entire career and his extensive knowledge and bearing on the subject cannot be understated. I would have happily listened to him just talk for 90 minutes, but we were given a hell of lot more than that.

After a slick introductory video which blended older, well known footage of the rapper from music videos and interviews with clips of various icons saying iconic things (1 million points awarded for using the beautiful 1971 Pierre Burton/Bruce Lee interview) the man himself stormed on stage. He didn’t waste any time launching into a high-octane set balanced between cuts from the new album and older material. It was the moments between that really stuck in my mind though. When he wasn’t reinventing himself as Uncle Pompous (and setting about offending the entire audience in the process) or blowing everyone’s minds with a stirring reading from his graphic novel, The Ruins of Empires, he spoke on numerous socio-political issues. These ranged from the unacceptable shortcomings of current UK immigration policy (as well as the looming threat of upcoming reforms) to an alarming situation currently unfolding in the Dominican Republic which could well see hundreds of thousands of residents of Haitian descent swiftly deported for no good reason. 

Perhaps the most stirring moment came though when Charleston was addressed. Mere days had passed since the lives of 9 innocent African Americans were extinguished by a gun wielding, white power obsessed terrorist in the small South Carolina town. Akala spoke on the abhorrent media mishandling of the massacre and observed a 2 minute silence, it was all more than a little overwhelming. As the set drew closer to the end Akala welcomed Katibeh Khamseh back onto the stage and they performed a heady mix of his tracks and theirs, bolstered with guest verses. It was difficult not to get absorbed in the atmosphere, but the seriousness of the issues that birthed the event never faded from context, and it’s still at the forefront of my mind, especially now that this disturbing news has surfaced.

These are the kind of events that help to remind me (and everyone else) why London is such an important city. Despite those that would try and convince us that immigration is a blight on our economy, you can barely walk two steps across our capital without finding some evidence of how UK culture has been shaped and elevated by migrants, from food to art to music. Even amidst a gathering storm of political injustice, the cultural diversity and vibrance of the city retains its hue and how fitting that the very next day, all the way from Bank to Parliament Square the streets were awash with protesters registering their desire for an end to austerity and welfare cuts. Both apt and timely demonstrations of the fact that so many people in the UK are not only willing to speak up, but to put a rhythm behind it.