For his final performance on his Conflict of Interest tour, Ghetts hosted an unforgettable night at The Roundhouse by bringing out an all-star cast. The album from which the tour spawned, Conflict of Interest, is hailed as Ghetts’ magnum opus, and one of the most significant projects in UK music this year, earning a Rated award for album of the year in September.
After walking on stage and delivering his track “Squeeze” on his own, a tank was brought on stage for him to sit atop while running through the album cuts. His first guest of the night, grime legend Dizzee Rascal, joined him for album track “Fire and Brimstone”, spitting the adlibs as he wasn’t an original feature on the track. For “Sonya”, Ghetts was joined by Emeli Sande, curveballing a slow track amidst the albums typical high energy. The pacing of the show was praised, as Ghetts managed to balance the plethora of energies from the album. Listen to “Sonya” below:
Despite these two features being enough for a gig at the Roundhouse, Ghetts went even further to bring on Suspect on “Houdini”, Shakka on “Know my Ting”, and to complete this embarrasment of riches, grime legend Kano on “Class of Deja”. Bringing on both Kano and Dizzee for the same set, two stars that propelled grime into the force that it became, shows the draw that Ghetts has in UK music. After paying respect to the old school leaders, Ghetts honours the new, by bringing out Pa Salieu and BackRoad Gee on “No Mercy”, two long-time mutual collaborators. Honouring the new doesn’t last for long, however, as no one other than Giggs is brought out for “Crud”. Big Mike drew a massive reaction for coming out on “Skengman”, completing the feature list for the evening.
While the evening had enough features to justify a Conflict of Interest festival, the albums feature list is far more impressive, pulling Wretch 32, Dave, Stormzy, Skepta, and Ed Sheeran. With the unwieldy power Ghetts possessed in getting the biggest artists to hail from the UK to feature on the album, it is no surprise that he recruited an all-star cast for his final show on the album tour. This show will go down in legend, much like Drake and Skepta coming out for Section Boyz in 2016.
The album, Conflict of Interest, was released earlier in the year to critical acclaim. Listen below: