Barney Artist at The Macbeth, London photos

Words and pho­tos by Aaron Lee

Bar­ney Artist brought his quirky rap music to The Mac­beth, in Hox­ton, Lon­don, for a head­line show on Thursday.

A play­ful char­ac­ter in per­son, Bar­ney invit­ed his audi­ence to be part of his active imag­i­na­tion, turn­ing a brief part of his set into a grime night, spit­ting a fiery cypher and school­ing his “crew” in a whim­si­cal man­ner (“When the DJ rewinds the record, that’s called a reload. Don’t panic!”).

Rhyme slay­er Nick Brew­er joined Bar­ney for ‘Beep Beep’ ear­ly on. Bar­ney also per­formed more favourites from his acclaimed Paint­ing Sounds mix­tape, includ­ing ‘Leave’, ‘Paint­ing’ and ‘Destruc­tive Beauty’.

The Lon­don MC also paid a spe­cial trib­ute to leg­endary hip hop pro­duc­er J Dil­la, freestyling to the tune of Dil­la beats.

Bar­ney was sup­port­ed by alter­na­tive hip hop duo 2nd Exit, who decid­ed to take a more chilled approach to hyp­ing the crowd by per­form­ing their entire act while sat on a sofa.

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Tags: Barney Artist, Conscious music, Grime music, Hip hop music, Live photo galleries, London, London musicians, Nick Brewer, Photos, Rap music, UK music