I was relatively late in the game with Kurupt FM. But after seeing them live for the first time at Hideout Festival this year, I fell head over heels. Love at first sight. The moment I arrived home, I committed to watching the two series of People Just Do Nothing available before the third, brilliant series was released at the end of summer. Top that all off with meeting DJ Steves at the end of their set at Leeds Festival and you have all the ingredients for a full-blown love affair.
The success of Kurupt FM as an act outside of their BBC three mockumentary slot is not surprising. The show is funny because you don’t need to know all the ins and outs of garage, or whatever genre Grindah and Beats decide to MC over, you just get to laugh at the fact they are trying so hard to be cool, and low-key succeeding. Their Champagne Steam Rooms Warehouse Project last Thursday was a example of this effortless cool; they got the crowd dancing to a bit of ‘Heads High’ and ‘Controlla’ and then came in with some revamped Garage classics to make the set electric. The beauty was that the crowd weren’t really taking themselves too seriously; swarms of Manny students preaching support for the Brentford Crew, shouting ‘T stands for Audi TT’ and moshing to ‘Heart Monitor Riddim’ is always fun to see and get involved in.
Their WHP was a perfect blend of Garage, Drum and Bass, Grime and a bit of General Levy. My Nu Leng, Toddla T, Wookie and Barely Legal, stood out as particularly good at making the crowd move and generally making use of the uniquely classic venue that looked like something off a set of Skins.
Kurupt FM’s Champagne Steam Rooms will return to Leeds 25th November, so get your tickets to catch some dancehall dubs, classic MCs and obviously everything garage.
Amelia Whyman
(Image: https://instagram.com/p/BMHXRNsA3YK)