East London rapper Justin ‘Ghetts’ Clarke made a little history when he bounced onstage at Somerset House, the first grime star to headline this august venue’s long-running Summer Series concert programme. The 37-year-old Plaistow native was backed by a five-piece band, including his brother Kadeem on guitar, who combined traditional rock arrangements with electronics, turntables and sampled strings.
Between nimble, rapid-fire, bittersweet lyrics about his past life as a teenage car thief and convict, Clarke addressed the crowd with humour and humility. “Let me tell you why I’m overwhelmed,” he grinned. “I look out and I see all ages, all races...”
While younger grime artists have enjoyed fast-track success, Clarke’s profile has been slowly building for almost two decades, finally breaking into the pop mainstream early last year when his third album, Conflict of Interest,debuted at Number Two in the charts. Along the way he has worked with a stellar gallery of talents including Stormzy, Ed Sheeran, Little Sims, Skepta, Dizzee Rascal, Emili Sandé, Dave and more.
Indeed, he performed most of these collaborations at Somerset House but, disappointingly, none of his famous friends turned up to share the kind of mood-lifting guest spots that are now routine at major rap shows. Instead, Ghetts relied solely on his smoky-voiced opening act, rising Mancunian R&B singer-songwriter Pip Millett, to add a smattering of extra vocal shading.
For long stretches of this show, Clarke set aside the spring-loaded beats and staccato chants that characterise grime to croon emotionally tender confessionals over soulful soft-rock arrangements. On Proud Family, he showed his vulnerable side, paying tribute to the mother who raised him and ruminating on his own struggles to be a good father. For Autobiography, he calmly retraced his journey from troubled teenager to feted music star over a glistening, undulating melody. Like a kind of hip-hop Val Doonican, he even perched on a wooden stool to gently croon the heartbroken lyric to 10,000 Tears, Sheeran’s syrupy ballad collaboration.
If Clarke seemed a little tastefully understated during parts of this set, he was clearly keeping his powder dry for the finale. As darkness fell over Somerset House, he erupted with explosive energy and furious velocity over a string of purely electronic numbers, from the gravel-voiced rude-boy swagger of Know My Ting to the booming sci-fi stomp Artillery.
Culminating in a euphoric version of Mozambique, complete with dancing children on stage, this closing rally was a welcome reminder of just how fiercely inventive and thrillingly futuristic grime can still sound, a unique made-in-London genre rather than a regional hip-hop hybrid. Ghetts may have started slowly but this show was more marathon than sprint, much like his entire career so far, and he passed the winning line like a champion.
