It is the opening night of Jack Harlow’s first headlining European tour, an event the 24-year-old US rapper feels obliged to commemorate in wistful style. “I could never have envisioned coming to Birmingham, England, and selling out a room like this,” he sighs. “3,000 people.” You could suggest this show of humility amounts to laying it on a bit thick, given the size of the venues he’s just packed in the US – he arrives in Brum fresh from the State Farm Arena, Atlanta, which is six times as big – and indeed the fact he’s due to play Wembley Arena tomorrow. Then again, perhaps it has the ring of truth about it: what Louisville, Kentucky-born rapper could imagine playing a venue in Digbeth where the Twang host their legendary festive Twangmas shows?
Whichever it is, the O2 Academy is positively bulging at the seams, with an audience that skews distinctly to the late teen and female. The loudest noise they make all night is when Harlow asks if there are any girls here with their best friend (“the girl who would never fuck your boyfriend,” he adds, for clarification). The response is so deafening and goes on so long that even Harlow looks a little taken aback. He is both handsome and #relatable – on stage tonight, he’s bespectacled and dressed down in a long-sleeve T-shirt and cargo pants – and a better rapper than the detractors he keeps mentioning in his lyrics would have you believe. He’s big on letting the backing track drop out and performing a capella to prove it.
