"I've gotta try my best for this entire show not to swear," Loyle Carner tells the audience as his words are broadcast live on the radio. The British hip hop sensation was the first act to headline the BBC's 6 Music Festival at O2 Victoria Warehouse on Friday (March 24).
Now named its permanent home, the festival returns to Greater Manchester this weekend for the first time since it launched in 2014. But the 28-year-old was here just last month, performing at the very same venue in the shadow of Old Trafford just four weeks earlier.
Support act Wu-Lu brought energy to the stage with his band bouncing about throughout their set and gradually becoming shirtless. But something about the sound was off and the energy that was evident on the stage did not seem to translate to the audience.
READ MORE: BBC Radio 6 Music Festival lineup, tickets and all you need to know as it returns to Manchester
That was until DJ Jamz Supernova summoned the south London rapper to the stage. Hood up, the poet's performance starts with perhaps his most powerful song, Hate, a rage-filled track which features at the start of his latest album released last year – 'Hugo'.
Plastic - a song that takes a swipe at the broadcaster hosting the event - came second, and was dedicated to Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker. It follows the former footballer's stand off with the BBC over his tweets which criticised the government.
Like Lineker, Carner could not care less about offending the Conservatives. After inviting Athian Akec onto the stage to recite the speech he delivered in Parliament as a youth MP in 2018 which features at the end of Blood On My Nikes, he made his views clear.
However, rather than putting his time and energy into negativity, he'd much prefer to give a platform to a young man speaking about knife crime, he told the crowd. "About young men who look like him, who look like me, who are losing their f***ing lives, right?"
The performance peaked when the acclaimed rapper was joined by Manchester's AMC Gospel Choir for Nobody Knowns (Ladas Road). The second track from his latest album came towards the end of his over-an-hour-long performance – but it was well worth the wait.
His final song HGU was about forgiveness. He told fans how he rekindled his relationship with his biological father after finding out that he would become a father himself – and how learning to drive with his dad during the pandemic helped rebuild their relationship.
Like in his previous performance, the encore is Ottolenghi, a song which features a recording of Aussie artist Jordan Rakei's vocals – but in this version, the crowd contributes. The rest of the band leave the stage, but Carner remains as the live broadcast concludes.
He asks for permission to perform a poem – a moving moment which proves his lyrics are just as important as the musicians behind him. "Take these words and go forwards," he tells the crowd before disappearing and the festival continues elsewhere in the city.
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