The Basement's Morgan Lockwood-James heads down to Meekz’ 'Can’t Stop The Come Up' show to see what his debut tour was saying!
Scarcely releasing in 2021 after his domination during 2020, it’s good to see Meekz giving the people what they want.
Ending 2022 on a high with his #12 charting project Respect The Come Up, the British artist hits the road with his first tour.
With support from Just Banco, NSG, Teeway and DJ Stylus – take a look at what went down on tour with one of the UK’s most enigmatic musical offerings.
While some artists build their followings through live shows, and others captivate their audience through gripping visuals and powerful story telling, Meekz is a true mystery to the UK rap game. I don’t just mean his masked appearance, but his creative process is completely privatised. The most you’ll get from him is an Instagram Live. Some artists thrive off the “celebrity” that comes with people loving your music. Some artists simply want to use music as a way to express their deepest and most painful experiences. This is true of Meekz. There was even a moment he turned away from the crowd to lift his balaclava up to perform the lyrics to “Can’t Stop Won’t Stop”. Shortly after this he sat on the edge of the stage addressing the crowd, wishing he could off his mask and share the true him.
But Meekz knows how to rouse people. Moments of inspiration were laced throughout the show, using the outfit changes as an opportunity to play inspirational interludes that really allowed you to understand Meekz’ motivations as an artists a little better. It makes sense when you see hundreds of fans sharing an artists’ pain with them, why they’d call music therapeutic and this show was testament to that idea.
Meekz is no stranger to a hiatus, but he always knows how to come back and excite his fans. The show saw him change outfits around 5 times, recreating the now iconic looks from his music videos on stage to further amp up the crowd.
All in all, 10/10 trip advisor review from me. Meekz doesn’t cut corners with his visuals, so I don’t know why I expected anything less from his live show.
A lot of artists treat the live show like a quick bank heist – in and out. This, was something else.
Big thank you to Kane and Banco for making this possible.
Photography
@waryamus