Carnivals come early
Last night we were invited down to Village Underground to check out Radio 1 DJ Toddla T’s Spring Carnival. After the success of his Winter Carnival last year, Toddla T came back to Village Underground with this Spring edition to trigger the countdown to Notting Hill Carnival and summer in the capital.
Kenny Allstar and Jeremiah Asiamah kicked off the evening, followed by The Heatwave, whom continued to warm up the crowd with the very best of dancehall, reggae, bashment and afrobeat sounds, bringing that strong carni vibe from the get go. A couple of Drake tunes went down a treat, especially with the girls.
Toddla T then took to the stage to bring us an array of sounds the UK scene, from UKG to hiphop to drum and bass, accompanied by the Soca Police and his Cake Shop dancers. He started his set with Kano’s ‘Three Wheels-Up’, which then transitioned into D Double E’s ‘Street Fighter Riddim’ being played over the instrumental of ‘Three Wheels-Up’. Toddla T continued to drop D Double’s bars over a mixture of instrumentals, which included instrumentals from both JME and Skepta, much to the crowds approval.
We were then blessed when Toddla T brought out North London’s finest Capo Lee; eryting was mud. Capo performed two of his most notorious tunes ‘Mud’ and ‘Liff’, before performing Toddla’s remix of the two. Capo was followed by a performances from a very sassy Ms Banks, Big Zeeks + E.Mak and Bay C (Tok), who all brought their own energy to the stage and kept the crowd whining throughout.
Toddla continued to draw for the most iconic Dancehall, Bashment, Grime and UKG tracks, before stepping down to allow Rampage to take over and end the night with a bang. After last night’s levels, we’re looking forward to heading down to Toddla’s Notting Hill Carnival Stage later this year to replicate that vibe with some very blessed people.
Big thanks to WIRED for the invite.
Photography by Elliot Jones
Words by Tayler Prince-Fraser & Emma Marshall
