Loyle Carner, O2 Institute, Birmingham - review

And last night at the O2 Institute in Birmingham, London rapper Loyle Carner delivered a masterclass.

The sold out crowd sung his name from start to finish as Loyle, real name Benjamin Coyle-Larner, took them through an emotional rollercoaster regarding the most emotive of subjects - family.

From the love and support of his mum, to his fictional baby sister and the pain of losing his dad, the 21-year-old let his rhymes tell the stories that shaped him.

The scene was set before Loyle, his warmup act Manik MC, or even the light technicians had taken their place as the backdrop to the stage was a huge photo, also the cover of his album, featuring Loyle, his family, friends and collaborators. The stage itself was decorated to look just like a living room, featuring book shelves and an armchair.

Fellow London rapper Manik opened the show. He is just starting out releasing music on his Soundcloud but it did not take long for fans to warm to him and raise the noise level decibel by decibel as he consistently asked if they were still with him.

After a short interlude, during which the crowd were treated to hip-hop royalty blaring out the speakers, including the Mos Def classic Mathematics, Loyle took to the stage.

His set opened with his most recent single The Isle of Arran, named after the island where he used to spend time with his grandad.

From there he worked his way through his debt album Yesterday's Gone, from Mean it in the Morning, where he raps about listening to the aforementioned Mos Def with collaborator Rebel Kleff, to Florence, the song he penned about what it would be like to have a baby sister - something he openly confessed before the song to having always wanted.

As well as being a collaborator Rebel Kleff is also one of Loyle's closest friends, and conjured most of the beats you hear the latter rhyming over.

Rebel was on stage throughout the set, DJing and rapping his own verses on NO CD and No Worries.

The chemistry between the two was brilliant, finishing each other's rhymes as they smiled and joked throughout the night.

As well as his songs, Loyle took time to rhyme poems for the crowd, including one known as 'Mrs C' for a close friend whose mum was ill in hospital.

Loyle took breaks from the album to treat fans to some of his earlier music, including the gut-wrenching BFG in which he tells listeners 'of course I'm sad, I miss my dad'.

His dad was a musician himself and Loyle had dreams of touring the country with him, but sadly never got the chance.

The set finished with Sun of Jean, the song which features both Loyle's mum and dad. His mum has the last verse on the song and she was brought to life as the photo backdrop faded out everyone except her.

There was no proper encore instead Yesterday's Gone, the title track of the album, written and performed by Loyle's dad, played the night out.

By Jack Averty