Hip Hop representation was far and few between at Glastonbury this year, and the organisers forcing a choice between Little Simz and The Streets felt like a bitter pill to swallow, but ultimately, I was one of the lucky 200 thousand people to own a Glasto ticket for the 2024 edition, so here's how I reflect on the experience of seeing the amazing artists that I did get to see.
Noname
On the sunny Friday I targeted Noname as the first key artist that I couldn't afford to miss. Knowing I was missing her live show in Leeds a couple days after, it was a performance I really wanted to experience. Her soulful and jazz-infused boom bap was made for the live band performances, her delivery was articulate and clear, just like her albums. Her setlist contained a lot of her new album Sundial, which was to be expected given it was essentially a leg of the Sundial Tour, but in between she dropped in the best and most beautiful songs from Telephone, think Bye Bye Baby and Diddy Bop. The highlight for me was Song 32 which felt maybe halfway through the set, with crowd participation as well for the hook you really got to grips with how sick the lyrics in the chorus actually are, "yippee-ki yippee-ki-yay with the Noname, started getting money from writing the haiku". Her new songs went hard too, Potentially the Interlude was my favourite and she didn't pull any punches from namesake either which I rated and expected. It was a great reminder on how many sick tracks she has. The West Holts stage seemed to lack the mystique and grandeur of the Pyramid or Other stages, but to me it felt classic, it felt a bit dirty and old-school in a way the others didn't. She really suffered from performing before Sugababes, and as did I in my attempts to leave the stage after, with many people there waiting for Sugababes, the crowd could've been better. With that being said, Diddy Bop truly went off and I think that style of music was ideal for a nice sunny afternoon, couple pints and fire lyrics.
Star Performance - Song 32
Danny Brown
3 hours later on the same sunny stage I saw Detroit's own Danny Brown. Fresh off his new album Quaranta dropping, the forward-thinking spitter graced the Glastonbury stage to give us a medley of his most renowned and classic songs, along with his most recent efforts. Opening with his newer material was nice but then going into Lie4, Smokin & Drinkin, & Dip was a sure-fire way of getting the crowd on side. Through the sound system on the West Holts, the 808s and the production sounded immaculate, the beats were given an extra lease of life and the same can be said for the run of tracks he did from SCARING THE HOES. The samples sounded brilliant as always but just with way more energy, contrasting from his apathetic stage-style which made for an interesting experience. Grown Up was my favourite performance and that classic boom bap instrumental was next level, as was seeing him rap those awesome lyrics in person. Overall, Danny Brown was one of my favourite performances of the week with a setlist that would be difficult for anyone to match.
Star Track - Grown Up
Casisdead
As another warm and sunny day at the festival was moving closer towards the later hours, in the late afternoon, Casisdead took to the Lonely Hearts Club stage, a cool stage design made to look like the façade of an old cinema. Maybe not the grimy basement type of venue that you may have desired for a Casisdead set, but the golden sun of the late afternoon worked well with his 80's synth-pop sounds on Traction Control and Venom. His gruesome, technical, detailed and bleak lyrics mesh with his progressive production, and scratch an itch you don't get scratched from other artists, plus the retro horror-core imagery in the back of his set make the whole thing unique and you consider yourself lucky to have ever discovered this guys music in the first place. Kasabian's secret set at the Woodsies stage was tempting, but the opportunity to be right at the front and hear Cas spitting some of his classic verses over various house, grime and dubstep instrumentals left me with no regrets. Been Runnin' was a great highlight with one of his filthiest instrumentals, as was the iconic All Hallows'. While the crowd wasn't rowdy or as busy as you'd want for a Cas show, the energy on stage from Cas and his hype man was enough to feed on, and my overall reflection was that it was one of my favourite shows of the weekend. Not playing Boys Will Be Boys was no doubt a disappointment, but the performance of Venom and Traction Control will live long in the memory.
Star Track - Venom
Little Simz
The goated set-before-the-headliner slot was Little Simz's on the Saturday this year, before Coldplay, and as you can imagine, the crowd was huge for this one. I was way far back but still got a good sound experience and could just about see what was going on. A lot of brilliant tracks from her most recent two albums were played, starting with Solhouette and No Merci, but tracks such as I Love You, I Hate You and Heart on Fire all went off in equal measure. It wasn't surprising to hear much of the last two albums as these are clearly the ones that got her to this level of fame and the potential for playing the pyramid stage at Glastonbury at that time. She had a couple tracks from GREY Area, those being 101 FM and Venom which were a brilliant way of breaking up from the newer stuff. The new tracks from the DROP 7 EP did surprise me though, Mood Swings, Fever and SOS. Obongjayer joined her for Point and Kill, and she closed with the trilogy of amazing tracks Selfish, Woman, and Gorilla. I genuinely can't remember if Cleo Sol joined her on stage or not for Selfish and Woman. Would have liked her to play my fave Simz track, Angel, but it is what it is, Gorilla is an amazing track, super nice lyrics and cold beat as well. Overall the show went very quick but was still a pretty sick performance and I look forward to watching it back soon.
Star Track - Gorilla
Ghetts
As the weekend was coming to a close and Monday was hurtling towards me, with not much to look forward to in terms of a headliner, I was a little fatigued on Sunday afternoon and spirits were lower. But a good Mount Kimbie performance and an England last minute equaliser was the perfect antidote, and just in time, Ghetts arrived on the wonderful Park stage at half 7 and gave one of the best performances of the weekend. His ability to hype the crowd up with his meticulous and technical lyrics was astounding, the production sounded brilliant, and his aggressive and sharp delivery sounded even better in-person than on track. The classic tracks went over really well like One Take, but tracks on his newer material also went hard, like when he brought out Sampha for Double Standards, and Kano and Wretch 32 for Mount Rushmore - what a moment. It was great to marvel at Ghetts' punchlines and rhyme schemes during the show. The energy for the tracks with Moonchild Sannelly (who also came out) was just fantastic, and caused one of the few mosh pits I was involved with at Glastonbury. He closed with Mozambique and Laps, two of the hardest rap tracks I've heard in recent years - and with that it closed my Hip Hop experience at Glastonbury 2024, absolutely loved it.
Star Track - Mozambique
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