Nas @Hammersmith Apollo

The Street Disciple himself, Nas, brought his well-polished tour to West London last night to the acclaim of Hip Hop heads, backpackers and straight up tourists alike. Having baulked at the extortionate £30+ entry I was lucky to have enjoyed a free ticket (cheers Inter). Had I spent my hard-earned P's I might have been slightly, well, P-ed off.

Perhaps this thought was echoing in the minds of the waste men chucking bottles at DJ 279, unhappy with Nas' late arrival. When he finally strode onstage in all-white and a Slick Rick chain he exuded the air of greatness. As perhaps the finest living emcee, the self-proclaimed King of New York can afford such confidence. Kicking off with tracks from his latest LP, 'Hip Hop Is Dead', he proceeded to launch into an exhaustive set of classics.

And boy, has he got a few. Personals included 'It Aint Hard To Tell' and 'Halftime' from the seminal Illmatic LP, the beautiful 'If I Ruled The World' and the rousing 'Hate Me Now'. The list is endless and much of the gig resembled a 5,000 person karaoke. Which is fine, as Nasir Jones is perhaps the most accomplished lyricist of them all (if anyone deserves their rhymes recited en masse, then it is he). However what it amounted to was the DJ flinging on well-timed instrumentals to a variable chorus of braaaps. As the show went on Nas become more interactive, although this rarely extended beyond routine banter. Nevertheless, Nas' energy, power and stamina is unmistakable.

As the shirt came off and the lights went down, the anthemic 'One Mic' delivered a rare moment of true showmanship. Thats not to say it wasn't great fun or inspiring - it was a timely reminder of what Nas has achieved from being that skinny yout with impeccable skills in '93. However it did little to dispell the preconception that Hip Hop gigs are just over-priced, unimaginative shoutalongs. The post-modern irony of 'Hip Hop Is Dead' has never seemed more ironic.