Review

Brian O'Connell reviews Kanye West at the Marquee in the Cork Docklands.

So it's my first mainstream hip-hop act. I've had the Brasso out to the bling all afternoon. In my pocket rests "Everything you wanted to know about hip-hop but were too afraid to ask", as I join the multitudes of teenagers in furry boots and baseball caps, making their way to the second of two sell-out gigs. The last thing I'm expecting to see is a mini orchestra, complete with full-size Irish harp, taking position on stage.

On closer inspection the orchestra is not quite so straight-laced, coming complete with REM-esque orange eye make-up. With Kanye West, you get the sense that the emphasis is on pleasing all of the people all of the time.

The hip-hop superstar starts with the Bond theme tune Diamonds are Forever, and he energetically prowls the stage, enticing the audience to "put their hands up in the air" at every opportunity.

Aside from his own material, the samples chosen are both unexpected and good fun. Example: an orchestral version of Eleanor Rigby leads into Gnarls Barkley's Crazy and culminates in a singalong version of the Verve's Bitter Sweet Symphony. Not quite the gun-toting, gangsta lyrics favoured by some of his contemporaries, then.

Refreshingly, there is very little by way of hip-hop cliches - no menacing on-stage entourage, hoards of dancing "honeyz" or stilted rap lingo between numbers. What we get instead is hip-hop for the middle classes, as threatening as a Buddhist in a bar fight.

After a frenetic version of his signature tune, Gold Digger, other highlights include Slow Jamz and Jesus Walks, which make best use of the modern lighting rig by turning the revolving spotlights on the audience, who oblige by chanting "Olé, Olé, Olé" at every turn.

It doesn't get much more mainstream than that.