Tiny Tinie's Tempah Tempered

Tinie Tempah

HMV Institute, Birmingham

words and pictures by James Watkins

A capacity crowd of hippy-hop rap revellers turned out in force to witness the force of nature that is MOBO Award- winning rapper from Plumstead, Tinie Tempah.

The crowd's enthusiastic welcome for one of the UK's brightest talents generated enough nervous energy to power the national grid.

Tempah has been taking the charts by storm and his gig, alongside fellow fast-riser, Chiddy Bang, was a 2010 'mustn't miss' event.

Chiddy raised the bar with an impromptu freestyle that sent the crowd wild. But the night was about one man and boy did Tinie deliver.

Appearing as a silhouette in the centre of the stage for the opening intro, Tinie Tempah then descended into the limelight and flew his way through Simply Unstoppable and Frisky, before mashing up a rap-over Lady Gaga's Bad Romance, which literally had the fans bouncing from the walls.

If that wasn't loud enough, then crowd favourite Frisky and a stunning rendition of Coldplay's Viva La Vida nearly deafened anybody lucky enough to have a ticket.

Closing track, Miami 2 Ibiza, meanwhile, threatened to literally blow the doors off the Institute.

Fans were left admiring the rap star's appeal and charisma on stage. He was definitely not one to be missed.