Float like a dragonfly: The South London-born lyricist hosts a triumphant night of hip-hop.

Words: Fin Harrison ︱Images: Elizabeth Lenthall (@elizabethlenthall)

At Harrow tube station I try to prepare myself for the evening ahead. When you only find out you’re going to a gig a couple of hours in advance, you don’t have much time to look forward to it. You can’t sit around watching clips recorded at previous gigs and count down the days until you’re right there in the thick of it. You only really have time to figure out how you’re going to get there. The journey’s a long one but thankfully it’s not too complicated, which is a win by London’s standards.

I’m on the way to Brixton’s notorious Hootenanny venue, somewhere I’ve only experienced through the imagery I’ve conjured up in my mind from stories others have told me about the place. I expect it to be intimate and vibrant, other than that the space remains purely mythical to me, which is fitting as I’m soon to witness a legend. 

I’m off to see Fliptrix; the South-East London born rapper behind the independent High Focus Records machine (Dirty Dike, Rag ’n’ Bone Man, Ocean Wisdom). I first stumbled upon the underground hip-hop label when I was about 15, and exploring its vast roster of talent made me feel pretty cool – a feeling that back then was still very alien to me. 

Now residing in the mountains of rural Portugal, Fliptrix brings the sound of his 10th studio album Dragonfly back to his place of origin – a project that was written and recorded just six weeks ahead of its release in August of this year.

We arrive promptly at 7:40. The night is young and footfall in the venue is scarce, allowing me the freedom to look around and take it all in. My optimism for the night ahead is gaining momentum by the minute. As I get my wrist stamped upon entering the building, Dirty Dike’s Hi I’m James is the first song I hear playing out of the impressive sound system. The stage is tall enough to be visible from anywhere in the room. The temperature is pleasant, the vibes are good and the sound is perfect. The architecture is sort of medieval-looking; a rectangular stone floor is accompanied by a vast wooden bar top and high ceilings. Handsomely crafted woodwork frames the translucent windows at the back of the room. An abundance of stickers plaster the walls, resembling a chaotic mosaic and visually narrating the rich history this venue holds, while their adhesive essence seemingly seeps into the floor beneath my feet. 

I move to an outside table where I’m stationed for about ten minutes before a delightfully humble Fliptrix appears from out of nowhere and greets my photographer Lizzie. He thanks us all for coming and calmly expresses his excitement for the evening ahead. I grin to myself as the plot thickens. We’ve been given a warm welcome by the headline act. That familiar rush of coolness I felt at 15 washes over me once again.

We make our way back inside just in time to see Croydon rapper Verbz launch into his set, gripping the crowd tightly from the moment he steps foot on stage. His hard-hitting energy fills the room, embodying everything an opening act should strive to achieve. As someone to the right of me in a zimmer frame succeeds in out-dancing me, Verbz fires out a collection of lyrics inspiring a strong and heartfelt sense of self-belief. I promise myself that this won’t be the last of his shows I attend. In honour of his namesake, famously a doing word, he just does it.

Clad in a sleek black ensemble and adorned with a heavy silver chain, King Kashmere is next to command the stage, backed up by DJ Jazz T on the decks. The audience falls under Kashmere’s spell as he launches into a call-and-response, urging the crowd to ‘say hell yeah!’, ‘say hell no!’, and even appealing to any potential fence-sitters with a ‘say hell maybe!’.

Kashmere proceeds to transform the venue into a lyrical church, his soulful delivery peppered with subtle biblical references as he preaches to the eager congregation. The room’s energy steadily climbs throughout the sermon, reaching new heights when he brings out his Gawd Status crew-mate, Joker Starr, whose on-the-mic personality is both bold and infectious.

Finally, enter Fliptrix. It’s worth noting that, up until this point in the night, the notes page on my phone had been a chaotic scramble of my in-the-moment observations of the evening’s unfolding events. This activity became impossible to keep up as soon as the headliner stepped up. Now, looking down at a phone screen for even a split second feels like a crime. Jazz T’s sonic presence continues as Kashmere hands the microphone over to Fliptrix. Whooping, cheering, clapping and gun-finger-bullet-firing can be observed in the audience. A lad stood next to me, who looks about my age, shares his excitement with me and we bond over the fact that he too had had his mind blown by his discovery of High Focus during his mid-teens. 

Fliptrix instantly gets into his element, arm raised and palm open, expertly guiding the audience like a puppet master, while delivering every bar with flawless precision. At one point I notice the crowd pull back and form a circle. At first I wonder if this is a mosh pit, but then I notice that people are actually looking down at the floor and marveling at the appearance of a wild breakdancer. When Fliptrix clocks what’s going on he immediately jumps down, inserts himself in this circle and continues performing alongside the dancer. It is at this moment I think to myself “this is a proper fucking hip-hop show”. As the rapper continues to perform songs old and new he repeatedly gives shout outs to Jazz T, High Focus and The Four Owls (the supergroup of which he makes up a quarter). 

At one point during the performance, one of my associates surprises me with a shot of Wray and Nephew. I accept. My eyes water and my throat burns as I look upwards, slightly discombobulated, and notice a woman standing to the right of the stage bearing an array of piercings and tattoos. This is the moment I’m formally introduced to Greentea Peng. The crowd goes positively ballistic and camera phones are raised left, right and centre. Fliptrix delivers the line “Greentea got the pengest trees”, followed up seamlessly by the Neo-soul star’s dreamy vocals as she charms the room with the chorus of their Leaf Dog-produced collaborative effort: Cosmic Scenes. She receives rapturous applause from an audience she then proceeds to join, enjoying the rest of the gig from there.

Cult classics See the Sun and The High Way bounce across every inch of the room. Fliptrix goes on to to triumphantly pay tribute to his late father, responded to by the crowd with an immense quantity of love. He closes with Jimi Hendrix’ All Along The Watchtower in his dad’s honour, concluding a night of incredible artistry. A perfect showcase of Fliptrix’ skill, vision, spirituality, hard work, dedication, talent and purpose.

Fliptrix’ 10th studio album Dragonfly was released on August 14, 2024.