Digga D review – mad frenzy for drill’s ostracised figurehead

By the time half nine comes around, north London’s Kentish Town Forum is more pressure cooker than performance space. The stage has been hidden behind a black cloth for the past half an hour, with the final touches of torchlit prep going on behind it. When the curtain eventually rises – revealing an enormous measuring jug, in a nod to the cover and title of Digga D’s Made in the Pyrex mixtape, atop which sits his DJ, Bempah – the mostly teenaged crowd explodes in a frenzy of screams and Snapchatting. The energy in the room will remain at roughly this level, undipped, until Digga departs the stage in an hour’s time.

This show – the London drill rapper’s debut headline performance, and the first in a string of sold-out UK and Ireland tour dates – has been years in the making. Prison stints and harsh legal restrictions on how, where and when Digga is allowed to write, record and release music have prevented him from following the typical trajectory of an artist with gold records and chart coups under their belt. He’s had to work around it. Reduced supply can jack up demand; tonight is proving that truism.

On stage, it’s chaos and choreography: Digga is by turns alone under a precisely planned light show, and backed by an excitable 15-strong posse comprising members of his CGM crew. Running through multimillion-streamed hits like No Diet and Bluuwuu, Digga’s staccato raps and sound effects come straight back at him from the thousands-strong crowd. AJ Tracey lurches on stage to further squeals of delight from the audience, and the pair rip through their back-and-forth chart topper Bringing It Back, before Tracey takes centre stage for a rendition of his own hit Ladbroke Grove. Tracey’s more studied stage presence is something that Digga will gain in time.

For many of the fans here, this was their first show too. Digga, in perhaps a sign of nerves, doesn’t have much to utter beyond his lyrics – until it’s time to leave the stage and he says, simply: “I love you lot. I’m out.”