Ryan Leslie @ Fabric

On Monday 15th of November, London was graced with the presence of international recording artist, producer and an all round musically blessed man, Ryan Leslie. He took the stage with his live band at Fabric in Farringdon and I went down with a couple of my friends to check out the man in the flesh.

If you don’t know, you really should know about Ryan Leslie. He’s a 32 year old producer/singer/songwriter/rapper/entrepreneur/multi-instrumentalist from Harlem, New York. He didn’t grow up selling coke or weed on the corner, in fact this man was a Harvard graduate at the age of just 19 and has been referred to as ‘Harvard’s Hip Hop Hustler’. He’s produced for people such as Britney Spears, New Edition, LL Cool J, Jim Jones, Fabulous, Mary J Blige and The Game to name but a few.

As for the show, Ryan stepped onto the stage soon after 9 and was welcomed by a very excited crowd. He played through a number of tracks from all 3 of his albums as well as Trackstar (Start It Up), the track he features on with Lloyd Banks, Kanye West, Swizz Beats and Fabolous. I was surprised that hardly anyone in the crowd reacted to this massive jam, probably not having heard it before. Ryan also brought out local London lad Bluey Robinson to feature on one of the performances and even went on to comment how ‘Y’all got talent out here London!’, best belieeeeeeve that Ryan!

Ryan’s vocals were in point the entire night and he added to the performance by jumping on to the keys at various points through the night, there were in total 5 different keys on stage. He had a lot of life and energy to his performance and trust me when I say this man knows how to work a musical instrument. It also helps that he is very easy on the eyes and has a body worth no complaints, which we were all graced with when he took off his leather jacket, and then his wife beater towards the end of the night, which was obviously followed by screams.

The majority of the crowd came across as YouTube fans, meaning that they had probably seen a few of Ryan’s songs on YouTube and weren’t really aware of many of his other songs apart from ‘Diamond Girl’ and ‘Addicted’. To be honest I’m not sure most people were aware of any stuff he had done before Kanye featured on the remix of Diamond girl. There is nothing wrong with that and I’m not hating at all, they paid to see him just the same as I did. I remember first finding out about Ryan 4 years ago after he wrote and produced all of the tracks for Cassie’s debut album. If you haven’t done yet, I highly recommend going onto YouTube and watching the videos of him in the studio, the man is a beast.

He finished up the show and then came back to do a couple of songs for his encore. The song of the night for me was one of my personal favourites ‘How It Was Supposed To Be’ from his second, self titled album. The production on this track is so on point, so hearing it being played live really killed it for me. Before he left the stage he showed some love to the crowd, shaking hands, kissing some ladies, at which point he had to call for his security when he nearly got pulled into the crowd, lol.

The only negative from the whole night was the venue. Fabric as a live music venue did nothing for me. The layout doesn’t suit watching live acts as the stage takes up a massive area and then at the back there is a large DJ booth which leaves lots of wasted space where your view is restricted. It would have been much better to see him play at the Jazz Cafe or even the Indigo2, but hopefully next time.

Seeing as this show was nearly cancelled altogether due to the theft of his laptop and belongings, which included his passport, I truly felt Ryan gave his all to this show and would definitely pay to see the man again. He is totally underrated as an artist and producer and doesn’t get half the recognition he deserves.

If anyone comes across Ryan’s laptop on their travels, I’m willing to pay £100 CASH for it, just contact me via Facebook or Twitter.

PEACE

-N-

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