Raekwon, London
The Don't Look Back concert series has delivered some interesting wish fulfilment on behalf of rock fans - the Stooges performing Fun House; Sonic Youth doing Daydream Nation, for example - but so far hip-hop has been conspicuous by its absence. This show by Raekwon (or as we knew him when he delivered Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, "Raekwon The Chef") should help redress that balance. A chef more in a criminal sense than the culinary - on the cover of Cuban Linx the MC is depicted preparing cocaine - with this 1995 album Raekwon revelled in the language and persona of criminality, but brought to it the kind of depth and verbal sophistication we have since come to find in, say, The Wire. Like that show, Raekwon's album is also all about the context: alongside debuts from Wu men GZA and Ghostface Killah (appearing here, too) it helped liberate rap from "realness", to tell larger, weirder truths.
· Koko, NW1, Mon 19
