Daytona is the brilliant solo album Terrence “Pusha T” Thornton has been threatening for years. A masterpiece of minimalism, its seven tracks are littered with purposeful MPC hiccups courtesy of producer Kanye West. It’s also an emphatic response to those who insist rappers in their 40s are past their best: Pusha sounds more inspired than in his sprightlier days as half of gangsta rap duo Clipse, a period in which he and his brother Malice made raps about drug dealing into an art form.
This backstory lends tonight’s show a celebratory atmosphere. Tellingly coming out to Tony’s Theme from Scarface, a stoic Pusha stands like a titan before triumphantly launching into If You Know You Know, a trap anthem with ticking hi-hats so infectious they have a crowd of British teenagers screaming back niche references about jailed US drug trafficker Big Meech’s penchant for bringing tigers to nightclubs.
The energy ratchets up for Come Back Baby, its bouncy bassline even more powerful in a live setting. Yet it’s Pusha’s menacing guest verses on Kanye classics that draw the wildest cheers, leaving you with a nagging sense that he has been the glue holding West’s erratic GOOD Music label together over the years. So Appalled sounds particularly potent: as Pusha spits “CNN said I’d be dead by 21”, you realise just how far he has come.
You could argue that he moves through his back catalogue far too quickly, but with a stage presence this commanding no one really cares: Pusha delivers his nuanced coke raps with a confidence that suggests his best years may just lie ahead of him.
