One of the more unlikely collaborations of the year is that between 22-year-old "prince of grime" Tinchy Stryder and Liberal MP Norman Lamb, whose financial backing helped fuel the rapper's rise to a record deal and a No 1 with a single called, well, Number 1. Grime obviously pays, but the union makes even more sense when you hear young Stryder's music. The tiny chap formerly known as Kwasi Danquah occupies the middle ground between grime and pop: he is effectively the Liberal Democrat MC of urban music. Still, Nick Clegg might advise him to broaden his constituency. His audience are barely of voting age, and one young chap tonight is actually asleep – it must be past his bedtime.
If he'd fought off the sleepy dust, he would have seen Stryder pull off an entrance worthy of Jay-Z, curtains dropping to reveal the tiny rapper with his name written large in lights. The urban rhythms of his hits seem surgically designed to get micro-skirted bottoms moving; when Stryder raises his arm, the audience do, too, and screams greet a T-shirt giveaway – not least because he carefully adds his own sweat before throwing them to the hordes.
However, with the music coming from backing tracks and a "DJ" not apparently doing anything beyond cheesy, choreographed waving-in-time with Stryder, the evening often felt more like a PA than a live gig. Only Take Me Back's expression of vulnerability suggests more lies beyond the hurricane raps and big, processed glitzy choruses.
"I will never leave you," yells the little man, sounding like a conviction politician. However, he'll probably need to appeal to an older audience if he's to win a second term.
At the Garage, Glasgow, tonight. Box office: 0141-332 1120. Then touring.
