Ady Suleiman’s set was as colourful as his shirt; full of swag and charisma. Despite the brevity of the performance playing only 5 songs, Ady Suleiman showed why artists such as Joey Badass and Chance the Rapper are working with him.
Supported by the talented Ed Black on guitar, the set started off with ‘What’s the Score,’ a track he’s just released a video for under Vevo. This song showed off the versatility of Ady’s voice. While at the start Ady sang quietly and softly, the chorus was sung gritty and dark. I overheard someone in the crowd describe compared his voice to “chilli chocolate”, and it’s easy to see why. His voice is rich and exotic and shows his impressive vocal range. Ed murmuring on the mike in the backgrounds of the chorus while Ady sang Let’s Dance Under the Moon" created strangely sensual atmosphere under the white lights of the Student Union.
Then, ‘Somebody to Love’ followed; a more even more mellow song and one where Ed Black was more prominent bobbing along under a mop of messy hair. Ed also drummed on his guitar creating a percussive beat to which the Students Union crowd nodded their heads to. The stripped back nature of Ady’s music with just a guitar meant the lyrics are also clear and easy to sing along to, and the small crowd in the student union did to their upmost.
despite the lyrics being quite coarse the crowd simply bobbed along to the music
The mood certainly changed when following the two mellow openers, ‘Ain’t That Beep’ was played. Ady was full of swag and despite the lyrics being quite coarse ("she gets in to something that’ll do, so she can fuck") the crowd simply bobbed along to the music with Ady. Ed Black’s incredibly realistic siren noise on the line "sound the alarm" combined with Ady’s high notes brought about the loudest applause of the night.
Finally, Ady played his most popular song, ‘State of Mind, displaying a Doo Wop quality reminiscent of Lauren Hill. The synchronisation between Ed and Ady despite them both freestyling on guitar and vocals respectively was particularly impressive during this song. The chemistry and confidence of the two of them performing together makes one wonder why more people haven’t heard about them before.
Jack Redley