Rap Fan? Here are 14 shows happening in Dublin this October ⚡

October is packed with incredible rap shows - so we listed all the ones you can't miss!

October is set up to be a great month for rap fans in Dublin, with more than 18 shows happening around the city – many of which are already sold out, it’s safe to say there is something for everyone. Check out our list below:

Hilltop Hoods

Hilltop Hoods opened the door for countless acts from all over Australia through their mentoring, touring and their annual Initiative for emerging acts. Every studio album from 2006’s The Hard Road onwards has debuted at number one. They’ve consistently racked up multi-platinum sales and they’ve also been a consistent and powerful live act throughout Australia, Canada and Europe, and even took hip hop back to its birthplace in the US.

6 October – The Button Factory. Find Tickets ›

Tion Wayne

An effortless storyteller Tion Wayne is a North London based rapper that has made quite the impression since bursting onto the music scene in 2010. After releasing numerous videos on fundamental U.K online platforms, Tion quickly gained a very loyal fan base and continues to go from strength to strength with his music and is now dominating the U.K charts with 2 top 10s and a top 40 to kick start 2019.

8 October – Green Room at The Academy. Find Tickets›

Slowthai

He speaks for and with a generation of kids who’ve been ignored for too long by the powers that be. But his cult isn’t driven by rage or nefarious intentions. It’s driven by a desire for freedom and happiness: the freedom to be who you want to be, and the happiness that comes with that.
His music is unmistakably British, treading a line between grime, rap, dubstep and garage – riding rough-edged beats with an adolescent charisma and confidence that recalls buzzy pirate radio sessions and handicam freestyles. All of this is encapsulated by live shows that are drenched in sweat and spit and booming with the sound of slowthai’s hooky flows and street-smart bars being chanted back at him.

10 & 11 October – The Academy. Find Tickets ›

Jyellowl

Born of Jamaican and Nigerian parents and raised in Ireland, rapper JyellowL has drawn on all three aspects of his background to create a sound and vision that sets him apart.

Currently working on his first album for release in 2020, he will play his largest headline show to date at Whelan’s on October, re-telling the story so far and performing everything he has released up until that point backed by a live band that includes some of the most skilled musicians working in Ireland today.

10 October – Whelan’s. Find Tickets ›

Headie One

Born and raised on the streets of Tottenham, Headie One grew up inspired by US rappers such as Future and French Montana. He surrounded himself with others who also needed an outlet to express their take on life and truly fell in love with music. Headie’s run-ins with the law didn’t stop him from making quality music. In fact, during that period he grew even more as an artist by studying different types of music which resulted in him developing the unique flow and instinctive adlibbing that we know today.

15 October – The Academy. Find Tickets ›

NSG

Comprised of members Kruddz, Mxjib, Mojo, OGD, Dope and Papii Abz, they’ve been bubbling on the underground music scene for the past 3 years under the moniker NSG before breaking through with their 2019 hit Options. representing many a name for the different members of the group, from ‘Never Stop Growing’, to ‘No Sleep Gang’ but with the majority agreeing ‘Never Stop Grinding’ is the overarching ethos.
On their own journey but also one that’s closely connected to the afro bashment sound that’s creeping across the globe, the road ahead looks golden. Where do they want to go? “Global domination” they say. “ We’re not looking on a United Kingdom thing, we’re looking at a global thing.”

20 October – Green Room at The Academy. Find Tickets ›

Biig Piig

Biig Piig is a once-seen-not-forgotten singer and rapper who draws on a unique and diverse upbringing. As a child she experienced a changing landscape of cultures, having been born in Spain and then moved to Ireland (before settling above the London pub her parents still own and run). And now, at just 19 years old, Biig Piig is unknowingly assimilating the kind of life experiences (which also include working as a poker dealer and a tequila bar waitress) that lend her music that blend of maturity, and youthful naivety.

25 October – Whelan’s. Find Tickets ›

Burna Boy

Born Damini Ogulu in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, Burna Boy burst into the public consciousness in 2012 at the tender age of 21 with “Like to Party,” the lead single from his first full-length album L.I.F.E. (an acronym for Leaving an Impact for Eternity), released the following year on Aristokrat Records. BURNA BOY’s “warm, earthy tones applied to menacing trap rap and exuberant Afro-pop create a sound that, even in its darkest moments, sounds like bottled joy.” (The New Yorker)

26 October – Vicar Street. Find Tickets ›

Blackbear

blackbear is no musical lightweight. He’s an effortless songwriter with a keen ear for melody, a knack for distilling complicated ideas into tight, precise lyrical spaces, and a relentless perfectionist who prizes technical excellence as a producer and mixer.
On his new album Anonymous, blackbear has discovered that the antidote to the pity party is vulnerability. “There were hints in my earlier albums of who I really was, but I had a wall up,” he says. “The wall’s been torn down for Anonymous. I’m calling it that because I want to take the ego out of the process. I wanted to make a human album, by a real person, not hide behind the character of this sad ‘blackbear’ guy.”

28 October – Olympia Theatre. Find Tickets ›

Yung Gravy

Upholding the longstanding hip-hop tradition of competition, the Minnesota-born rapper recognized a void in 2016 when he first picked up the mic… “I really felt like there was something missing,” he explains. “I wasn’t hearing what I wanted to hear, so I stepped up to the plate and actually started doing it myself.”
His first EP, Mr. Clean, went viral on the strength of “Continental Breakfast”—which cracked the 1-million mark on Soundcloud. Sandwiching a sample of The Chordettes’ “Mr Sandman” between raunchy and raw rhymes, the title track “Mr Clean” soundtracked countless fan videos and ignited 15.1 million Spotify streams and 6.7 million Soundcloud plays in under a year.

29 October – The Academy. Find Tickets ›

Loyle Carner

Loyle Carner first appeared on the scene back in 2014, with his debut EP ‘A Little Late’, he followed that up with his BRIT (Best Male, Best Newcomer) and Mercury Prize-nominated, top 20 debut ‘Yesterday’s Gone’. The bedrock of honest and raw sentimentality that you hear on ‘Yesterday’s Gone’ has left an inextinguishable mark on music in general and UK Hip Hop in particular, standing out as an ageless, bulletproof debut.

29 October – Vicar Street. Find Tickets ›

Injury Reserve

Injury Reserve, a rap trio from Phoenix who recorded their debut mixtape in a dentist’s office (and titled it Live from the Dentist Office), have had an interesting journey from the suburbs to a coveted “A MINUS” from Robert Christgau, the “Dean of American rock critics,” in his column for Noisey. While they do like to keep a low profile, often straining to appear unaffected by the attention, the reality is that a lot has changed lately in the lives of Corey, Groggs, and Ritchie. Drive It Like It’s Stolen, the groups newest project, plays contrasting and sometimes contradictory signs of emotional tone against one another in the same style as, but more concisely and perhaps successfully than, Floss.”