Last night was a proud night for Manchester music. It was the official Manchester launch of the new Skittles album ‘Poor, with £100 Trainers’. After years of grafting on the underground circuit from the Estate Recordings crew (Broke’n’English’s label) they have finally confirmed their place at the forefront of the Manchester music scene. Last night’s focus was the Skittles album launch but this was like a giant family party. Hundreds of familiar faces had gathered together to celebrate the success of Skittles and the rest of the crew. The likes of Konny Kon, Broke’n’English, Chimpo, Chunky, Mr Fox and Dub Phizix were all in the place as were all the heads of the local hip hop scene.

Continue Reading After The Jump….

The event kicked off with Konny Kon on the 1s and 2s, playing a straight hip hop set, Chimpo dropping a predominantly reggae set and then Konny jumping back on to play something a little more uptempo before Skittles reached the stage. Skittles was joined on stage by a full live band (shouts to Bricks and Ali) and a string quintet in the balcony. No expense had been spared for this free event, thrown for the people of Manchester. The band kicked off proceedings with the opening track of the album ‘In For Me’ and the highlight for me was the blending of Strategy & Dub Phizix’s incredible club track ‘Marka’ in the live version of ‘Tip-i-cal-y’.

CLICK IMAGE TO WATCH VIDEO

CLICK IMAGE TO WATCH VIDEO

As I mentioned earlier, last night was a family affair so as well as getting the full Skittles experience we were also treated to a couple of classic Broke’n’English tracks including, the crowd favourite, Tryin’.

CLICK IMAGE TO WATCH VIDEO

Throughout the night Skittles had the crowd in the palm of his hand. It was pure good vibes in a venue that was full to the brim. Mancunians are very picky about the music they like so when an artist receives support like this you know that he must be doing something very special.

The album is launched worldwide on Monday 12th March and should be available at all good physical and digital outlets.

Skittles // Facebook // Twitter //

Estate Recordings // Facebook // Twitter //

DJ A-UP