“Those who made it in are calling it legendary”: Inside Xaviersobased’s frenetic London show

At Hackney’s EartH, the crowd took in a shapeshifting set spanning old favourites and new, more experimental material, and an artist still rooted in unfiltered DIY energy as he moves towards cult status. Outside, chaos over strict venue rules only added to the hype.

Amidst the hustle and bustle on Stoke Newington Road, there’s a teenage riot forming. “They said it was fine, fam,” a kid with chunky boots, a fur bag, and layered chains with too many crosses on to count says. “We were stressing the whole way here, bro,” another girl sighs, adjusting a platinum pink wig and texting at breakneck speed. 

Event staff and fans alike, here for the London stop on Xaviersobased’s Riverside 2.0 tour, are crashing out at each other: EartH Hackney’s ID policy states that anyone under 18 needs to be accompanied by an adult, and that both parties need to present valid physical ID. The crowd is mostly teenage skate rats; stylistically diverse iPad kids who share a mutual dislike of authority. About fifty or so (maybe more) are either not old enough to get in, or haven’t brought any ID. Upstairs, teens are frisbeeing their provisional driving licences off of EartH’s rooftop smoking area in an attempt to save their friends. 

Unruly live shows are nothing new for Xaviersobased, who shares the same IG Reels-bred irreverence as his audience. Although the rapper is one of this decade’s greatest experimentalists, his appeal has always been his prankish originality. His latest album, Xavier, lifts the 22-year-old New Yorker to the upper echelons of rap, pulling his sound – and jerk rap with it – into stranger and newer territory. 

When Xav takes the stage, he’s dressed in a black hoodie, with a custom Tech Deck chain draped over it. As the crisp synth plucks and autotuned operatics of the first track, she omd onna low, from last year’s once more EP, hit, he runs out feverishly and then immediately falls over on the stage. Despite the crushing mosh, there’s a collective laugh as Xav stays down and croons out the song’s hook. 

Theatrics like this define Xaviersobased’s stage presence. For one, there’s the “gyroscopic chicken” dance, which attendees spend the entire night emulating in the pit. While some spend their time trying to get as close as possible to the artist, mini circle pits crop up towards the back of the crowd, with kids taking turns to emulate Xav’s convulsions in the middle of them. When he finally does the dance for the song double whammy, there’s a hearty cheer. 

The first half of the set is a mix of earlier loosies, like 7am, skippin class, and Shawty Thro it Backk, most of which elicit moshpits, but also some more recent hits, too, like Pediatrician, from 2024’s with 2, and Tony Hawk, from Xavier. But there are some moments where the crowd don’t quite know what to do with Xav’s newer, more experimental material. EartH’s soundsystem distorts Tony Hawk’s weird mix – peals of repetitive 808s and Xav’s raps are all that’s audible. Even if the song’s jerk rhythms appeal to the underground rap regular’s palate, the slow tempo and slurred synths leave the crowd slightly agog.

These moments are brief, but make for an interesting sight. Although Xav ends the set with banger after banger – what zit tooya, Need Me, iPhone 16, Double Whammy – I’m thinking more about when he plays his new stuff. The type of crowd usually catered to by predictable rage rap was actually being challenged, unaware as to how they should move to this type of music in a live setting.

In the end, the ID problem didn’t cease. Police came, and people were reportedly being let in every five minutes. Friends of mine, who had got to the venue at 6:00, only got in when the artist came out at 8:30. Those who made it in are calling it legendary online; those who didn’t are cursing the venue out. This isn’t the first time a Xaviersobased show has unleashed chaos – last time he started performing on top of a car outside an NYC skatepark rather than inside the venue. But with an Atlantic Records deal under his arm, that improvised defiance may not come so easily. As Xaviersobased inches closer to cult success, you can only hope he doesn’t lose that edge.