2016 is a big year for Jay Prince. Not only is it the start of his first world tour, but it’s the year in which he will show exactly who he is as an artist. It is early days on his tour, and his performance at XOYO exposed his youth and inexperience, but the energy was certainly there. The crowd quickly warmed to his efforts to entertain, but his performance really showed the weakness of his often repetitive lyrics. It was fine for an undemanding, young crowd, but won’t convince any established critics in the music industry. It will take some time for him to find his voice, but he really needs to do this quickly to show himself to be a credible hip-hop artist and rival the lyricism of the genre’s big players. Barney Artist, Jay Prince’s warm up act, on the other hand, showed promising talent. Barney gave the crowd the lyricism that Jay Prince was lacking, and so in that sense, they complemented each other quite well. Their tour should give Jay Prince a lot of experience in what it takes to become a credible artist in the present climate, and hopefully next year we will see him older and wiser.
Eleanor Robinson