Sway @ The Liquid Room @ Edinburgh

Since prising the best Hip-Hop Artist Mobo award away from the bloated likes of 50 Cent and The Game and still refusing to sign a record contract, 23 year-old Derek "Sway" Safo has had A&R men fawning like Poison groupies. Yet this first nationwide tour is a gamble. It's one thing being a boy done good but another to successfully axe down the door to the commercial success he so craves without the brute force of major label blanket promotion. Tonight though, Sway proves he possesses the showmanship to match his entrepreneurial prowess, emerging to the British national anthem and punctuating his set with an impromptu rendition of Can't Touch This. His exit after the last crunches of Up Your Speed sees the stage left still warm and the crowd suitably hyped. With enough stamina, the rest of the possum-like UK Hip-Hop fraternity may soon be sucking his dust. [Miles Johnson]