Thrills with rap's odd couple

Together, though, before a packed Scala, the Stanford-Le-Hope pair made perfect sense; as down to earth as Goldie Looking Chain (a solitary stage invader was allowed to embrace Pip and take their photograph on a mobile) but as lyrically perspicacious as The Streets, albeit with a more fearsome musical backdrop. And when Le Sac left stage so Pip could read a poem, it seemed more logical than incongruous.

Their hit, the typically stern Thou Shalt Always Kill ("The Clash? Just a band") was the tongue-twisting but singalong centrepiece, while Letter from God to Man was exactly that ("I want to get things straight with homosexuals: I don't hate you") and Tommy C, a tribute to Tommy Cooper, was surprisingly lachrymose.

An almost unrecognisable version of Prince's Cream added a smidgeon of sex, but, as the crowd's reaction suggested this might just be the start of something worthwhile, Fixed saw the philosopher prince aspiring to be king as Estuary-voiced Pip mused on the very essence of hip hop, before concluding that, for all its flaws, it is art. In this pair's hands it certainly was.

Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip
Scala