The last time Q-Bert came to Sydney, I was comically pissed off when I should have been gloating at seeing arguably the world’s best turntablist in action. He played the Hordern for Winter Breaks, and the sound was so god-awful, with the stupendously over the top bass causing the needle to jump and skip all night, that some of us were far from impressed at the event. Two years on, and no taller, Q Bert returned to Sydney as part of the ‘Elements’ tour.

The name and the tagged-up flyer were perhaps a little pretentious, but they filled the arrogantly-staffed Metro, and even if the crowd was a little down the mainstream compared to your usual grimy hip hop night, they seemed willing to have fun – which is probably more than you can say than purveyors of your regular down and dirty hip hop nights. All of the hip-hop ‘elements’ were covered bar b-boying, unless there were some breakers on stage real early, but I doubt it.

Okwerdz, a freestyle champ back in the US, was doing his ample best to get the sparse crowd moving when we came through the back door, but it was proving a little difficult. His solo material isn’t overly fascinating, as is the case with a lot of talented freestyle MCs, but he was ok, and when he did the obligatory couple of freestyles, it was a big improvement.

Following this, the NSW finals of the Scribble Jam freestyle battles took place. I hadn’t been to a battle in a while, but man, was this fucking disappointing, and in no way representative of MCs in Sydney, let alone, presumably, the whole of the state. Eventually it was taken out by Rapaport, a man who I’ve personally seen battle infinitely superior MCs to the three others who took part here – put together. It was a bit embarrassing, and Rapaport deservedly took the NSW title.

Next it was turn for the DJs, who weren’t overly great either, although beatboxer Haywire entertained the crowd with his superior mouth-manipulation skills, and thankfully too, as there wasn’t too much talent until this point.  After a fair bit of ado, the MC I have been keen on catching for the best part of a decade, Supernatural, came out on stage to cheers of delight, and got straight into a freestyle, the thing he’s renowned for. He’s got skills, sure, but the repeated assertions of being the number one freestyle MC in the world (hey, battle Chester P from Taskforce before making that claim) were a little tiresome.

Unfortunately, he had no DJ with him, and there were more than a few people who thought he was to team up with Q-Bert from the start – eventually he did, which was good fun to watch two of the best in their field work together, but before Q-Bert came out he insisted on playing his own beats form the drum machine with him on stage. These weren’t great, he’s a freestyle MC, not a producer, but they provided him a vehicle to rap with, even if the crowd were making out like they were Dangermouse’s finest. He also asked for any three words from the crowd to freestyle with, and after discarding most for being too hard, he settled with Nintendo, Cannabis and Intercourse. Hilarity ensued.

But most, if not all, had come to see Q-Bert and he didn’t disappoint, at least not too much. He was technically proficient (although there was one moment when he appeared to mix a beat out of time, but I found it hard to believe myself, so now I’m not sure at all), but it probably wasn’t the most exciting set you’ve ever seen. It certainly wasn’t of the same out of this world standard that saw him win all those DMC titles, but the juggling and scratching was of course of relative top quality.

You could probably argue that since he’s competed, various young bucks have come out who could probably topple the master were he to go head to head with ‘em, but it wasn’t gonna happen at the Metro, and so most of the crowd would have left satisfied. Jesus, the man even rapped half a bar at the end. But then a lot of rappers try acting. Doesn’t mean they should. But he’s just so damn rubber wristed, cute and smiley that he can do what he likes, can’t he now?