Aceyalone has a reputation as one of the world’s best lyricists and freestyle emcees. He is the type of emcee that gets other emcees excited when a tour is announced. In the latest of an awesome summer series of hip hop shows at Producers Bar, he rocked the stage on the Australia Day long weekend.

Arriving into the city reasonably early, keen for another long weekend dose of hip hop, I was really keen to check what Aceyalone had to offer. Sadly, I was largely alone… It was almost like a flashback to the crowd flop that was People Under The Stairs, as six people enjoyed a (very!) quiet ale and listened to the sounds of deNothrwode behind the decks. Although his track selection and mixing were spot on as always, it seems the ridiculously small amount of people in the venue had him a little distracted. More than once a last dash sprint was required to mix in the next track as he returned from mid room.

Surprisingly there was only one live act booked aside from Aceyalone. As Dialect, DJ Snair and Funkwig took the stage, a glance around the room provided a pleasant surprise as it had begun to fill out somewhat. Dialect kills it as a freestyle emcee and he proved with this set that his written material also carries weight. Joined at times by Social Change, and over the live freewheeling drums of Funkwig and cuts of Snair, he thrived. Sure Social Change – in my opinion – is a cut above the rest as an emcee, but Dialect brings huge skills to the table and this set was very much him as the star. There is a lot to like about the material I’ve heard from so far from the V.High.P collective. Don’t sleep on them hip-hop fans!

After their set it was a curious time in the venue. Hemi Love spun tunes, which was fine in theory… but the now solidly full room had its appetite whet for live hip hop, and they appeared almost restless at the recorded tunes being played. Solidly full may be a bit generous – more like two thirds full – so for an artist of Aceyalone’s caliber it may have proved to be a little disappointing for the promoters. It probably wasn’t that long in reality, but after what felt like an eternity the voice of Hines Buchanan boomed through the room, urging all to the front for Acey’s set as he worked the decks.

Straight away Aceyalone commanded the attention of the room, slicing through the crowd with spot on lyrics. They were delivered with ease, and on a 30-degree-plus day not a drop of sweat appeared on the man for the entire set. Luckily for me he stayed away from his newest material, its heavy dancehall influences not for my personal tastes. Instead he covered stuff from earlier in his career right through until ‘Magnificent City’ and ‘Grand Imperial’ from 2006. Triple J favourite ‘Fire’ drew the biggest crowd response, and the sheer ease with which he altered the pace of his flow had me transfixed. The brilliance of this was best illustrated on the track where he went behind the turntable and altered the pitch on the backing track to +8, all the while matching it with the speed of his flow. Brilliant. He is definitely an emcee’s emcee, and the excited looks on faces of many emcees in the crowd told that story in full.

As Aceyalone signed off and vanished through the back door, later returning to mingle and sign autographs, Hines continued to spin party tunes late into the night. It was a supremely tight set, but the night overall was let down a little by the lack of crowd support and lack of suitable support acts. That being said, I’m sure there was nobody who saw Aceyalone rip the mic that left feeling disappointed.