Walking into the hot, sweaty Espy close to midnight, I was immediately met with the funky, soul-infused hip hop sounds of Manchild. It is not uncommon to see unenthusiastic crowds during support acts at events like these, but tonight was different – there were heads nodding, hands in the air and bodies moving all around the packed front room as diva vocals and tight rhymes met with eager eardrums.

It was about 12:45 when Jean Grae made it to the stage, bringing with her a DJ, a backup singer and the sass, wit and skills she is (in)famous for: ‘My forthcoming album is called Cake And Death, so we’ll start with the cake and if you’re really good we’ll get to some death too.’ The set started with some of her more mellow tracks, before moving into harder territory, both lyrically and musically.

Pausing between most songs to engage the crowd with humorous banter, Grae was charismatic and warmly received. She had the audience in stitches when the show’s late starting hour left one punter in her firing line: “Did I just see you yawn? ... No, don’t give me that ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about’ face. I saw you motherfucker!’

The highlight of Grae’s set was an a capella version of her track Style Wars, with the crowd erupting as she rapped. Fold, your hands not fucking with mine. It’s just sucking your own dick, like un-tucking your spine. Asking the crowd whether they were ready to dance, Grae launched into her forthcoming track The Stick-Up Dance and led by example, moving lithely around the stage and using her hands as faux-pistols. The audience responded with gusto and The Espy was at once a sea of dancing bodies and hands in the air.

Grae had the crowd lively and dancing, but it was when Talib Kweli walked on that the party really started. There was a noticeable shift in the enthusiasm of the room, showing that despite Grae’s fantastic set, most people were really there for Kweli. The crowd was rapturous as the Blacksmith labelmates did a number of songs together, including the wonderfully emotive track Black Girl Pain.

With a host of solo albums and collaborative works to choose from, Kweli selected a diverse range of material for his set. Cuts from his Black Star project (Talib Kweli and Mos Def) peppered the set, as did songs from his work with Hi-Tek as Reflection Eternal. It was his solo work that really shone through though, with songs like Hostile Gospel, Pt. 1 (Deliver Us) and Hot Thing delighting the fans who filled the main room. Kweli’s breakout single, the Kanye West produced Get By, was definitely the crowd-favourite of the night, with the dancefloor pulsating and the audience enthusiastically singing along to the chorus.

As did Grae, Kweli delighted fans with a brilliant a capella version of his song Revolutions Per Mindset’s from the soon to be released Reflection Eternal album Revolutions Per Minute. His flow was impeccable as he traversed the complex rhymes of the song, never once faltering for breath and having the crowd burst into applause at a number of particularly impressive moments. He performed a number of other tracks from the album, notably the recently released single Strangers (Paranoid), which was eagerly received by the audience.

Though saying thank you and goodnight to the crowd, Kweli was coaxed back to the stage to perform a number of songs for his encore. The most impressive of these was Raw Shit, from the album Champion Sound by Jaylib (J Dilla and Madlib). The crowd involvement had Kweli up in arms and stopping the song half way to give a quick lyrical lesson: “Everybody listen for a second … This is called Raw Shit. Every city I play in Australia the crowd says bullshit instead of raw shit. t’s not bullshit. It’s raw shit.”

And in those lines was a good summation of the night. It wasn’t bullshit. It was raw shit from two of the most skilled and exciting emcees around. And we loved it.