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Kae Tempest review – a brave, intimate set where the personal is political

The laser-focused spoken-word performer returns to the musical stage with new tracks focusing on their identity, but wider concerns are never far away

The teenage Tempest cut their teeth battle-rapping in south London, turning to slam poetry when more direct avenues into hip-hop refused to open easily to a young, blond slip of a thing. “This is how the new album begins,” says Tempest, launching unaccompanied into a new lyric about the pain of keeping their gender identity a secret for fear that their career would be over; and the relief at finally becoming themselves, an unburdening despite the “bitterness” they encounter when “using the facilities”. Statue in the Square is more direct still, about how LGBTQ+ figures, denigrated now, will be memorialised in the future, the murky sense of threat in the music (the track was co-produced by A-lister Fraser T Smith) matched by the flames licking Tempest’s words.

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