“I can’t believe we just supported Nas,” Loyle Carner uttered in near disbelief, midway through his headline All Points East set. The Mercury Prize-nominated wordsmith could hardly contain his awe – yet, of course, it wasn’t him who was supporting Nas here, but technically the other way round.
His remark let slip the curious aspect about the second curated line-up of this year’s Victoria Park get-together. With Nas’ seminal debut album Illmatic marking its 30th anniversary this year, the East Coast rapper, now 50-years-old, is the more considerable artist by almost every metric.
Yet such is Loyle’s affable humility that he used the opportunity to pay tribute to his hip-hop idol (“without him, there’s no me”) and flexed his poetic, lo-fi arrangements to show how they possessed more than equal strength in such surroundings. We might have been in Loyle’s local park – so local, in fact, that he’d cycled to the event – but this set cemented the rapper’s genuinely global star appeal.
The 29-year-old artist (born Benjamin Coyle-Larner) is by no means averse to huge headline sets, having brought his latest introspective album Hugo to life at Wembley’s OVO Arena last year, and enveloped Manchester’s Castlefield Bowl earlier this summer. But topping the bill of this 50,000-capacity affair was an altogether grander feat – and one he revelled in, in what he came to label “the best night of my life.”
And it wasn’t just Nas’ enduring setlist, aided by psychedelic cityscape visuals, that he had to contend with, but an assortment of soulful acts. Fresh from playing Yungblud’s inaugural festival last weekend, Lola Young flaunted her feisty pop; Lianne La Havas delved into her exquisite, albeit relatively slender, three-album catalogue, adding an Erykah Badu cover and hinting at new music; and masked Aussie trio Glass Beams delivered their signature hypnotic instrumentals from atop the Main Stage.
It was a lineup of neo-soul sophistication, but the curation didn’t always work. Flying Lotus, for instance, played to a smaller-than-expected crowd for his electronic stature, his vibrant light show jarring with the daylight creeping into the tent from outside; although you’d forgive most of the All Points East gatherers at this stage for heading over to the main East Stage for Nas.
Far less forgiving was the slot afforded to André 3000. One half of legendary hip-hop duo Outkast, his name alongside Nas’ would have made both sense and box office billing a decade or two ago. But after the release of his debut solo album New Blue Sun last year, following a 17-year hiatus, he now cuts a very different figure.
For the uninitiated, New Blue Sun is an instrumental woodwind album, with Mr. 3000 no longer giddily rapping to ‘Hey Ya!’ but turning his hand to the flute. Released in November, the album is a deeply meditative listening experience – especially if you’re alone in a dark room, tapping into your chakras.
For 8:30pm on a Saturday, though, with the sun having vanished not too long into his set, the subtle notes of a flautist were simply not enough to keep the spark of a one-day festival alive for long. After ten minutes or so – or at least once it was apparent ‘Ms. Jackson’ wasn’t going to receive a woodwind rendition – people began to leave in their droves, preferring to use their patience to secure a good spot for the headline act.
Granted, it would have seemed remiss of festival organisers to place Andre 3000 too low on the billing, but the dynamics of his revived new era are built for either a smaller stage or for an earlier daytime set, where the sun and light would help make it a more blissful experience. Instead, despite André’s attempts to keep things (sur)real by barking into the microphone and speaking in a made-up language, the set caved in on itself and what could have been mesmerising (like Robert Glasper’s sunlit All Points East set two years ago), instead felt incongruous and awkward.
But of course, things didn’t end there. Far from it. In an age where so much, including the music industry, can feel rigged, Loyle Carner is the type of artist that cuts through on sheer merit and determination. His wistful spoken word and mellow beats have always been relatable, his honesty never lost amid a search for commercial gain. In short, he’s an artist that hasn’t sold-out.

Opening with trip-hop-heavy Hugo opener ‘Hate’, Loyle weaved his most recent album with old favourites like ‘Desoleil (Brilliant Corners)’ and ‘Ice Water’. This blend of the past and present showed the consistent thread that runs through his work, and how organically he’s levelled up to where he stands now, beneath the canvas and beams of light on his biggest stage to date. Onstage features from longtime collaborators and good pals Tom Misch (on ‘Angel’ and ‘Damselfly’) and Jordan Rakei (on ‘Still’ and set closer ‘Ottolenghi’) helped nourish the sense of journey that Loyle has been on.
Other striking cameos included the appearance of 75-year-old Guyanese poet John Agard, for his intro to ‘Georgetown, and 21-year-old Athian Akec, who reprised his moving Youth Parliament speech on knife crime, here offering further words on societal ills.
Loyle Carner would endear them to the crowd with equal weight as he commended Nas. It’s a down-to-earth approach that in many ways characterises his humble rise. He’s a genuine rap star – arguably rivalling only Little Simz now as the face of UK rap – but never off the back of braggadocio or postering.
He might not have believed he’d supported Nas, but just for a moment, Loyle, enjoy the limelight. You’ve more than earned it.