The stage becomes an expansive and lonely place for a solo rapper support slot. Gabe ‘Nandez isn’t a showy rapper – he’s more contemplative and deliberate rather than relying on intuitive fireworks – but he commands the space well, allowing his measured flow and striking imagery to get the crowd’s attention. The songs from last year’s album, Sortilège, fully produced by Preservation, are the highlights, demonstrating how finding the right complementary beats can really elevate an already excellent rapper to the next level.

And not that they need it, but the same is true of Armand Hammer as they showcase the range of talent they attract behind the boards: Kenny Segal, JPEGMAFIA, Preservation (again) and, of course, The Alchemist who they worked with exclusively for last year’s Mercy. billy woods pulls his usual trick and kicks off with a “soundcheck” which already sounds near-perfect. His acerbic bark is tempered with Elucid’s silky flow and the natural chemistry is clear through an early run of duo cuts; ‘Laraaji’ and ‘Peshawar’ being the standouts.

This early portion is the most immediate and exciting, but they eventually settle into a groove of alternating solo songs, peppered with duo ones here and there. While the songs are uniformly solid, this is where a bit of tonal whiplash enters the fray as when the pair’s two styles are separated the cohesion falls away. Elucid’s lackadaisical demeanour and beat-riding bars dim the intensity as woods gradually amps it up, embodying the manic paranoia that punctuates his bleak, diaristic details. The constant jumping around between different projects also means that La Belle’s mixing desk is doing double time trying to adjust the levels for the wide variety of production styles: funky soul samples cut to spartan percussion and back to Rhode’s-drenched lo-fi; it’s not always quite there.

However, this is mostly caused by their rich and deep back catalogue, and the overall impact of Armand Hammer is still mightily impressive: it’s rare to hear such vocal clarity when woods is doing rhythmic acrobatics and yelling about existential crises. The night ends with the despair-banger ‘Born Alone’ and the showstopper finale to woods’ brilliant GOLLIWOG, ‘Dislocated’. We’ve ran through a couple dozen songs in a little over an hour, but despite the odd restart it didn’t feel like anything was dramatically altered. Constant touring and recording have moulded woods and Elucid into a finely-tuned machine, without sacrificing any spontaneous enjoyment and energy that they always bring to the stage.

Both men have been making music in the rap ‘underground’ for more than a couple decades now, a tough beat to maintain without getting the recognition that it’s widely agreed they deserve. They won’t be playing the Superbowl any time soon, but it’s a joy to see them finally getting their flowers.