Live Review: Halfway Crooks, Hoops, Joyride

Halfway Crooks parties have become synonymous with hip hop in this town and it was only too appropriate for Vivid to get in on the action and spread the goodness to a wider audience. Tickets sold like hotcakes as people came less for the pretty lights nearby than for a dose of gangsta loving at The Basement.

The handsome Crooks themselves – Levins, Elston and Captain Franco – look like excited schoolboys having too much fun as they drop some very serious beats and forgotten tracks from decades past that won't get picked up on your Shazam because we literally underground, yo. But the crowd here knows their stuff, raising the roof for everything from Mobb Deep (who give the group their name) to Lil Wayne and I-G-G-Y Azalea.

They make way for their sisters Nina Las Vegas and Bad Ezzy – the Hoops collective missing LA-based Anna Lunoe – who keep the party jumping despite a few equipment issues, with everything from Beyonce's Drunk In Love and Ciara's Body Party to Driicky Graham's Snapbacks And Tattoos and Danny Brown's Drinkin And Smokin bringing a heaving crowd onto the dance floor.

There are plenty of snapbacks and tattoos here, minus the menace: the only serious stuff going down includes a) tequila shots and b) solid dance moves. Ladies leave your heels at the door, freak your sneakers and express yourself.

The king of expressing himself is Mr Don Joyride. His songs tell the story of everyone's lives, from the dry You're Not Welcome At This Kick-On Anymore to This Is It, a break-up song that “inspired me to punch a hole in the wall of this very establishment,” he admits. “It's now covered by a Lee Kernaghan poster.” Then there's the drunken funk of Stumbling and his latest effort, after three EPs, the upbeat Fine. He brings an earnest and confident presence, asking the crowd “What's good!” and “How we livin'!”, such that by the end of his set he's got the room echoing him: “I am!” “I am!” “Comfortable!” Comfortable!” And there's no better way to feel after a party low on pretence, big on fun: it's just so comfortable.