Live Review: Naughty By Nature

Adelaide is known as a hip hop-loving community that attracts people from all walks of life, and the presence of Naughty By Nature was a testament to that. The capacity crowd contained people spanning four generations — from the '60s to the '90s — all gathered together to celebrate 25 years of the East Coast legends.

DJ Kay Gee appeared first, warming the crowd up with some old school hip hop tracks (Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five's The Message, KRS-One's Sound Of Da Police) before Treach and Vin Rock made their way on stage, sending the crowd into a frenzy with their classic OPP.

The chemistry between the three was remarkably cordial considering the long-standing issues between Treach and Rock (Treach fired Rock two years earlier and only let him return for business reasons). The two rarely interacted, with Rock doing most the talking and Treach stalking the stage like some kind of robot. Thankfully this didn't affect the music, with the two having the sold out venue jumping and singing along to hits like Everything's Gonna Be Alright, Craziest and Feel Me Flow.

Like many of their '90s contemporaries, Naughty By Nature's set relied heavily on call-and-response with the audience and spinning other artists' tracks. Throughout the evening, the likes of DMX, 50 Cent, NWA, Run DMC, Notorious BIG, Puff Daddy and LL Cool J were played, with other artists' tracks making up more of the set list than the trio's actual releases. Treach and Rock also had a tendency to rely on a backing track, slightly taking away from the authenticity of things. While quite disappointing it seemed to only encourage the crowd to get rowdier as the night went on before they finally invaded the stage to rap along with their idols for set closer Hip Hop Hooray.