Arrested Development took to the Barbican stage in an explosion of colour, sound and energy, much like their entrance on the scene back in the early 90s with ‘3 years, 5 months and 2 days in the life of…’ Their positive, afro- centric variant of hip hop has always set the Grammy Award winners apart. Alongside groups such as Digable Planets, they flipped the hip hop script in a scene then dominated by everything gangsta.
A rare London appearance by this group, a real breath of fresh air in the hip-hop scene when they launched in the 1990s, now touring a new album. Arrested Development was founded by Speech and Headliner as a positive, politically-conscious alternative to gangsta rap. Their first album 3 Years, 5 Months & 2 Days In The Life Of (named after the time it took to get their first record deal) produced a series of hit tracks, including Tennessee and People Everyday.
Arrested Development are back and one thing really has remained the same since the last time: their songs bring a lot of positive vibes to the Hip Hop community and do not proclaim power and money are the most important things in life as in almost all other Hip Hop albums.