As a big fan of hip-hop, I was excited to check out Carmouflage Rose perform live.

While I was not overly familiar with his music, I had come across him on Triple J and briefly listened to his EP.

From this, I found he had a unique sound in his songs, blending elements of reggae, rap and pop with smooth vocals, however, unfortunately, this is not what was delivered live.

His vocals sounded very different to that of the recorded tracks, which was highlighted by the DJ playing the actual song while Carmouflage sang over it, making the disconnect very apparent.

His lyrics live were quite difficult to understand also, especially when he asked the crowd to repeat them back to him, resulting in a generally confused mix of sound.

His voice came across more scream rap than soulful reggae for the most part.

On a positive note, he did have a great stage presence, dance moves and energetic demeanour.

He interacted and got the audience involved frequently (I think I was asked to scream “hell yeah!” within the span of an hour more times than I had been in my entire life), which was well-received by the crowd.

The highlight of his set was most certainly getting his mum on stage to dance, which was incredibly heartwarming.

The show was still enjoyable and it was hard not to dance along.

The diverse range of people in the crowd all seemed to love it and the gig appeared to be a successful turnout in his hometown of Brisbane.

However, overall, while it may have been a fun time, his lack of live musical ability was rather disappointing, as I had higher expectations prior to his performance.

Carmouflage Rose is a hip hop artist.

I’m not the biggest fan of hip-hop but I was hoping that his fusion of reggae and eclectic mix, would be worth checking out.

I’d listened to his song ‘Late Nights’ and although it sounded a bit generic it had a good beat.

On arrival at the intimate Spiegeltent, Carmouflage Rose had the crown pumping from the beginning.

Asking the crowd to come in closer, so much so, that has audience members on stage rocking out with him.

I found his voice dominated the stage which made hearing the DJ difficult to hear.

He certainly did get the crowd involved with fans reciting his lyrics/anthems.

One of his songs ‘1000 styles’ highlighted that as an artist he can diversify but to be honest, many of the songs sounded the same to me.

The lyrics were also hard to understand but maybe that’s normal for this style of hip-hop.

I didn’t really feel the reggae and dancehall influences.

His vocals were ok, but at times it sounded like he was yelling.

Carmouflage Rose definitely felt at home on the stage, especially as he is a Brisbane-based artist.

Some of the songs were infectious and had us bopping along as he swayed his dreadlocks back and forth.

I was surprised by the diverse range of ages he attracted.

This artist may be upcoming, but I found his beauty was a bit too carmoflauged or hidden for my liking.