[Concert Review] pH-1 ‘About Damn Time’

It’s been seven years since pH-1 came onto the scene. Now he’s playing cities like London as part of his first world tour, About Damn Time — an accomplishment that’s been a long time coming.

About Damn Time is pH-1’s first world tour and has seen the rapper travelling the globe for four months. Image: Magic Sound Entertainment

“I’m here… about damn time,” said pH-1 as he took to the stage at East London’s Troxy on Sunday, 2nd April 2023, as part of his first-ever world tour.

The Korean-American rapper, also fondly known as Harry or Park Jun-won, has established himself in the K-Hip-Hop scene for three years shy of a decade. First, with his debut single ‘Wavy’ in 2016. He then released his debut EP The Island Kid, his debut studio album HALO, and his debut mixtape X, after being signed to H1gher Music in 2017. In 2022, he released his latest studio album But For Now Leave Me Alone, which formulated most of the set list for his world tour.

The energy was high as pH-1 performed ‘The Purge’. Image: Magic Sound Entertainment

About Damn Time kicked off in January and has so far seen pH-1 and his team travel through The U.S., Canada, and Asia. Now, they’ve touched down in Europe before finishing things off in Australasia. It’s been a four-month string of performances which some fans suggest is why show times have allegedly shortened from two hours in Asia to an hour and 20 minutes in Europe, to conserve energy.

Regardless of this, pH-1 started the concert by saying that London had been the “most anticipated city on tour” — perhaps on a personal and musical level. The day before, the rapper had wandered around Brick Lane, leaving a signed photo at one of the vintage stalls for a lucky fan to find. 

He’d also taken a last-minute stroll around the area, before waving at fans as he walked past them to get into the venue he was about to play. On stage, pH-1 opted for a long white jumper, baggy jeans, and a hat that covered most of his face. Fans were hoping for the hat to come off to catch a glimpse of the star’s face, but his incognito style in no way detracted from his unavoidable stage presence as he bounded back and forth.

pH-1 said London had been the “most anticipated city on the tour”. Image: Magic Sound Entertainment

Korean lyricism, epic rapping & crowd singalongs

The show started with iconic tracks like ‘MEET N GREET’, ‘Malibu’ and ‘ZOMBIES’.

But what really got things going was ‘YUPPIE TING’. The crowd began to bounce along to the upbeat, U.K. garage-inspired track, setting the tone for what was to come: a spectacular rendition of ‘The Purge’. Against a fiery red backdrop pH-1 didn’t miss a beat as he dispensed the lyrics without hesitation — it was his moment to truly flex the full extent of his rapping ability in real life.

There was no way anyone in the crowd could keep up with pH-1 on ‘The Purge’, so the rapper compensated by following up with ‘IFFY’. This gave the crowd their moment to sing “IFFY IFFY yah yah, IFFY IFFY yah” back and forth, which pH-1 praised them for before explaining how important their support was to him, especially as they’d chosen to be fans despite not understanding the Korean lyrics within most of his songs.

“I know how difficult it can be to really follow and support a culture that’s outside of your own, right? Especially if you don’t understand the language,” said pH-1. “You guys don’t speak Korean but you still show such much love and support for my music. It’s a blessing, so thank you, thank you, thank you.”

Fans sang “IFFY IFFY yah yah” back and forth with pH-1. Image: Magic Sound Entertainment

pH-1 chatted about his career

Looking back on his career in one of the short intervals between songs, the rapper acknowledged Show Me The Money 777. This televised Korean music competition helped elevate pH-1’s career to new heights back in 2018. “Everyone on the show was very talented, but I’m the only one doing the world tour,” he laughed, taking in his accomplishment.

However, despite having achieved a world tour, pH-1 also admitted that travelling for so long did make him miss his home. So it’s perhaps apt that he followed this statement up with ‘Homebody’ — a song which says exactly that. It was the perfect segue into more mellow numbers within his discography such as ‘Cupid’, ‘365&7’, and ‘Like Me’.

Among these songs was also ‘Nerdy Love’ — one of pH-1’s most popular songs on Spotify  — which immediately evoked hugging and swaying from crowd members. Some fans also raised pink paper hearts, a delicate change to the red bra thrown on stage earlier in the evening, which Harry had proceeded to hang over his shoulder.

Songs such as ‘Like Me’, ‘Homebody’, and ‘Cupid’ got everyone in the audience swaying. Image: Magic Sound Entertainment

Fans showed love, and so did Harry

It wasn’t just fans gifting pH-1 with hearts and lingerie; the rapper also reciprocated his appreciation during one of the intervals by first giving away neon yellow tour hoodies, and then albums. He also explained that he’d developed a tradition in every city of stopping the show halfway through to take three Polaroid photos of himself and the crowd. He then gave these photos away to three lucky audience members. And got the entire audience to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to someone he spotted celebrating in the crowd.

“The energy is crazy! The energy is crazy!” said pH-1, commenting on the crowd. It was clear he felt a bond with his fans as he teased them throughout his interactions and thanked them for coming. It was an energy that remained until the very end of the show, when pH-1 pretended the concert was over, even getting DJ Spray to pack up and leave the stage.

pH-1 soaked in the cheers from the London crowd. Image: Magic Sound Entertainment

It stoked fans into action — “encore”, “one more song”, they shouted. And sure enough, pH-1 returned to belt out ‘Oscar’, as the crowd swayed as one with their hands in the air. A final bow and wave and the London date of pH-1’s tour was over, leaving fans in high spirits.

Later that evening pH-1 took to his Instagram story to share photos that fans had tagged him in. He then posted a photo of Tower Bridge at night — it was reminiscent of the phone lights everyone was holding during ‘BVE’ earlier that evening.

“Bye London,” he wrote.

Edited by: Gabii Rayner