AJ Tracey has revealed he made “a big loss” financially on his headline shows at London’s Alexandra Palace.
The rapper performed for two nights at the iconic, 10,000-capacity North London venue in November 2019.
Speaking to Dotty on Apple Music’s The Agenda Radio, Tracey discussed running his own label and the financial risks that come with that.
“I did Ally Pally, I took a loss monetarily,” he said. “A big loss, but obviously it’s not a loss because I gave the fans a great show. That’s the best show I’ve ever given in my whole life. People left saying, ‘Yo, that’s the best British show that I’ve ever seen in my life’. That’s what I wanted.
“So it wasn’t a loss, but obviously in terms of money, economically, it was a loss. It cost a lot. I don’t want to go into it, but it cost a lot. But it was worth it. Because, really, when I saw the reactions [from] the kids, saying, ‘Yo, this is the show that AJ put on for us. We know he cares’, that’s what matters to me because now when you come and see me at a show, you know what you’re getting.”
He added: “They can tell their friends, ‘Oh, AJ cares. If you spend your money on his thing, he’s reinvesting it into us. It’s not just like he’s just taking it and just buying a Lambo and just putting on a rubbish show.’ I’m not on that.” Watch the full interview above now.
The Alexandra Palace shows featured a big stage production including pyrotechnics, football pitch smells, a square stage hung in the middle of the audience and a TV-inspired theme. Speaking to NME at the time, creative director Bronski said the idea for the show came from the venue’s former use as “the home of British broadcasting”.
“AJ felt like that was a strong concept to run through the entire show,” Bronkski said. “It was perfect, we really jumped on that concept and we worked on a set with kind of smaller concepts that played alongside that. We used a lot of light camera on the big, we called it a scoreboard, but the box LED screen.”
Meanwhile, Tracey will hit the road later this year when he embarks on a new UK and Ireland arena tour. The run of dates will be in support of his latest album ‘Flu Game’ and will kick off in November.
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