Raury @ Oxford Art Factory

“Better sharpen your weapons tonight / Cause not even the strong will survive”. It was a fitting opener for Atlanta’s Raury Tullis, who spat out the cautionary lyrics to ‘Chariots Of Fire’ with a fierce credence that is rarely found in the expression of someone who’s only 18.

But the ambitious genre-surfer is a veteran of sorts, having penned (he claims) his first song at age three. The past year has seen the baby-faced rapper riding a wave of international hype after garnering the attention of industry bigwigs. And the results? A collaboration with SBTRKT, meeting with Kanye, and playing with OutKast. No big deal.

Headlining Oxford Art Factory a day after his thunderous slot at Laneway Festival, it’s clear Raury has steadily cultivated a following locally. The audience, jittery after Melbourne cloud-rappers Milwaukee Banks warmed up with their brand of gauzy, electronic rap, was just about packed out by the time Raury took to the stage. Even good ol’ Timomatic had carved out a path to the centre of the mosh pit.

Grinning beneath his straw hat, Raury launched into his eclectic set, growling his way through rock-underscored numbers before melting seamlessly into rap turf for ‘Higher’ and lulling back into soft acoustic on ‘Superfly’. Raury’s raspy vocals faltered at times, the backing track compensating with close harmonies, and his band forming a conduit of sorts with tight movements and flashy exchanges – a drum solo and stadium-appropriate guitar shredding made the cut. Despite a few technical glitches early on, the crowd wasn’t deterred from emphatic nod-alongs, throwing its hands up at Raury’s command.

And there came the problem. Instead of having the fans lap up his hits with content sways and occasional cheers of support, it appeared Raury wanted a hyped-up beast of an audience. He instructed patrons to lift their lighters, sing along, raise their pinkies, yell out the title of his album and clap their hands up over their heads, while he himself jumped into the middle of the crowd during his encore (which, rather questionably, was a repeat of his chart-crusher ‘God’s Whisper’). Interspersing songs with didactic spiels about love, happiness and the ignorance of today’s youth saw the audience grow tiresome, and came across more Hannah Montana than Kanye West.

Raury is talented, without a doubt, but his idyllic rants made him lose rather than gain maturity points. His confidence, however, is admirable at best – and a sure springboard to success for a performer who doesn’t need a hype man to be heard.