16/02/2000 20:00 GMT, The Millennium Dome Skysacape, Greenwich
Julien Macdonald's show is to take place in the Skyscape, a Murdoch-sponsored stand-alone structure on the Millennium Dome site.  On the main stage, a huge parachute-shaped sheet of material is being lit pink, while white blobs of light rotate across its surface like some lurid sex-ed video from biology class.
          Hype arrives at the Dome just before eight, missing Victoria Beckham who had popped in for a fitting.  A guard at the entrance desk muses on Hype's name before uttering a knowing "Ah!"
          "Hype Williams!" he announces.  "Puff Daddy!"
          He gives him a friendly nod.
          Hype has never attempted a full-scale live show before.  This is the first time he's had to operate without the luxeries of multiple takes and digital post-production.  As the lights flash, he surveys his grand experiment from the stalls.  What he sees does not please him.  "I'm gonna have to start throwing a monkey wrench at the powers that be," he tells a ponytailed technician, "'cause I don't have a light show to entertain people with."
          There are still a number of technical issues to be resolved.  Chief among these is whether the huge screen above the stage can be raised quickly enough not to disrupt the 20-minute show.  Hype could cut his losses and project Attik's visuals onto a white 'polysilk' curtain, but it wouldn't look as good.
          He then halts discussions to order dinner.  At first he requests a take-out from the Blue Elephant, a top-end Thai restaurant in Fulham which he's taken a shine to: "The curries here are amazing, man."  But when he realises how many hungry mouths have appeared around him and that ordering food all the way from West London might be impractical, he sends out to the nearest McDonald's.
          While dinner is in transit, Jay-Z appears with a five-man entourage.  The diamonds around Jay's neck shimmer in rainbow shades under the show lights.  Hype rolls up his sleeves and begins thrusting his arms enthusiastically as he explains to Jay, who is due to open the show the next day, what will be expected of him.  Curiously, Hype's regular soft, measured speech has given way to a rasping, round-the-way vernacular: "Niggas be like rhymin' they rhymes," he growls, "knowhamsayin? I know you wit dat..."
          The pair retreat into a corner of the auditorium for a quiet word, though it doesn't stay quiet for long.  "Yo Ab," Hype bellows over to his right-hand man, Abdur.  "Did you get that brochure for the yacht?"  He's obviously about to acquire the ultimate Big Willie status symbol and is keen to share the news with play king Jay.
          Later, once Jay-Z has snuck out and the McDonald's has been consumed, Hype has to get back to technicalities.  The technicians show him how the large screen above the stage can be raised and lowered.  For someone who made his name in the quick-fix world of pop video, Hype remains impressively focued throughout the discussion of these mundane details.  Only one question is still bothering him.
          "Where is Julien anyway?" Hype shouts across the theatre.  "Tell him to get his little ass down here."

go back | page three | continue

back to articles