'The Bigg Hitter' - 10Shott (mixtape review)

The long awaited ‘The Bigg Hitter’ is here. If you copped ‘The Ghetto Brick Road’ then you know what to expect…but with fewer jacked beats. 10Shott has created a relative masterpiece (when compared to most other mixtapes of this kind) and if this doesn’t whet your appetite for a full album nothing will.

Previously heard (and still sounding great) tracks like ‘Imagination’ and ‘In My Blood’ (still one of my favourite 10Shott tracks) are mixed in with new full tracks, concept verses, collaborations, re-workings and even a preview of the forthcoming album ‘Groundbreaker…A Di Real’ (‘Snizzle’ ft. Malik from MD7).

There are a whole bag full of standout tracks here: ‘Pimp Lord’ is Tenny at his story telling AND rhyming best, ‘Jokers’ incorporates an electro-house beat with integral choral laughs – seriously - and ‘Asking for Too Much’ featuring Nadia Pearson is a tongue-in-cheek trip inside a jealous and controlling mind. ‘The Boodah Man’ shows off 10Shott’s production skills and innate ability to write a simple but cachy hook.

From dramatic opener ‘The Bigg Hitter’ (if you think that’s a theatrical entrance, wait for track 1 on ‘Groundbreaker’) to the closing ode to Wolverhampton (‘Wolverhampton’!) this CD is nothing but, to quote 10Shott, “large”. This is better than most albums I’ve heard in a while and it’s certainly had the most plays on my stereo.