Release Date: 17 March 2002
Song Count: 13
Duration: 40 minutes, 46 seconds
Rating: 6.9/10
Description:
Song Count: 13
Duration: 40 minutes, 46 seconds
Rating: 6.9/10
Description:
A trip back 24 years is on the plan today, as we have New Zealand DJ and music producer P-Money with his first album Big Things from the start of 2002. A hip-hop record very much of the time based on its sound, it includes not only the mixing of the main man behind the wheel, but also countless collaborations with rappers from New Zealand of all sorts that act as the shining stars of the tracks, such as Scribe, 4 Corners, Deceptikonz, and a whole variety of others, especially in one particular track towards the middle. In spite of the rate in which P-Money releases music significantly slowing down after the mid-2010s with no full-length releases in a dozen years, he has nevertheless broken out as a name to highlight in the music scene of his home country.
The whole angle in which these tracks are produced are around as 2000s hip-hop as it can possibly get, with slick yet punchy percussion, use of looping samples, the more rhythmic flow of nearly every guest rapper that lends their voice to the instrumentals, and an overall catchiness permeating everywhere. Many of the tracks feature only one person on the microphone, however there is "Synchronize Thoughts" with both Scribe and 4 Corners, both of whom are on other songs as well, joining together in one, and more importantly the grand showing of the titular "Big Things" with ten entire rap artists featured at once, only two of which being reoccurring ones, those being Scribe and Unique. Tacked onto the end following the main outro of the album is a bonus mix of "Fade Away" by Che-Fu, which ends up as a hip-hop track without rapping in it, an exception to the status quo of this album (and the genre in general).
A straight blast from the past, Big Things is an easy record to pick up and listen to, and is almost certain to bring many mentally back to much different, often simpler times, almost like a time capsule in itself. Though the synergy between the mixing and the rap verses is not always reliably a slam dunk in any way, there is certainly enough of it here to redeem things simply for the overall enjoyment factor. Perhaps with some more memorable delivery from the rappers themselves this could have positively stood out even more, but as is, it is a decently enjoyable work from the unsung Kiwi nation. I do have to deduct some points for the outdated homophobia in two of the tracks, though.