Shotty Horroh is (alongside his Highrise Entertainment crew) one of those new 21^st century stars that were born & bred, bragged & boasted, on You-Tube. These days everyone thinks they’re an MC, impressive rap battles and ‘diss’ tracks quickly go viral, and the internet is bulging with wannabe rappers & embryonic music producers. Some of it is stush, some of it is shit. Most of it is tish really, or just unready, unformed, in front of the public too soon. Highrise Ents though, have been as prolific in gathering people together, with an eye to artist development, as they are with their internet output. They’ve also put their money where their mouths are by making ‘proper’ videos for produced tracks instead of the cliché hoods-up, gun fingers, by lock-up garages, shot-on-a-mobile footage. You don’t need major record company backing to reach people these days. As any street dealer will tell you: If you got a good enough product, it will sell itself.

Highrise ‘Sickness’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cagW5sfHVzg

I was first introduced to Shotty Horroh a couple of years ago via Suddz, (Manchester MC at Metropolis, Gutterfunk & Soundscape). He’d recently moved away from hosting DnB DJ sets and was now writing & recording tracks with Highrise, having re-named himself Panache. I did a photo-shoot with them, listened to some material. At the time I remember being impressed by their work ethic. We’d done some posed shots but I‘d wanted some more natural looking shots so we headed up to Harpurhey where they lived. In their small studio I shot Panache in their vocal booth and, in between a quick change of garms, Shotty jumped in. I was impressed by both his delivery and his technique, how he twisted his tongue over his vocabulary and syllables, how I could actually hear most of it clearly. Too many MCs spit too fast or too dumb, with no intonation, and you miss half of what they’re saying.

So anyway, we packed up, skinned up, called it a day; but I thought I’d keep my eye on Highrise and Shotty Horroh in particular. So when I saw the e-flyer for a live gig at SoundControl I was on it like Scotch Bonnet!

I was moaning (moi?) recently that I keep meeting ravers with double-barrelled names and where were all the Mancunians, but summer’s here (for what it is), and our student population has fled to the festivals, this was definitely one for the locals. A big Salford contingent in supporting Iller State, Misfits Music & Briggsy, old school call-n-response hip-hop; Hoodman regaling us with his female conquests; Viollet was closer to R’n’B or a garage MC. Each act upped the ante and drifted away from pure hip-hop into more contemporary flavours, UKG, Niche and Grime.

With so many MCs involved there were some lulls in proceedings but the atmosphere was building nicely. When Highrise took to the stage you knew you were watching veterans at work. That kind of confidence is infectious. Flexplicit held court whilst Hypes, Xp, Bigz, Viollet, MG (from Highrise Midlands link-up), all took turns until it was difficult to tell who was performing and who was just strutting as the bodies onstage multiplied.

Shotty Horroh took to the stage like someone who’d been impatiently waiting for this night half his life. He worked the crowd like a pro, getting up close, allowing die-hard fans to sing-a-long. Unsigned until very recently Shotty has already put out Mix-Tape style CDs with Highrise and two self-financed CDs/LPs ‘The Beast Vols. 1 & 2’ (which actually contain about 3/4 albums worth); Real tracks too, not just filler & skits whose humour quickly fades. ‘It’s A Horroh’ w/ Hoodman, ‘Rep The M’, ‘Goon To A Goblin’, ‘Sickness’, ‘It’s Shotty Horroh Mate’, ‘Winners Anthem’, he ran through his prolific output with the confidence of someone familiar with performing centre-stage. The venue pulled the plug bang on midnight but you felt that they could just go on and on. The other thing that impressed me (more obvious later when I checked out their stuff, as you should) was the open attitude to different styles & genres, (hip-hop/grime) Shotty Horroh seemed to me like a much-younger Manchester Skinnyman; likewise, he just seemed to be born to do it.

Shotty Horroh ‘Winners’ Anthem’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_9hvZGydtw

Hypes ‘city centre freestyle’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8t_6BW9m2as