New Zealand’s multi-award winning hip-hop DJ/producer P-Money has many accolades to his name, picking up Vodafone Music Awards’ ‘Producer of the Year’ award, a one-time NZ ITF Champion and a third placing in the DMC International World DJ Championships to name but a few. And he’s also earned a lot of these tags while producing material for the globally successful Scribe on his debut album The Crusader which ended up going multi-platinum. He’s performed with a lot of NZ’s finest including King Kapisi, Unique, The Deceptikonz and Che-Fu and has also supported heavy-weight internationals like Public Enemy, 50 Cent and MixMaster Mike. With such stellar company as this, it was only a matter of time before he released an album like Big Things.

The aptly titled album was released in New Zealand in 2002 so it’s a little surprising it took this long to find distribution in Australia and despite the relative age, the tracks on this album still sound fresh today. P-Money looks to have called in all his favours as most of the tracks feature raps by some of the artists he’s previously produced for. Unique, Che-Fu and the Deceptikonz all appear on Big Things, but the majority of tracks have lyrics laid down by Scribe. Being a DJ/producer’s album, the main focus is the music itself, and the lyrics serve to compliment P-Money’s ingenious beats, rather than overpower them and you can see that each artist has lent a particular feel and theme that fits the track.

Touch Something with The Deceptikonz is a big, brassy track with an almost 1950’s gangland mob sound. Synchronise Thoughts featuring 4 Corners & Scribe is just as huge, with a real dramatic energy with big, triumphant horn loops while the two MCs amp up the vibe in an ever-increasing urgency with their fast-paced rhyming. A real standout. Then there’s Remember, again featuring Scribe, a cautionary tale of melancholic reminiscence about friendships, family and love turned sour and the journey to rise above, and learn from the hard times. In a similar vein is Sunshine Remix with powerful messages like “Kids are going crazy – babies having babies. Choose wisdom over women and easy living”.

The album ends on a funkier note with P-Money’s smooth, soulful remix of Che-Fu’s Fade Away, a departure from the heavy rhyme of the rest of the material, this is a sweet, harmonic almost RnB tune which is nice lead out for Big Things.\

Throughout Big Things there is a good variety of pace and vibe and a depth of sound built by using interesting loops and samples, and the collaboration with various artists also keeps it interesting. P-Money’s consistently strong production values and his obvious ear for music outside of the hip-hop genre pulls it all together in an impressive body of work, and his trademark scratching also showing his talent and experience without ever needing to overwhelm his tracks.

As with so much of the music coming out of New Zealand in recent years, this release will feel just as at home in record shops around the rest of the world as it does in the South Pacific. P-Money is widely regarded as New Zealand’s premier hip-hop DJ and this album shows why. Expect big things from Big Things.