Tich - Necromancy: no black magic here, just pure hard hip-hop

Northampton rapper and T.Records label owner Keaton Blackwell, alias Tich, might only be sixteen but he's already getting up to some very exciting feats within the local hip-hop scene and beyond. Being half Floridian he takes influences from the east coast of America (Eminem, Rick Ross, Nas and Luda were the first four that came to my mind) as well as the more English grime music and delivers the best of both worlds on his brand new album Necromancy.

There's fire in his voice, the beats are Filthy with a capital F and a sense of overwhelming despair carries throughout the LP. It's bitter, dark and unbelievably heavy on the ears but it's full of an underground strength that savages out of your speakers with some of the anger of one of Eminem's killer reflection records. Having been writing since the age of eight, Tich has learnt the ability to deliver an insightful, relatable and truly heart felt insight into the struggles and set backs that we people face today, and an underlying message to carry on fighting throughout.

And like every mixtape should, Necromancy contains some awesome inter- and outer- T.Records collaborations: there's a gritty anthem Pray For Me with one the most exciting young local MCs this year J Kaz, Just Being Me features his mum's little younger sister Dannii (who's this really lovely atmospheric singer-songwriter and acoustic guitarist) and his partner in crime in the Brothers in Blood duo Ak goes in with Tich over some almighty basslines in On Top, rounding the whole thing off with a bang.

If you're interested in hearing more from the T.Records crew (and why shouldn't you be) Tich and Ak have got an album coming out hopefully at the end of 2012 that I cannot wait for plus Tich is releasing his solo Mister Evil EP and at some point in the foreseeable future he will unleash Necromancy 2 (sorry, I'm not really a fan of that whole Blueprint 2, The Carter III naming thing but musically it should be amazing). So Tich is going to be one busy bee in 2012, but I've got every hope that he's going to more than deliver. Keep your eyes peeled people.