There’s no other way to put it: Odyssey is a triumph. A landmark British hip-hop album and legacy-defining statement. Across 21 tracks, it pays reverence to UK hip-hop, jungle, grime, soul, and the rave scene with craft and a moving level of gratitude. This is Harry Shotta not just showing off his own talent - but showcasing every corner of the music that raised him.

With high-octane collabs that match him bar for bar, Shotta brings together the whole UK festival scene - from boom bap purists to grime MCs and junglists - and makes it all feel cohesive. The production is immaculate. From Leaf Dog’s soul-stirring It Wasn’t Easy to festival-sized DnB bangers that rival Chase & Status, every beat fits the mood perfectly. P Money, The Four Owls, Rag’n’Bone Man, every guest comes hungry knowing this is a moment. But more than the technique, the genre-spanning cohesion, or the wall-to-wall energy, it’s Shotta’s personality that lifts this into something rare. He sounds honest, generous, and grateful. He’s a lifelong student of hip-hop, and a believer in its power to give people purpose.

This isn’t just an MC going fast - though yes, he still goes unbelievably fast - this is a man stitching together a lifetime of sounds that raised him and inspired him, into one seamless, powerful, joyful record.

From the first seconds Shotta sets the bar sky-high with the line: “You ain’t never heard double time on this quality boom bap sound this sharp.” He’s right. A lifetime of cutting his teeth on jungle raves and pirate radio sets has refined Shotta into one of the cleanest, fastest, most dynamic MCs in the world, and this is a full-spectrum emotional journey. It Wasn’t Easy is a tearjerker from the start, a frank and open account of childhood trauma, some classic hip-hop storytelling with real depth. Later on, Chasing a Buzz explores escapism and self-medication with honesty, but even when he’s vulnerable, Shotta never wallows. His music is inspirational, always searching for light at the end of the tunnel. The closer, Odyssey, is a stunning slice of liquid funk, topped with an R&B vocal that feels like a final breath of fresh air after a head-spinning 70-minute ride.

The scale and emotional depth of this thing is sprawling. There’s an army of guests here and every single one of them comes with their A-game. No filler, these are the best verses we’ve heard from some of these names in years, a testament to how much they respect Harry Shotta. The production is phenomenal. It’s a love letter to music across the last 30 years - boom bap, jungle, grime - especially the genres that never get institutional respect. Because that’s what this is really about. Odyssey is a benchmark for the entire UK underground, and a testament to the rich tapestry of British urban music. For years, Shotta’s been a household name in the UK rave and jungle circuit, known for being the guy who could turn a DnB drop into a lyrical assault course, and for a huge number of younger fans, that’s all they’ve known him as. Odyssey is a fun, fiery, collaborative, and ambitious history lesson that changes that, from grime to boom bap, jungle to conscious hip-hop, with Shotta curating a masterclass. The move to High Focus was always going to open doors, but what’s happened here is more like smashing through them and inviting a legion of legends in with him. Those who already knew his pedigree already rated him as one of the UK’s greats, but this is way above expectations. It’s one of the coolest things to happen in UK hip-hop in years, connecting generations and genres in one huge, joyful, ridiculously impressive package.

Odyssey moves through its emotional arcs with a precision and confidence that few albums can match. When it dives deep into childhood pain and mental strain, it does so with clarity and intention, a mirror for anyone who’s had to claw their way toward hope. But just when the tone gets heavy, Harry finds a way to shift it, like he knows the listener’s emotional rhythm better than they do themselves. That ability to flip the tone on a dime sets this apart from so many other long-form rap albums. There’s no bloat here. It’s all purposeful and it’s also fun, the kind of album where you find yourself pulling faces at a disgusting bar and remembering why you love this music in the first place. The grime features lean heavily into raw, proudly British cadences. It’s us, not some mimicry of US sounds. This is Britain, unvarnished and unfiltered, the powerful sounds and voices of real people finding harmony in the chaos. Harry’s given a huge platform to everyone who helped build grime, UK hip-hop, and jungle up, and they’re throwing everything they’ve got at this because they know it matters.

This is music that might pull a kid out of the pit, the same way it once pulled Harry Shotta out. British hip-hop has reached a level of maturity where it doesn’t need to imitate or explain itself. And Harry Shotta has just placed a massive flag at the top of the hill.