ACM was pleased to welcome Harry Shotta to deliver a guest lecture as part of the ACM Guildford Odeon Lecture series. The Friday 11th October session discussed the value of social media in relation to Harry Shotta’s blossoming career. During the two sessions, Harry took part in question and answer session with students as well as leading a workshop on dnb, mcing, rapping and all things urban.
“Harry is all over sbtv at the moment and is an artist who understands the value of social media.”
Ewan Grant Joint Head of ACM Music Business
About Harry Shotta
If success is rewarded by hunger and hard work then it will come as no surprise that Harry Shotta is now recognized as one of the most gifted and versatile MC’s in the UK.
Following his rapid rise in the Drum and Bass scene, he has won three awards including Best Lyrical MC of 2012 and built up a massive live presence all over the globe. Harry is now one of the most booked MCs in the D&B scene with recent shows in Canada, Austria, Russia, Germany, Amsterdam and Barcelona. At the annual event ‘Innovation In The Sun’ in Spain, Harry has his own special Yacht Party sold out three years in a row.
With Harry’s awareness of the rapidly changing music scene he was keen to showcase his skills on a variety of beats from Dub Step to D&B to Rap to Grime under the moniker of ‘The Harry Shotta Show’. The show has toured the UK and had a great reaction at festivals across Europe.
He now has over 4 million views on his You Tube Channel ‘ Harryshotshot’. He has two Face Book sites with the maximum 5,0000 followers on each and the Official Harry Shotta Fan Page. His Twitter page grow’s daily and is now approaching 30,000 followers.
Following the fashion to release hot freestyles Shotta recorded his own version of Pow 2011, which he sent to DJ Semtex. He was so struck by the magic of Harry Shotta that he invited him up to his 1Xtra radio show. Calling him one of the sickest MC’s in the UK, he wrote on his Web Site ‘There are only a couple of MC’s that can flow effortlessly on different genres. To borrow Dizzee’s analogy, re this skill; Harry Shotta is like a Bruce Lee of the spoken word. Bruce Lee mastered all styles of martial arts and merged them into one style, whereas Harry Shotta has mastered the art of MC’ing over Hip Hop, Grime and Drum & Bass merging them into one, and his flow is brutal.’
Honing into Harry’s lyrical wordplay and dexterity, Semtex came with the innovative idea of Harry delivering a weekly ‘Rap Round Up’ of the week’s events on his 1xtra show. From the start, this attracted great response and this led to an opportunity to record a Radio 1 Special on Katy Perry’s ‘California Girls’ for Huw Stephens. The version got such as massive response from Radio 1 listeners it was played across the station for the following week and Harry was invited into Huw’s show for a live appearance. With the Rap Round Up attracting a life force of its own, Harry began to take up weekly Rap challenges on Huw Stephens show. This has led to some key moments such as ‘The Teen Awards’ special which was also played on Chris Moyles Radio 1 Breakfast show.
Throughout 2012 Harry made a massive impact on the Urban scene with legendary performances on SBTV, Grime Daily, Link Up TV and Fire In The Booth with Charlie Sloth on Radio 1. He was the only DNB MC included in 1xtra’s Ten Plus performance at Maida Vale and he released two free mix tapes, ‘Moonlight Hustle (Hip Hop) and Space Jump (DNB). 2013 sees the release of a new mix tape ‘Twelve Months’ exclusively released on SBTV.
ACM would like to thank Harry Shotta for visiting ACM and spending time with our students. We wish him well for his forthcoming projects and hope to see him return to ACM again soon.
For more information about Harry Shotta, visit his website or follow him on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
