Giggs released his fifth studio album entitled Big Bad… back in February. The critically acclaimed project featured big names such as Jadakiss, French Montana and Swizz Beatz. He solidified himself on the U.K Album Chart for four weeks and peaked at #6. But it’s not the commercial success that’s the milestone, according to The Official Charts Big Bad… is now recognised on ‘The Official Top 20 best-selling cassettes in the UK of 2019 so far’ – that’s right, cassettes. In addition, he’s currently the only rapper present on the chart, amongst Prodigy, Lewis Capaldi and The 1975 who have the #1 spot.
Regarded as one of the pioneers of U.K gangsta rap, Giggs has been putting out hits for over a decade releasing his first mixtape in 2005. With 13 underground mixtapes, 5 albums and 5 compilation mixtapes he has earned the title of a living legend in the U.K. From working with the likes of DJ Whoo Kid, B.o.B and most recently Drake, Giggs is no stranger to artists from across the pond.
Serving as the technological follow up to vinyls, the cassette tape was developed and released by Philips in 1962. Like with any product, consumers are always looking for easy accessibility so in 1979 Sony released the first portable cassette player also known as the Walkman, which quickly became a necessity for music lovers worldwide.
In 2019 we see the resurgence of the old-time classic, as consumers continue to indulge in vintage accessories. Currently, cassette tape sales are at the highest they’ve been since 2004, in the U.K sales have skyrocketed by 112% year-on-year in the first half of 2019, with 36,000 cassettes units sold. It’s safe to say that’s its the new collectable product and we wait to see what the next vintage trend in music will be.
