Big Chris Dropped In One Hand and Let the Internet Do the Rest

UK singer, rapper and producer Big Chris released his debut mixtape In One Hand on 26 July 2013 through Coast 2 Coast Mixtapes. The nine-track project was hosted by Coast 2 Coast CEO Lil Fats and went on to earn DatPiff Silver certification with more than 50,000 downloads. It was mastered at Universal Music Mastering in Los Angeles. The release helped establish Big Chris as an independent artist using video and digital platforms as his main route to listeners, long before that approach became standard practice.

The Release

In One Hand arrived as an official Coast 2 Coast Mixtapes release on 26 July 2013. Lil Fats, the company's CEO and a mentor to Big Chris, personally hosted the tape. For an unsigned UK artist at the time, that co-sign carried real weight. Coast 2 Coast was the most downloaded mixtape series in the world, and a host credit from its top figure signaled the project had been taken seriously at the source.

Big Chris wrote, performed and produced across the project. The sound pulls from hip-hop, R&B, pop and dance, with records built to work as both audio downloads and visual content. The tape followed earlier singles "Shoosh," "More Than a Thug" and "Pour Another Drink," plus his 2011 project Big Things Vol. 1. In One Hand extended that run into a fuller statement.

The featured cast mixed mainstream recognition with underground credibility. Keisha White, a MOBO-nominated British R&B singer known for "The Weakness in Me" and the Tracy Beaker theme "Someday," appears on the tape. Paigey Cakey, already a familiar face from Attack the Block and Waterloo Road, also features. MC Bushkin of Heartless Crew brought UK garage and pirate-radio authority, while Samira and Tubby Boy rounded out the line-up.

The lead single "Bad Girl" featuring Samira landed support from BBC Asian Network. That gave an independent record a national radio foothold without a traditional plugger campaign. The "Baby Maker" video found a second life on university campuses and was played on Channel AKA, then a key destination for UK urban video. Further content around the release was covered in Channel 4 music programming.

On DatPiff, the defining public scoreboard for mixtape culture at the time, In One Hand passed 50,000 downloads and earned Silver certification. The project was mastered at Universal Music Mastering in Los Angeles despite remaining fully independent. The records were built to sound like radio records, while the distribution model behaved like the internet.

About Big Chris

Big Chris is a UK-born singer, rapper and producer working across R&B and hip-hop. He has stayed independent throughout his career while collaborating with artists including Keisha White, Paigey Cakey, MC Bushkin, Giggs and Big Narstie. An early adopter of online promotion, he treated video and digital mixtape platforms as his primary audience route rather than waiting on traditional music television.

In One Hand follows Big Things Vol. 1 (2011) and precedes later releases including the album Bad Timing. His catalog spans R&B, hip-hop and pop, with a DIY approach that has kept him outside the major-label system.

Industry Context

Looking back, In One Hand shows how an independent UK urban artist could use technology in the early 2010s. DatPiff and Coast 2 Coast provided scale. Online video served as both a substitute for and a route into music television. Social platforms and blogs delivered reach across the UK and the United States on the same download page.

At the time, UK urban music still depended heavily on specialist TV playlists, radio gatekeepers and major-label A&R meetings. Big Chris skipped that queue. He did not wait for a label to fund a video or a channel to grant a daytime slot. He assembled production, hosting, certification, broadcast support and visual content himself.

That model now defines much of the business. Short-form video drives discovery, direct-to-fan distribution is routine, and artists build audiences without traditional gatekeepers. In One Hand predates that shift by years. For UK music, it remains a dated marker of what independence looked like before the rest of the industry caught up.

The project also highlights the role mixtape platforms played in breaking UK acts abroad. A London artist could reach US listeners through a single Coast 2 Coast release, then back it with video content that traveled on its own. That pipeline mattered for a generation of independent artists, and Big Chris was an early mover on it.

Stream It

In One Hand is available now on major streaming platforms and digital mixtape archives. Dive into the nine-track project that earned Big Chris DatPiff Silver and put independent UK R&B and hip-hop on a global stage.

Give In One Hand a full listen and hear how one unsigned artist turned video, mixtape culture and the internet into a working release strategy. Queue it up today and judge the records for yourself.

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