No Mercy ought never to have existed: provisionally named ‘King Uncaged’, T.I. had planned its release to follow his liberation from yet another stint in County Jail. Unfortunately, after violating the terms of his probation, he found himself incarcerated again and changed the title of his latest long player accordingly. But if you’re expecting T.I. to sound in any way repentant on his seventh studio album, you obviously don’t know the self-styled “King of the South”. Bursting with bravado and furious flows, No Mercy finds Tip in fighting form and benefits massively from its all-star cast. Kanye, Pharrell, Drake, Kid Cudi… they’re all involved, and clearly not worried of being deemed guilty by association. And on the strength of this, despite his chequered past, T.I. still has a bright future ahead of him… as soon as he’s finished doing his time.