australian hip hop
January 17, 2011 5:05 PM Subscribe
I want to know more about decent Australian hip hop.
Triple J is to blame, they pushed and pushed Aussie hip hop for ages while no one was listening. Finally over the last several years I along with many others have woken up to it. But I'm not very familiar with the genre, mostly all I know are Hilltop Hoods, the Herd and Butterfingers (not coincidentally all played by JJJ). What else is good, that's out there?
I like a melody, some sense of humour, a conscience, and an Australian accent. Kinda Billy Bragg writing rap, if you know what I mean. I don't like American style attitude bullshit, sexism or racism, even if reversed. (actually carbide from this old question seems to have similar inclinations to me)
(I should have posted this a couple of years ago, I realise these guys are all moving on to different things, I've been listening casually for a while now, I'm just a lazy asker).
Triple J is to blame, they pushed and pushed Aussie hip hop for ages while no one was listening. Finally over the last several years I along with many others have woken up to it. But I'm not very familiar with the genre, mostly all I know are Hilltop Hoods, the Herd and Butterfingers (not coincidentally all played by JJJ). What else is good, that's out there?
I like a melody, some sense of humour, a conscience, and an Australian accent. Kinda Billy Bragg writing rap, if you know what I mean. I don't like American style attitude bullshit, sexism or racism, even if reversed. (actually carbide from this old question seems to have similar inclinations to me)
(I should have posted this a couple of years ago, I realise these guys are all moving on to different things, I've been listening casually for a while now, I'm just a lazy asker).
Ozi Battla's most recent album Wild Colonial is pretty solid, but you'd already have heard that on Triple J, I guess.
posted by zamboni at 6:13 PM on January 17, 2011
posted by zamboni at 6:13 PM on January 17, 2011
Combat Wombat - also on Elefant Traks - are pretty big on the conscience thing. I think "White Australia's got a Black History" got a fair bit of airplay...?
The wiki page is a fun read, full of solar-powered sound systems, squats, Reclaim the Streets protest-parties, dumpster diving, critiques of Nike & Shell, refugee rights, land rights, studio warehouses in Brunswick...I'm sure you get the drift.
posted by UbuRoivas at 6:44 PM on January 17, 2011
The wiki page is a fun read, full of solar-powered sound systems, squats, Reclaim the Streets protest-parties, dumpster diving, critiques of Nike & Shell, refugee rights, land rights, studio warehouses in Brunswick...I'm sure you get the drift.
posted by UbuRoivas at 6:44 PM on January 17, 2011
Response by poster: Biss 'n eso I know reasonably well. But the others have passed me by (hence the askme!).
No chance there are decent compilation albums going around?
keep 'em coming, please!
posted by wilful at 6:53 PM on January 17, 2011
No chance there are decent compilation albums going around?
keep 'em coming, please!
posted by wilful at 6:53 PM on January 17, 2011
Best answer: I'd recommend you tune into Goonbag Radio - they have dedicated programs as well as a 24/7 stream, and play a lot of Oz hip hop.
You might also want to check out The Tongue, Mantra, Pez, TZU, 360, Muph & Plutonic and Phatchance. For something a bit stronger/ to get a bit loose to I'd suggest Bingethinkers, Vents, Funkoars, Raven, Maundz, The Optimen and 1/6 (also written as One Sixth). Acts and artists you might not like but are worth checking out are Lazy Grey, Lyrical Commission, Tomahawk, Trem, Hospice Crew, That's Them and Kings Konekted.
If you want album suggestions, I'd suggest M-Phazes 'Good Gracious', Muph & Plutonic's 'Hunger Pains', 'The Grey Space' by Horrorshow, Delta's 'The Lostrailian' and 'Capricorn Cat' by Pegz. That's a pretty good spread of releases from the last few years, and you should be able to find some other people guesting on those albums whose work you might like to chase up.
Disclaimer: I moderate an Australian Hip Hop website so I don't want to break any MeFi rules, but I'd suggest dropping by (with a thick skin) - we're running our Annual Awards at the moment, so a quick look at some of the threads in that section will give you an idea of what was released in 2010 that you might like. There are a lot of threads asking for the same thing you're after - sometimes they get flamed, sometimes they have a lot of useful info. There was one main thread with all the suggestions compiled in it a while ago, but my search-fu has deserted me. Feel free to send me a message if you want more suggestions.
posted by gerls at 8:12 PM on January 17, 2011 [2 favorites]
You might also want to check out The Tongue, Mantra, Pez, TZU, 360, Muph & Plutonic and Phatchance. For something a bit stronger/ to get a bit loose to I'd suggest Bingethinkers, Vents, Funkoars, Raven, Maundz, The Optimen and 1/6 (also written as One Sixth). Acts and artists you might not like but are worth checking out are Lazy Grey, Lyrical Commission, Tomahawk, Trem, Hospice Crew, That's Them and Kings Konekted.
If you want album suggestions, I'd suggest M-Phazes 'Good Gracious', Muph & Plutonic's 'Hunger Pains', 'The Grey Space' by Horrorshow, Delta's 'The Lostrailian' and 'Capricorn Cat' by Pegz. That's a pretty good spread of releases from the last few years, and you should be able to find some other people guesting on those albums whose work you might like to chase up.
Disclaimer: I moderate an Australian Hip Hop website so I don't want to break any MeFi rules, but I'd suggest dropping by (with a thick skin) - we're running our Annual Awards at the moment, so a quick look at some of the threads in that section will give you an idea of what was released in 2010 that you might like. There are a lot of threads asking for the same thing you're after - sometimes they get flamed, sometimes they have a lot of useful info. There was one main thread with all the suggestions compiled in it a while ago, but my search-fu has deserted me. Feel free to send me a message if you want more suggestions.
posted by gerls at 8:12 PM on January 17, 2011 [2 favorites]
Sorry to bang on, you might also want to check out the Certified Scribe blog, he has taste similar to yours.
posted by gerls at 8:16 PM on January 17, 2011
posted by gerls at 8:16 PM on January 17, 2011
My favorite Aussie Hip Hop (The artists on Track 19). Also this guy (check out "here now" if you can find it. Grab this, and earlier stuff. This is really rare, but there are some great moments.
posted by cashman at 9:17 PM on January 17, 2011
posted by cashman at 9:17 PM on January 17, 2011
Wilful: with the caveat that I know bugger-all about this stuff, my nephew is right into Obese Records.
posted by pompomtom at 9:18 PM on January 17, 2011
posted by pompomtom at 9:18 PM on January 17, 2011
Best answer: Wilful, you should check out the Golden Era mixtape that's just dropped - after the Hoods left Obese, they started Golden Era Records. Here's the link from their site.
posted by gerls at 2:28 AM on January 18, 2011
posted by gerls at 2:28 AM on January 18, 2011
Muph and Plutonic's good stuff is awesome. Really bouncy. They miss sometimes too, but that's okay. (I'm biased for having grown up with Muph in his beloved Eltham :)
My favourite aussie hip hop is the Herd. I can't stand to hear people "talking themselves up" in an Australian accent, so The Herd's social conscience is a breath of fresh air. I know I prefer either Ozi Batla or Urthboy, but for the life of me I can never remember which is which.
I can't stand the Hilltop Hoods, to me they're like rap for bogans!
posted by autocol at 4:46 AM on January 18, 2011
My favourite aussie hip hop is the Herd. I can't stand to hear people "talking themselves up" in an Australian accent, so The Herd's social conscience is a breath of fresh air. I know I prefer either Ozi Batla or Urthboy, but for the life of me I can never remember which is which.
I can't stand the Hilltop Hoods, to me they're like rap for bogans!
posted by autocol at 4:46 AM on January 18, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
Also, Sydney community radio station Fbi have an Aussie Hip Hop show on Wednesday from 6-8pm, called Stolen Records. Fbi's music policy is that 50% of their content must be Australian, and half of that from Sydney.
...but I see you're in VIC, in which case you might wanna check out RRR instead. I'm sure they have an Aussie Hip Hop show too.
Regardless, both FBI and RRR stream over the net, in case you're out of range of analogue signal.
posted by robotot at 5:32 PM on January 17, 2011 [1 favorite]