As far as Aus Hip Hop goes today is a day filled with promise for the future. The release of 360's new album, Falling and Flying is all over Facebook, Twitter and the J's. However Nick Lupi and Jimmy Nice with the help of DJ JoyRide have released their latest mix tape, Best Intentions Part One. Head over to their website now to download it! The Mixtape comes from the boys wanting to get back to the roots of their music where they begun. It is their way of saying thanks to anyone who has shown love to SS over the years. Best Intentions Part One is the first of a two part mix tape series that the boys are releasing in the lead up to their third full length record due next year. The mix tape features Solo and Joyride also from the One Day Crew.
Check out this demo track from Jonny Utah's upcoming debut LP, Handful of Gravel. You may have already herd this version of the song on the bonus disc from the Mind Over Matter album, Just like Fireworks. This particular version was mastered by Phatchance and features Ernst Carter Jr on the chorus.
The Tongue is back at his usual theatrics with this little video to announce his upcoming tour for his recently released mixtape, The Sextape. If you missed it download it here. Tour dates are listed below which include three FREE gigs there fore there is no excuse for you Sydney, Melbourne and Dunsborough folk to miss it.
Fri - Oct 7 - Level 4/Kings Cross Hotel - Sydney - FREE
Sat - Oct 8 - The Laundry - Melbourne - FREE
Fri - Oct 21 - HQ - Adelaide - w/Horrorshow, Delta, Def Wish Cast, Mantra - $25
Fri - Nov 4 - The Manor - Perth - $10
Sat- Nov 5 - Malt - Dunsborough - FREE
Incase you missed it Spit Syndicate dropped a track, Know Too Much off there forthcomming mixtape, Best Intentions - Part One. Download it now from Soundcloud while you still can. The rest of the mixtape is due out on friday as a free download so stay tuned for the link, however if your on their mailing list you will recieve in via email later today which contains the entire mixtape so if your not part of their mailing list get onto that shit asap. From the moment you listen to Know to Much, those who have been behind the SS since their mixtape days of The Futures Bright you'll instantly know that the boys have taken it back to the old days of banging beats and raw lyrics. Chek out Know to much below and stay tuned.
BnE have been working on a little something something for us coastal kids from the land down under. Check out the new vid clip below and while you there check the behind the seances. Once agin Bliss n Eso have raised the bar.
Once agin the ESPY is opening its doors back up for a night jammed with all aussie hip hop. From emerging artist to the well established. Raise the Roof picks up where it left off back in june when the first raise the roof took place. To say the line up is huge is nothing more than an understatement with Melbourne MC Pegz headlining the night followed by Urthboy and a range or other MC's from across the country this is sure to be one for the books. Grab your tickets now and support your local aussie hip hop.
Over the past months the boys from Hermitage have been busy in a small apartment above Parramatta Rd somewhere in Leichhard creating their new album. The new album is due for release in February 2012. Check out the behind the scenes video below along with flicks from the studio here. Hermitude are set to tour November and December this year and those on their mailing list will already have an idea of the date, which goes to show that signing up to the mailing lists (for all artists) has its advantages along with other things. Check out this track below Speak Of The Devil off the forthcoming album.
Since the release of his debut album ‘Ready’ in August, Ellesquire has been creating quite a buzz. Receiving positive reviews and feedback from street press, radio, magazines & blogs nation wide. The album was FBi Radio ‘Sunsets album of the week’ and it’s single ‘On The Prowl’ was added to full rotation on Triple J. ‘On The Prowl’ has been the most requested song twice on Triple J’s Super Request, Reached number 9 on the Itunes Hip Hop/ Rap charts and has clocked over 30 000 views on youtube within a month of it’s release.
Stemming from the albums success, Ellesquire has been hand picked to play at upcoming festivals such as ‘Changing Lanes’, ‘Peats Ridge’ and ‘Sub Sonic’ As well as scoring support slots for Biz Markie, The Herd, Mantra & Thundamentals.
Now is your chance to see Ellesquire officially launch his album ‘Ready’ at the new improved Sydney venue ‘The White House’. Presented by Big Village in conjunction with Freshly Squeezed, this show is not to be missed. With special guests; Reverse Polarities (Big Village), Money Kat feat. Ishu (Melb), Tigermoth (Bris)Tenth Dan, DJ Migs, & DJ Sam Z.
Head over to http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=212639178799909 for further details
BOTA: When and why did you first start writing music, and have you always called your self Phatchance?
I guess before I started 'writing' music I was pretty into the freestyle and battle elements of the whole thing, I'd think up lines but I don't think I ever committed anything to paper until the later years of high-school, even then it was more of a hobby for me and my style of writing was very different to the tip I'm on now. Phatchance was definitely my first pseudonym though, prior to that I just went by my real name, which is Chance.
BOPA: Your latest body of work, Inkstains (Acoustic) saw you preform live with a band and a whole new approach to your music. Why did you decide to take you music in the that direction?
We'd performed with a few band members here and there on our tours before, we like to generally take at least a bass player and a guitarist with us wherever we go, but this was the first time we'd ditched the backing music entirely and gone for a full band line up. I guess it came about because both myself and Coptic were interested in doing something a little different and a little more musically challenging and we were already working fairly closely with our friend Jon Reichardt, whose quite the multi-instrumentalist, so the opportunity kind of presented itself. I've got a huge penchant for acoustic and folk music and I thought it'd be interesting to try and pull some of those sounds into local hip-hop, as I don't believe it's been done in that fashion before. It was a really rewarding experience and probably the most fun I've ever had putting together a musical project, it was also nice to give some of the b-sides from Inkstains a proper revamp and let them see the light of day, particularly a few of my favourite tracks which were never very 'singley' on the original album.
BOTA: As and independent artist, what do you wish to achieve through your music or what is your biggest goal in your music career?
I think the elephant in the room is that all independent musicians would like to be able to live off of their music, which is obviously one of my long term aims, but I guess I have more esoteric goals than that which are probably more important to me when you boil it down. I really love the idea of leaving a mark on the world in some fashion, I feel like lyrics are one of the best ways to really touch somebody and create change in the world around you, I think in Australia particularly we're actually pretty receptive to personal song writing if we're given the opportunity, but it can be very hard to break the radio and media circuit with those types of songs, that's probably very high on my list of priorities, managing to achieve success without compromising the core messages in my music.
BOTA: How would you best describe your music?
My tag-line is 'Emotive, Independent, Australian Hip-Hop' which probably captures it pretty well, I guess I'm a mish-mash of influences but I definitely fall on the alternative/emotive side of the spectrum, I think I'm one of the few hip-hop artists in the country who uses a lot of harmony work in my tracks and my favourite songs are usually the type of introspective tracks that get thrown onto albums as a b-side or a book end, I think something magical happens when you manage to do those tracks right and make them a corner stone of the album.
BOTA: Are there any future works and performances planned/in progress?
I'm knee deep in writing my second album 'Infinity' - we're currently polishing up a few of the best songs and trying to work out who we want featuring. Most of the production side of it's done and at this point it's just trying to take our time to make sure we get everything right. I'm also finishing up the writing and recording of a free mixtape I'm dropping in December called 'Approaching Infinity' and I have a few video clips and collaborations in the works, including some songs with Mind over Matter, Johnny Utah, Cool Poindexter , One Above & Mr Hill.
BOTA: Your recently released a remix of Gotye’s 'Somebody That I Use To Know'. What is it about this song that made you remix it?
The second I heard the track I resonated with it heavily, in my opinion Gotye is one of the most talented, professional and approachable artists in the Australian music scene. I've been pretty obsessed with his work for a long time, I'd say 'Hearts A Mess' is probably one of my favourite Australian tracks fullstop, so when I heard STIUTK I knew pretty much straight away I wanted to approach him about remixing it. He was kind enough to send me the parts, I contacted One Above and asked him if he'd like to remix the song for me and we worked on it together solidly for a week or so till we had something we were both happy with.
BOTA: You are apart of a independant movement, I Forget Sorry? Who makes up this crew and what is IFS all about?
'I Forget, Sorry!' is comprised of myself, Johnny Utah, Coptic Soldier and Mind Over Matter, as well as the solo projects of Smiles Again, who is half of Mind Over Matter. Basically we're a group of close friends and like minded musicians who wanted to try and maintain our independence and work closely together, 'I Forget, Sorry!' is kind of like an alternative approach to the record label model of music, we help each other out with everything and cross pollinate our music as much as possible and basically focus on finding ways to engage with our listeners and keep each other passionate about the work we're doing.
The Tongue is one of the most well rounded emcees that the industry has to offer as an accomplished Emcee, Battle Champion, Song Writer and has had several successful headlining tours.Grab your free sextape now at the link blow. The sextuple features some of your sexist artist including Nick Lupi (SS), Seven, Bias B, Ellesquire, Toe-Fu and Omar Musa.
I know that this is an Australian Hip Hop blog and in general I don't like the american hip hop industry at present, although i've got much respect for the old school greats like Tupac and Biggie as you all would have. But every now and then I stumble across something that is real and on another level. Im not what it is about this track but its just so real and touches close to home. Enjoy!
Johnny Utah is one of the many tallents that make up the Inner Sydney crew, I Forget Sorry (IFS). This december he is following trend of many other emcees latley by releasing a free mixtape, "Us" out this december. If you havnt herd much about Johnny Utah before head over to http://www.IForgetSorry.com/ for more info. In the mean time check out this little sample from the mixtape from the mixtape.
Grandmas Song is one of the most personal and deep songs form The Herds latest album Future Shade which tells the story of how Urthboy rushed home after Big Day out on the Gold Coast after receiving the news that his Grandma was not in a good way. flights were reorganised to get back to Sydney as fast as possible only to then be delayed by bushfires just north of Sydney stopping him traveling to Gosford Hospital. This acoustic remdition of the song filmed at The Backroom in Sydney really does the song justice check it out.
Well its that time of year once agin, thats right Aus Music Month! This year Triple J is putting on a tribute to Nick Cave with a variety of artists including Urthboy. You may remember Ozi Batla did something similar last year. Head over to Urthboy's website and join his mailing list for your chance to win tickets.
Sydney is setting itself for the largest street art festival in the southern hemisphere, Outpost Project. The festival is set to feature 23 works by Bansky from the Oi You Collection, (a privet collection from New Zealand). It is the first time that these works have left NZ. The festival will feature the grand final of Skateboarding Australia's 2011 Pro/Am tour, educational, art making programs, live art, pop up bars, DJ's and more. Be sure to head down sometime over the 5 weeks between November 4 and December 11.
When it comes to The Tongue there isn't much that he hasn't achieved in his career with numerous tours under his belt, an accomplished songwriter with two albums, three mix tapes and an e.p. just goes to show his wide range of accomplishments. The Tongue is due to release his next mix tape, "The Sextape" on the 12th of September as a free digital download so stick round for the link! Check out the track Two Girlfriends below.
