After the release of State of the Art in 2009 the Hilltop hoods certainly set themselves a challenge. It was filled with tracks that were beyond ace and crowned them not only royalty in the Aussie Hip Hop community but Kings. The question left to ask is how could the Hoods step up to the plate and take things up yet another level to top State of the Art.
Drinking from the Sun is the sixth studio album from the Hoods and is by far the deepest, darkest and most diverse yet. The sounds of the first single off the album, I Love it ft. Sia follow that much of the first single from State of the Art, Chase That Feeling. It has to be the most radio friendly track on the album, however its almost certain that several other tracks on the album will get high rotation across the airwaves, starting with the track that immediately follows I Love It, Lights Out. Lights Out is a clear choice for a future single with huge potential for the second film clip for the album.
It is clear that on several tracks on the album the Hoods explored new grounds to prove how deserving they are of the title, Kings of Aussie Hip Hop. The track The underground takes it back to the early days with a beat and lyrics that are very much underground, proving that even the best of the game can take a simple old school beat and turn it into a classic. On the opposite end of the scale sees the track Speaking In Tongues which is filled with a jazzy, bass heavy beat. The contrast between these two tracks just goes to show exactly why the Hoods are not only holding all the keys to the kingdom but Rattling The Keys To The Kingdom.
The track Shedding The Balloon is filled with extensive reverberation and solid rhymes from Suffa. Pressure however kills it on the track Good For Nothing which is fuelled by a strong guitar beat which has huge potential with their live performance and guaranteed to be a crowd favourite. Personally I wanna see the hoods take a full band on tour with them or at least Plutonic Lab.
The list of other artist's who contributed to the album do nothing but enhance to the fullest the tracks in which they feature on throughout. The list includes the amazing vocal talents of local Adelaide artist Sia who features on the lead single I Love It. The likes of Lotek, Black Though, Chali 2na, Classified and Solo, One Above and a K21 remix of the track Good for Nothing yet agin show the how the Hoods have raised the bar with their latest release.
Something which we at The Bottom Of The Atlas noticed very quickly when the track listing for the album came out was the three part musical adventure that is The Thirst. Each of the three parts of The Thirst exhibit short rhymes accompanied by samples that are nothing short of an challenge. This narrative which runs throughout the album finishes with the line " from day 1, we're making two albums" which poses the question, do the Hoods already have their next project in the works? Perhaps the reason why they took three years between releases was because they were working on two projects from day one. Who knows though only time will tell. However lets enjoy what we have now rather than speculate on what will come next.
There is no question that Drinking From The Sun is some of the Hoods finest work to date. There is no reason why this album could not sit on the shelf in your local record show next to global heavyweights in Hip Hop. It is unlike any other Australian Hip Hop album that you have herd before. Go grab your copy of Drinking From The Sun from your local Oz Hip Hop store, Soul Clap Records and sit back and enjoy the tunes.
Referance: musicfeeds.com.au
