Music
12 game-changing Australian hip-hop albums
These are the records that have pushed Australian hip-hop forward -- from Sound Unlimited to Def Wish Cast, The Herd, Sampa The Great and Kerser.
Australian hip-hop has a long history, but the scene's innovation hasn't always been appreciated in a national music industry that often feels fixated on rock.
From the late '90s, Australian hip-hop outfits such as Resin Dogs and 1200 Techniques embraced rock guitars. Elsewhere, Hilltop Hoods, Bliss N Eso and Drapht developed the festival-friendly 'barbecue rap' – comparable to the old pub-rock. With that, Australia's rap finally made it onto the radio.
Then in the 2010s, a fresh wave of acts challenged the Aussie barbecue rap ethos, ushering in greater diversity, sonic experimentation and individualism. While there's always been progressive momentum in the underground, today Australian hip-hop has an expansive legacy with artists from divergent backgrounds exploring their identities and finding their voices. In 2020 The Kid LAROI charted in the US with his mixtape, F*CK LOVE, proving that Australian hip-hop is exportable, too.
Over the past few decades, Australian hip-hop has produced game-changing albums that have not only advanced music and discourse about culture but also redefined the sound of our pop. Here are 12 albums that transcend eras and generation.
Sound Unlimited -- A Postcard From The Edge Of The Underside
Released: 1992
In 1992, Sound Unlimited became the first Australian hip-hop act to release an album on a major label – and today, A Postcard From The Edge Of The Underside is still as vital as ever.
Hailing from Burwood in Sydney's Inner West, Sound Unlimited originated as Westside Posse, the name under which they contributed 'Pull The Trigger' to Virgin Records' 1988 Australian hip-hop compilation Down Under By Law. Rebranded as Sound Unlimited, the group – vocalists Rosano and Tina Martinez and Kode Blue, plus Vlad aka DJ BTL – struck a deal with Sony Music after being championed by Public Enemy (the harder tracks betray the influence of Public Enemy's studio wing, The Bomb Squad).
Sound Unlimited were actually ahead of their time in an international context. In having Rosano's sister Tina sing, the quartet pre-empted the Fugees' paradigm of bridging hip-hop, R&B and soul.
Sound Unlimited recorded A Postcard From The Edge Of The Underside with musician brothers Derek and Kevin Antunes, who'd performed in New Kids On The Block's band. They celebrated multiculturalism with the hip-house 'Unity', and acknowledged Indigenous sovereignty in 'Paradise Lost'.
Sound Unlimited even playfully borrowed from Antipodean classics – riffing off Men At Work's 'Down Under' in 'Kickin' To The Undersound'. But most enduring are their R&B numbers: the mellow 'One More From The City', which veers into trip-hop; and ballad 'Like I Love You'.
Alas, Sound Unlimited experienced pushback from underground hip-hop heads for their crossover aspirations. The Martinez siblings later went on to start Renegade Funktrain.
Def Wish Cast -- Knights Of The Underground Table
Released: 1993
In recent times, Western Sydney has been proclaimed a hip-hop hotspot thanks to acts like OneFour, L-FRESH The LION, B Wise and Manu Crooks. But it was the Australian OGs Def Wish Cast (DWC) who first put the area on the map.
In 1993, the foundational crew – rappers Sereck, Die-C and DefWish and DJ Vame – dropped a quasi-conceptual debut, Knights Of The Underground Table, which is typically deemed the first 'real' Australian hip-hop album.
"It put Western Sydney on the map, that's for sure – teaching people about areas that got lost in the demographics," Sereck (aka Paul Westgate) recalls. "Other places 'unknown' from all 'round Australia could feel proud to represent their own. It opened a lot of doors. The furious hardcore hip-hop approach on this album was not anger, but absolute passion – and the people could feel it. It caused a massive sweep of camaraderie."
It put Western Sydney on the map, that's for sure – teaching people about areas that got lost in the demographics
DWC tapped into both America's East and West Coast hip-hop, throwing in ragga elements and chopping up film samples. But the MCs rapped in their own accents, using local colloquialisms and references.
"We manage to tell a story and create a feel and theme, which portrayed a mythological battle," Westgate says. "This was imitating life – words as weapons, graffiti adventures, and B-boy dance battles... looking back on it takes us back in time and to the energy and we realise how raw and untamed we were. We were ready to take on everything."
DWC connected with a European audience through radio support and coverage in graffiti zines. Nonetheless, they did encounter resistance in the domestic sphere.
"Being from this country in the early '90s in music, the audience was predominantly [into] rock – except for a handful of hip-hop acts Australia-wide. There was that wall up from the industry and outside audience due to lack of understanding and belief. [But] being a more aggressive and local 'true accent' act, we began to break down the barriers."
"Still, the album was more successful overseas than locally at that time. To think it's evolved to the point that anyone in this country now would have a local rap track in their 'shuffle' is amazing."
In 2020, Knights Of The Underground Table, issued on the obscure Random Records, is a rare collectable. Yet DWC are moving forward. They'll begin to roll out new music this year, with an album of classic electro scheduled for 2021.
Curse Ov Dialect -- Lost In The Real Sky
Released: 2003
Melbourne's multi-ethnic Curse Ov Dialect (COD) fostered an alternative to even alternative hip-hop in the '90s.
The crew – with core members MC Raceless (aka Adam Gauci) and DJ Paso Bionic – heeded the necessity of being authentic and "unique" in hip-hop, rather than emulating US acts. Their music was socially progressive, eclectic and eccentrically abstract. COD's image was unexpected, too: they'd stage theatrical shows, wearing folk costumes.
COD was the earliest Australian hip-hop act to secure a US album deal, presenting Lost In The Real Sky on Mush Records in 2003 – and touring it internationally.
"Getting a release in the United States was a pretty amazing thing for a couple of kids making tracks in the bedroom in the Western suburbs of Melbourne," says Gauci.
Not unlike The Avalanches' 2000 album Since I Left You, COD created an out-there hip-hop with textural samples and an atmosphere of blunted psychedelia. However, their lyrics were direct, its MCs addressing colonialism, racism and the patriarchy. This, Gauci suggests, "put us at odds with the local hip-hop scene and they sort of ostracised us locally, but internationally people were more ready."
I think we made an impact by being the first Australian hip-hop act that was globally recognised -- and we rapped in our own accents.
Amid the rise of avant-garde hip-hop, Lost In The Real Sky now sounds ultra-modern. "I think we made an impact by being the first Australian hip-hop act that was globally recognised -- and we rapped in our own accents. We made the music as diverse as possible by sampling the influences of the cultures that we grew up with in the suburbs of this multicultural society."
"Also, being of different diverse cultures, but being the weird ones within those cultures, this in turn is what crafted a unique sound that wasn't like anybody else at the time."
COD attracted random fans. "Finding out that in Chile there were people using our music for puppet shows, and people in Ukraine at a tattoo parlour playing our music to their customers – these things keep our hopes and legacy alive and make us feel like we haven't done anything in vain."
At 2003's Big Day Out, COD were bolstered by Dave Grohl on drums. Later, Future Islands' Samuel T Herring, who raps as Hemlock Ernst, namechecked COD in a triple j interview – which led to his gracing their 2015 single 'Twisted Strangers'.
The Herd -- The Sun Never Sets
Released: 2005
Sydney hip-hop collective The Herd evolved out of the independent label Elefant Traks – founded by producer Kenny "Traksewt" Sabir in 1998. With Tim "Urthboy" Levinson and Ozi Batla as MCs, The Herd introduced an organic, dynamic hip-hop, utilising live instrumentation in the vein of The Roots. From the outset, they espoused cultural pluralism and delivered powerful socio-political statements.
But The Herd crystallised as a super-group with their break-out third album, The Sun Never Sets, in 2005. Notably, it was then that singer Jane Tyrrell joined.
"It was the first album for us that was written more from the perspective of a band, rather than a loose collective of creative people," says bassist Rok Poshtya, aka Dale Harrison.
"The previous two albums were far more disparate and freewheeling... The Sun Never Sets was definitely a hip-hop album and far more coherent. The title of the album was a play on the phrase 'The sun never sets on the British empire' and was meant as a criticism of the colonial politics that had resulted in the dispossession of oppressed people, both past and present --- but it also had the dual meaning of never actually going home from the party. So the album itself goes from deep analysis of armed conflict to riffs on nights out."
The Herd were gratified with the reception. "Locally, there was a swell of acceptance for what we were doing – which at its very basis was politics and parties. The first single we released off the album was 'We Can't Hear You', which was ostensibly a party song that was wrapped around a critique of apathy in the political process, as well as the music industry," says Harrison.
"It was also the album that established Elefant Traks as a label – in as much as the sales from the album meant we were able to fund releases for at least the next few years."
The first single we released off the album was 'We Can't Hear You', which was ostensibly a party song that was wrapped around a critique of apathy in the political process.
To promote The Sun Never Sets, The Herd guested on triple j's fledgling Like A Version segment, covering Redgum's 1983 protest song 'I Was Only 19' – which was so popular as to make the triple j Hottest 100. Eventually, the group laid down a studio recording with Redgum's own John Schumann for an album reissue. "That song, in particular, launched The Sun Never Sets into another level," Harrison says.
And, for Harrison, the album has remained relevant – which is both good and bad. "From an artistic perspective, I think the songwriting has stood the test of time," he ponders. "Many of the tracks could have been written today. Political corruption, illegal invasions, late nights out – nothing's changed, except maybe the late nights aren't so late anymore thanks to the lockouts."
Hilltop Hoods -- The Hard Road
Released: 2006
Adelaide's Hilltop Hoods – MCs Suffa and Pressure plus DJ Debris – are easily Australia's most successful hip-hop group. They epitomise 'barbecue rap' – a distinctly Australian mode of boom-bap with nostalgic samples and turntable scratches.
Then rostered to Melbourne powerhouse Obese Records, Hilltop Hoods broke out majorly in 2006 with their fourth album, The Hard Road. It spawned one of their signature hits, 'Clown Prince', which, sampling Leon Russell, came in at number three in the triple j Hottest 100.
Hilltop Hoods assembled a monster posse-cut in the track 'The Blue Blooded' with the so-named Blue Blooded Allstars – basically a Who's Who of Australian hip-hop at the time, including Funkoars' MCs, Hau and Drapht. But they also courted credible international guests like the now-retired UK MC Braintax.
Hilltop Hoods topped the ARIA Top 50 album chart with The Hard Road – a first for a homegrown hip-hop act. They subsequently won the ARIA for Best Urban Album. Ironically, The Hoods would themselves repudiate barbecue rap conventions with 2007's innovative "remix" album The Hard Road: Restrung – reworking The Hard Road alongside the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.
Hilltop Hoods offered their latest album The Great Expanse in 2019, leaning gracefully into their role as elder statesmen of hip-hop.
Kerser -- The Nebulizer
Released: 2011
Emanating from Campbelltown in Western Sydney, Kerser has mythologised his underdog profile in Australian hip-hop.
He pioneered the hardcore style known as gutter (or lad) rap, earning comparisons to Eminem. The battle MC accrued his following by exploiting YouTube and circulating mixtapes like Straight Out Tha Gutter. Notoriously, radio snubbed Kerser for being too gritty and unfiltered. "I was a street rapper and [industry types] were used to their rappers who rapped about barbecue gatherings and going to the beach or whatever," he told this writer in 2014.
Related
In 2011 Kerser self-released The Nebulizer – intended to be the first of ten albums with his producer Nebs in ten years. The Nebulizer served as a radical departure from boom-bap, the beats closer to EDM or rave, which appalled the scene's gatekeepers. Kerser unleashed a trademark banger in the rumbling 'Kerser Is The Sickest'. Other tracks slyly sampled '80s standards – 'Battlefield' recycling Pat Benatar's 'Love Is A Battlefield'.
Kerser's sophomore, No Rest For The Sickest, cracked the ARIA Top 20 – a vindication. The prolific star continued recording with Nebs until album five, Next Step – significantly distributed by Warner. Arguably, his work paved the way for ChillinIt, ONEFOUR and Hooligan Hefs.
Sky'High -- Forever Sky'High
Released: 2012
Wiradjuri/Fijian rapper Sky'High grew up in Sydney's housing estates – her mother, a single parent, running strip clubs and pubs. She discovered an artistic outlet in hip-hop, emerging as a formidable spitter. In 2012 she signed to Elefant Traks – a surprise considering her rep as a hardcore (gutter) rapper.
Related
Sky'High's 2012 debut album, Forever Sky'High, didn't dominate the charts, but it's acquired cult status – the MC is now praised as an Australian grime trailblazer. For the album, she teamed with New Zealand producer P-Money and Cam Bluff. Sky'High boldly explored different musical influences – from rock ('Let's Just') to grime ('Don Dada') to wobbling dubstep ('Reign'), with the clubby 'Where Ya Head At' flipping Basement Jaxx.
But, ultimately, what elevates Forever Sky'High are Sky'High's accounts of struggle, resolution and resilience. Particularly raw is 'Nuclear Love', a synth-hop ballad about narcotic co-dependence and dysfunctional romance – Sky'High showing her prowess as a storyteller to rival Nas.
Allday -- Startup Cult
Released: 2014
Early in his career, Allday polarised the Australian hip-hop scene -- old school purists were unsettled by that subversive, post-rap fluidity. Indeed, paralleling the electro-pop 360, the South Australian signalled a neoteric hip-hop sensibility with his debut, Startup Cult (issued via Illy's indie ONETWO).
Allday would sing/rap, write emo lyrics, and revel in electronica -- his references Kanye West and Drake, not hip-hop's golden-era touchstones. Besides, his image was grungey. Generally, Allday eschewed the hyper-masculinity of Australian hip-hop, admitting to vulnerabilities and being less braggadocios than self-ironising, albeit with comic flair.
Startup Cult housed the hooky singles 'Right Now', 'You Always Know The DJ' and 'Wolves' (featuring US alt-soulster Sunni Colón and produced by M-Phazes). But the best song was the wryly wonky 'God Starve The Queen'.
Crucially, with Startup Cult Allday had a huge album, reaching number three in the ARIA charts.
Tkay Maidza -- TKAY
Released: 2016
In the past, Australian hip-hop was perceived as a macho subculture. But the scene has generated gifted (if underrated) female rappers like MC Trey, Maya Jupiter, Layla, and A-Love.
As with Allday, Tkay Maidza heralded a new heterogeneity, individualism and fluidity in Australian rap. Arriving after the Troye Sivan collab 'DKLA', Maidza's 2016 debut TKAY consolidated a growing international standing. "I think it was just one of the first sonically diverse albums that was within the hip-hop realm of Australia and probably encouraged others to be open to possibilities," Maidza reflects.
"I think it was just one of the first sonically diverse albums that was within the hip-hop realm of Australia and probably encouraged others to be open to possibilities"
Maidza experimented with pop, R&B, dancehall, trap and MIA-style electronic hybrids (the tropical 'Simulation', a George Maple co-write). Moreover, she flexed her wordplay, but also showcased her singing voice.
Maidza's curation was on point, too. She was accompanied by Run The Jewels' Killer Mike on 'Carry On' – the banging lead single produced by sometime Evermore drummer Dann Hume. Maidza likewise liaised with What So Not, Dre Skull and G-Eazy cohort Christoph Andersson (the ethereal At Least I Know). Still, her personality shone through, with 'Tennies' the most whimsical moment.
"I think it sounds like freedom and an open mind," Maidza says of TKAY. "For me, it's just opened doors in terms of recognition with my name. A couple of songs performed really well, whether it was on video or in certain places on the internet – like getting syncs from brands."
TKAY's success cued Maidza to assume full control of her direction and cultivate an aesthetic. "I felt like I could do better." She's since dropped two EPs in her Last Year Was Weird series – and is now signed to 4AD.
AB Original -- Reclaim Australia
Released: 2016
Both Briggs and Trials already had solid careers in hip-hop when they formed AB Original. Briggs, a Yorta Yorta man, had released two solo albums. Trials, a Ngarrindjeri man, was a member of the Funkoars and an in-demand producer. But the super-duo transcended even the music scene with Reclaim Australia, out via Briggs' Bad Apples Music – a label dedicated to nurturing Indigenous talent.
With Reclaim Australia, AB Original drew on dual traditions of US hardcore hip-hop – Public Enemy's incisive socio-political rap and NWA's rebellious gangstadom. Above all, the pair centred First Nations experience – tackling colonial dispossession, systemic racism and custodial deaths, while instilling pride in their identity and adding a transgressive humour. AB Original prompted necessary conversations especially with 'January 26' (featuring Dan Sultan), an Australia Day protest song.
AB Original brought in as guests Archie Roach, Thelma Plum and Gurrumul, as well as Compton legend King T, fulfilling the album's blockbuster ambitions (it made the ARIA Top 10). AB Original would be the first Indigenous act to win the Australian Music Prize (AMP).
ChillinIt -- Women Weed & Wordplay
Released: 2018
ChillinIt is the figurehead of Australia's surging grime movement. The Lebanese-Australian rapper came up in the South-Western Sydney suburb of Hurstville. Like Kerser, he's an underground rapper who has achieved runaway fame.
In 2018 ChillinIt burst out with an independently-released debut, Women Weed & Wordplay, on the back of his heavy-duty bars, hard beats and relatable persona – not to mention an ability to navigate digital platforms (assisted by BODYBAGMEDIA). The single 'One Breath One Take' has been certified platinum, as with 'Wish You Well'.
ChillinIt largely works with his crew – Tasmanian grimester Wombat blazing on two cuts – but AUS2UK features British grime MC Kamakaze. Beyond flexing, ChillinIt does reveal an emotional side – Women Weed & Wordplay climaxing in 'I Can't Sing But It Helps The Pain (Leave Me)'.
Sampa The Great -- The Return
Released: 2019
Poet, MC and singer Sampa The Great is Zambian, and was raised in Botswana. But, latterly based in Sydney and then Melbourne, she's collaborated with Australian creatives. Sampa bonded with REMI's House Of Beige crew. Importantly, her music has resonated with an African diaspora here and globally.
In 2017 Sampa received acclaim for her mixtape Birds And The BEE9, blending gospel, jazz, soul, reggae and hip-hop. She won the AMP. Her debut album proper, The Return (on the UK label Ninja Tune), is more conceptually realised.
As Sampa goes back to her roots in Southern Africa, she questions where journeying has taken her – and at what cost. While reclaiming her identity, she contemplates the vagaries of diasporic experience and narrative erasure. The Return feels communally, and spiritually, restorative – Sampa working with family, whether literal (sister Mwanje) or musical (Ecca Vandal). Michelle Obama included the lush groove 'Freedom' in a playlist.
The single 'Final Form', which Melbourne polymath Silentjay helmed, is about heritage and self-actualisation. Sampa and the South Sudanese-Australian MC Krown call out the music industry's exploitation of Black artists in the hard-hitting 'Time's Up' (now remixed with New York Junglepussy). The epically discursive title track is almost 10 minutes.
Sampa has again been given key awards – and made history. Last year the musician scored the ARIA for Best Hip Hop Release with 'Final Form', becoming the first woman of colour to do so in the field, plus she collected the AMP a second time.
