MEMORIES AND MILESTONES COURTESY OF DJ SHERRIF ROSCO (TOP BILLIN/RRR) • 1995 OB’S RECORDS OPENS ( LATER BECOMING OBESE RECORDS) • 1996 THE FORMULA STARTS AIRING ON PBS • 1997 PROWLA RELEASES MONEY WALKS • 1998 BIAS RELEASES BEEZWAX, TREM DROPS SHEER TALENT 12” • 1999 RDC COMPILATION IS RELEASED BY NUFF SAID, LAUNCH OF STEALTH AND OUT FOR FAME (LATER ACCLAIM) MAGAZINES • 2000 CULTURE OF KINGS 1 RELEASED • 2001 TRIPLE J HIP HOP SHOW BEGINS AIRING NATIONALLY, PROWLA RELEASES LONE WOLF • 2002 CULTURE OF KINGS 2 IS RELEASED. OZHIPHOP.COM LAUNCHES • 2003 HILLTOP HOODS RELEASE THE CALLING (FIRST AUSTRALIAN GOLD ALBUM) • 2004 AUSTRALIA VS NEW ZEALAND MC BATTLE SELLS OUT HI FI BAR THE RISE AND RISE OF AUSTRALIAN HIP HOP HAS ARGUABLY BEEN DRIVEN BY MELBOURNE, AND AS SOME OF THE • 2005 JUSTICE BEATS THESAURUS IN THE SCRIBBLE JAM SCENE’S PIONEERS AND RISING STARS PREPARE TO GATHER • 2006 HILLTOP HOODS RELEASE THE HARD ROAD (FIRST LOCAL PLATINUM ALBUM) FOR THE INAUGURAL MADE IN MELBURN SHOWCASE, FERN GREIG-MOORE TOUCHES BASE WITH KEY PLAYERS • 2007 TOP BILLIN LAUNCHES ON RRR TO CHART THE SCENE’S EVOLUTION – AND ITS FUTURE. • 2008 M- PHAZES WINS ONE STOP SHOP PRODUCERS CONFERENCE IN USA • 2009 KINGS WAY IS RELEASED, SHOGUN DISTRIBUTION CLOSES DOWN, MADE IN MELBURN TAKES PLACE AT BILLBOARD FRIDAY 23 APRIL. PEZ WINS BEST URBAN RELEASE AT AIR AWARDS • 2010 M-PHAZES BREAKS ARIA CHARTS AT #20 Melbourne’s rave culture is at Word of mouth, rumours, industry gossip and hype sparked its peak. Gen Ys see the back interest, which in turn encouraged local talent to come out 1998end of a grunge nation as their of the woodwork. “Comparisons to American hip hop were predecessors revel in the notion bound to arise, given the birthplace of the genre,” Obese that musically nothing will ever be quite as signifi cant or Records general manager Ben Rynderman considers. “But FROM VERY HUMBLE ORIGINS; AUSTRALIAN groundbreaking again. John Howard is two years into a its Australian sibling has always had a very proud sense “ Liberal reign as teenagers sit glassy eyed in hand-me-down of self and sense of place.” By the time hip hop hit the HIP HOP HAS GROWN TO BECOME A PROUD, station wagons amidst Kangol hats, skate shoes and baggy shores of Australia the need for a re-mold was essential. jeans. Local MC Bias B’s Beezwax is released and cassettes The local market hungered for something that made sense. VITAL AND CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED THREAD OF are distributed, copied and redistributed amongst the urban “Australian hip hop in my day was like a young fawn trying youth. This is a milestone in Melbourne’s already simmering to walk – it was a little shaky, we didn’t really have our own AUSTRALIA’S BURGEONING MUSIC INDUSTRY.” local hip hop revolution, though independent label Obese style,” refl ects forefather to Melbourne’s blushing hip hop BEN RYNDERMAN (OBESE RECORDS) Records were already hard at work in 1995, and prior to this industry Jason Perilino, still renowned for his graff work as b-boys and girls were pushing confi nes through breaking Peril. “We didn’t really have our own style until 1989 and it and graffi ti. grew from there.” to a specifi c demographic. The ‘scene’ moved in a direction away from its US counterparts and into a new era of articulation. For the fi rst time and with the helping hands of determined key players, mere babes in the game learnt how to walk. “Obese “Melbourne seems to have a pretty close link between The struggle to gain a separate identity had a blurry Records really put a large number of hip hop artists on the map that wouldn’t have the opportunity to do so,” Perilino states. graffi ti and the music,” says Levi Ramsey, co-director of beginning, as MCs adopted American drawls and applied “They took a lot of chances and some really paid off, they really helped shape the hip hop industry today as we know it.” globally recognised aerosol art paint Ironlak. “I mean if you them to local issues. Radio, television and other print look at guys like Trem, Prowla and Jase [Beathedz] they all mediums provided a platform for a new brand of hip hop to Those risks launched the likes of Hilltop Hoods, Bliss N Eso, Muph & Plutonic and more recently next-gen players M-Phazes still paint in varying capacities yet are heavily involved in emerge, but inevitably a backlash rejected a genre which and Illy. With all things, the successes were equally plagued by criticism. Tall poppy syndrome was rife amongst observers the music side of hip hop.” Ironlak’s solid bond to respected borrowed too heavily from their American siblings. “People and ‘political’ spats were dished out on civil turf. “I used to care about politics so much when I was younger,” Flack recalls of Melbourne writers has allowed the brand to reinvent itself don’t want to buy a watered down imitation of G-Unit or his earlier days. “It would totally consume me and at the time I felt like it was the most important thing in the world to keep over time, shifting simultaneously with the success of the Eminem,” says DJ and hip hop mogul Nate “Flagrant” Flack, everyone happy even it was to my own detriment.” Here stood a generation of highly creative, highly emotional marginalised music. Similarly, Joel Chamaa – AKA Fluid and one part of who has overseen the careers of lucrative commercial groups of politically and socially aware people literally battling to be taken seriously – not just by the public but by their own Wickid Force Breakers – is of the school of thought that crossover artists such as M-Phazes and Phrase though his peers. Battling became the preface for free expression amongst MCs, DJs, graff artists and breakers alike. The culture would breakers “feed off hip hop music”. Over the past 20 years his artist management company FAM. “They can’t identify with be recognised not only by how incredibly constructive it was, but how highly competitive it had grown to be. breakdance crew has grown and taught and evolved within it and the authenticity just isn’t there.” the industry. “It inspires our creativity… and music needs Cyclone intellectualises this as being ammunition for some of the ‘politics’ which would ultimately transpire. “The hip hop dance as much dance needs music,” he states. Street Press Australia’s urban music writer Cyclone culture encourages assertiveness, free expression and battling or beefi ng,” she argues. “I did worry that Australian hip hop boasts a notable 15-year career. She witnessed as hip hop was not refl ective of the multicultural experience… this is why I coined the expression ‘skip hop’.” It’s a term she believes The art, the music, and the dance were all part and parcel was received and facilitated by the media. “Street press has since been taken out of its original context. “I’d now like to see more of our gifted female MCs like Lil G, A-Love and Class of a mass development originally developed on international accepted that hip hop – and R&B – was growing and had A fi nd commercial success,” she ponders on hip hop’s future minus current political shackles. “And the guys might do more to soil. Born in the Bronx, New York and Kingston, Jamaica, longevity. Melbourne street press was always onto it and proactively support them. I’d also like to see some of the home grown R&B acts fi nd wider success. It’s appalling that Daniel this lyrical communication originated from a tangible way ahead of Australia’s glossy music publications,” she Merriweather is bigger in the UK than here.” movement uniting members against racial politics, mass recalls. But the voice was still undernourished as MCs opted unemployment and a sense of social abandonment. to ditch their innate dialect. “They seemed preoccupied with Voted best female MC of 2008 and 2009 at the OzHipHop.com awards for her work as Class A, new schooler Andrea Baranski Kingston’s indigenous fusion of anti-colonialism and social some undefi ned ‘cultural cringe’. The debate also distracted works feverishly to remain focused in a male dominated industry. “It makes me work harder so that people have to take and political empowerment moved a body of people beyond local artists developing a sound per se.” me seriously, and appreciate my music because its quality, not because I am a female,” Baranski says. “I have come across their oppressors. Meanwhile in New York, individuals like DJ some people who think Australian girls shouldn’t rap at all. These people haven’t hindered my success, they have provided Kool Herc and Afrika Bambaataa were amongst countless During this stage artists defended their choice to reject their entertainment.” others to pave the way for one of the world’s most politically native tongue. “The major argument made by those who driven waves of music. rocked accents was that no one wanted to hear our local accent because it was hard to listen to,” manager of local YOU GO TO PRACTICALLY ANY COUNTRY Ironlak’s marketing manager Luke Shirlaw recalls that when shop Wax Museum Records and monthly side project Wax he started graffi ng as a 15-year-old “there was no industry”. Museum Records Jam Guy Roseby refl ects. “These days “ At that stage the media had latched onto a US commercial though hip hop has grown beyond the US. It is a worldwide AROUND THE WORLD AND YOU WILL FIND A hip hop conglomerate and given airtime to the likes of movement now.