Melbourne-based MC Whisper, has just released a new video clip. MC Whisper had a quick chat with allaussie hip hop and he had this to say:
“I’m really excited about the clip, cos we’ve been workin on it for a minute! The track is called, ‘Stand Up’, and the beat was produced by M-Phazes, featuring Lee Sissing on the hook. It also features a whole bunch of the Obese Records fam.”
It’s a bit of a milestone for me, as I’ve been producing beats for other hip-hop peeps for the last 4 years, since my group Equills released their LP, ‘The New Threat‘. So, it’s finally time that I stepped back up to the mic and this clip is just the beginning!
His production can be found throughout the Australian hip-hop scene, as he has worked with the likes of Skyzoo (USA), M-Phazes, Pegz, Count Bounce (TZU),13th Son, to name only a handful!
Whilst he does have his roots in the urban music scene, his production work has extended throughout genres of music not usually equated to a hip-hop producer, such as soul, folk and pop, with artists such as Amiel, and Nomi (Hercules and Love Affair).
In between producing, writing and recording for other talented musicians, Whisper has been on his grind putting together a FREE album,In Good Company. Which will feature a heap of collabs with some amazing local emcees, vocalists and producers.
Check out the Stand Up clip below, Whisper seems to be bring some heat, with M-Phazes working his magic on the beat, stay tuned for more on this!
Reckon you’ve got what it takes to play to 80,000 people? SPIN DJ COMP is back in 2010 looking for Adelaide’s hottest DJ talent to hit the decks at the Adelaide Fringe Opening Night Party on 19 February, 2010. Now in its fourth year, SPIN DJ COMP has been the springboard for talents such as Track Team (2007), Carter Bros (2008) and DJ Well Being (2009). SPIN DJ COMP will open for entries on Thursday 3 December and is encouraging DJs of all levels of experience to send in a mix… you never know – you might be the one we’re looking for to get the Fringe Opening Night Party cranking! SPIN DJ COMP is open to all South Australian DJs and producers. To enter, download an entry form from www.fringebenefits.com.au and submit it with a mix CD by Friday 15 January, 2009. Four finalists will be chosen to play the SPIN OFF at Sugar nightclub on Friday 5 February, 2009. The winner will then have the opportunity to play at the Adelaide Fringe Opening Night Party on February 19, 2009. SPIN DJ COMP is held in partnership with Fringe Benefits and the Adelaide Fringe with support from Nova 919, Sugar nightclub and Onion Magazine.
Download the entry form from the website below. Entries close Friday January 15, finalists announced January 29, Spin Off @ Sugar Friday February 5.
All entries to be posted or dropped of to:
Fringe Benefits
Adelaide Fringe
105 Hindley St
PO BOX 3242 Rundle Mall
Adelaide SA 5000
Got any questions? Contact:
Lauren Presser
Fringe Benefits Coordinator
8100 2061 | admin@fringebenefits.com.au
Website: http://www.fringebenefits.com.au/?p=2317
Adelaide is holding its first ever Producer Battle – tonight. The Kick Kick Snare Producer Battle is a coming together of some of the finest established and up and coming producers Adelaide has to offer. This is an opportunity for these musical prophets to display their skills in a competitive environment and be recognised for their endless hours of effort in refining the classic art of Hip Hop production.”
This is a first for Adelaide and its about time that the masterminds behind the music get a chance to flex their skills.
The battle format will be similar to a DJ battle, having the chance to play two 1 1/2 minute clips in the first round of their most banging shit, then into a head to head battle for the final rounds (2 beats per round) with 3 beats for the final round. The winner of each head to head battle will progress through until we crown the inaugural Kick Kick Snare Producer Champion.
The winner will take out a prize pack consisting of Cash and prizes from our sponsors: Blank Clothing, Ironlak, DaKlinic and 5to9 Events and the Electric Light Hotel.
The night also consists of performances from: • Social Change
• Simplex – Producer Showcase
• Jay Bdeps – Producer Showcase
• DJ Snair
Judges for the night are:
• Simplex (Terra Firma, Certified Wise)
• BVA (Mnemonic Ascent, Crookneck Records)
• DJ Snair (Social Change, Cross Bred Mongrels, Certified Wise, 2 x Australian DMC runner up)
• Jay Bdeps (Mindfield, Crackhouse Projects)
Tonight @ The Electric Light Hotel, 235 Grenfell St
Free Entry – Doors Open @ 7PM
Put the word out to all your crew, friends and fam and get them to come down and support Adelaide’s first Producer Battle.
Richard Kingsmill from Triple J will countdown the Top 10 albums of the year voted by you on the final ever ‘2009’ on December 13. He will also be going through his Top 10 album list and maybe contacting you to talk about the albums you’ve loved from this year.
To vote all you have to do is submit you selection online via the website below. To make it easier for everyone out there we have narrowed the list down to as many ‘aussie hip hop’ releases only.
Please note Chasm and Vida Sunshyne’s release Move is incorrectly labeled as ‘Sunshine’ on the voting website.
2009 has been another huge year for music! And as we’ve done for many years, we want to know what your favourite albums of the year have been.
Sit down, go through all of those albums you’ve devoured from this year; think about all of the feature albums you’ve heard over the past twelve months on triple j; think about what everyone has nominated in their own lists; then really rack your brains and try to put together a list of albums that YOU rate as your Top 10 albums of the year.
We also want you to tell us what your musical highlight of the year was and why.
The (edited) List
Astronomy Class – Pursuit Of Happiness
Bias B – Aerosol Era
Cross Bred Mongrels – Certified Wise
Chasm & Vida-Sunshyne – Move
Delta – The Second Story
Downsyde – All City
Diafrix – Concrete Jungle
Fluent Form – The Furnace
Gully Platoon – The Great Divide
Hilltop Hoods – State Of The Art
Headstrong Company – Self Titled
Horrorshow – Inside Story
Illy – Long Story Short
Killaqueenz – Sistarhood
Lazy Grey – The Soundtrack
Levelheaded – The Spice Of Life
Low Budget – Laserdisc
Mata & Must – Paradox Of Minds
MC Requiem – Grassroots Anarchy
Phatchance – Inkstains
Phrase – Clockwork
Snob Scrilla – Day One
Thundamentals – Sleeping On Your Style
That’s Them – Stay Up
True Live – Found Lost
Urthboy – Spitshine
NSW hip-hop collective Thundamentals have embarked on their first national headlining tour in support of their recently released full length, Sleeping On Your Style! After successful runs supporting Astronomy Class and shows on the Obese Records Block Party Tour, Thundamentals will cross the country hitting major cities and regional locations on a trek dubbed the Wake Up Tour!
The tour kicked off in Sydney on October 30th with an eclectic lineup featuring the improvisational comedy/hip hop troupe Sketch The Rhyme. The tour will see the group perform live alongside labelmate Mantra on select dates and will wrap up in Perth December 12 at the Rocket Room.
You can find the remaining dates below.
Check out the music video for the Triple J added single Move It Up also below.
THUNDAMENTALS – WAKE UP TOUR DATES
* December 4th – Adelaide, SA @ Jive w/ Social Change
* December 5th – Melbourne, VIC @ Revolver Upstairs w/ Mantra, Class A & DJ Bogues
* December 11th – Fremantle, WA @ Mojo’s Bar w/ Rhythm Infinit, Paully P, BYP, Prez Juan, Simmo T
* December 12th – Perth, WA @ Rocket Room w/ Bitter Belief & Porsah Laine
You can check out the Move It Up film clip below. Directed by Matthew Chuang, produced by Luke Graham, production designer: Roger Wong, production House Scope Red.
Today has seen the official release of Phatchance’s debut solo album, entitled Inkstains. As we do, allaussie hip hop has prepared a review of the album plus also some questions that we threw at Chance regarding his debut solo release, dropping via Obese Records Distribution. This project has been a real labor of love and features production from some of Phatchances’ closet mates including Adit (Horrorshow), Konfuzion, Akouo, Elgen, DJ Hoppa & One Above. It also features contributions from the likes of 360, Smiles Again (Mind Over Matter), Joyride & HR King.
Inkstains is 12 tracks deep, and comes in nice fold out cover. We must point out the dope foam CD holder and card diggipak, we all hate those plastic CD holders that break within a week of purchase. Phatchance describes Inkstains as a collection of moments that have shaped his life, and it’s this personal flavor that really had us listening time and time again. This is one album ‘joe blow’ could relate too. Stories of growing up, love lost, family problems and alcohol abuse are common place in today’s society, Phatchance delivers on these topics with intelligent lyrics and killer beats, this album holds it’s own among the top releases of this year.
So you played the role of the man with many hats on Inkstains, what was it like recording mixing and mastering the whole project yourself?
Challenging and rewarding, it’s easy to be hyper critical while working on every aspect of a project, it’s also easy to prolong the process through laziness or stress, which unfortunately are both big vices of mine. In the end I actually had the project remastered at Studios 301 by a really talented engineer called Andrew Edgson, I’m super happy with the result, it’s always beneficial to have another set of ears put the final touches on the project.
You have been involved in the hip hop scene for what seems like a long time, has your contact book and previous experience helped in making Inkstains one of the year’s top debut releases?
It definitely helped, acquiring so many producers and rappers as friends I had a really strong contact base when going into the creation of this album, it also let me work in a really organic, friendly way, which is what I’m after with the music making process. I guess people will have to draw their own judgments in terms of whether this debut lives up to the hype, at the end of the day I’m happy with the final product, the rest is up to the public, music is such a subjective artform that I’m trying not to count any of my chickens until I witness public reaction first hand.
Lighter tracks such as Angles In My Ears and Inkstains (the title track) initially grabbed our attention, Phatchances presence on the mic throughout the whole album is solid. The Catchy Song featuring 360, Smiles Again and Joyride will prove to be a summer hit radio wise. Although it was with a few more listens that we really found Phatchance excel in those tracks with a little more depth. Mountain Of Glass, may divide some, but anyone who digs conscious hip hop will dig this.
The Catchy Song featuring 360 raises some interesting points on commercial music and radio. Where do you see the Australian hip hop scene and it’s future, in relation to the commercial sector?
I think that Australian Hip-Hop is slowly transforming from a small sub-genre of the Australian music scene to a primary part of the entire musical landscape. Whether this is good or bad for the quality of the music is, I guess, the big question. My biggest gripe with the proliferation of local hip-hop music through the media is the reliance on gimmicks, there’s very little room for alternative or more melancholy hip-hop to make a mark, particularly on commercial radio. This isn’t the fault of the artists but the fault of the media that foster that particular image of local hip-hop music, I think as the genre establishes itself more we’re going to see a much wider array of local hip-hop music in the public spectrum, which can only be a positive thing. With that said I enjoy happy summertime tracks as much as the next man, that song is as much an homage as it is an address, it’s all very satirical and light-hearted and to make that clear I thought it was really important to work with someone like 60 on it, who is also a close friend.
The title track Inkstains mentions performing live in front of a crowd, is this one of the more enjoyable process of releasing an album? You recently performed with The Funkoars what was that like?
I absolutely love touring, it’s one of the best parts of my life and I think I’ve clocked more than 25,000 KM’s in the past year traveling across the country to play gigs. The Funkoars show on the weekend was a lot of fun, it was all ages and in a place called Wangaratta, I had never even heard of Wangaratta, let alone did I realise we had fans in the area!
One of the clear stand outs, in this thoroughly enjoyable album, is the track Reflections.Featuring emceePrime from South Australia, with production work from Horrorshow’s Adit. Phatchance and Prime both bring some raw honest hip hop on this track with verse’s that will tear your house down. Production from Adit is nothing short of brilliant. We were left to ponder the possibility of Horrorshow’s, Solo teaming up with Phatchance on a future track together, something we all hope to see. Some other tracks worth mentioning include I Don’t Know featuring Sam McNeill, Mountain Of Glass, Build It Up featuring H.R King, Angels In My Ears and Battlescars.
Now you worked with a lot of people on Inkstains, tell us about the track Reflections, how did you hook up with and what was it like working with Adit from Horrorshow and also emcee Prime?
Adit is one of my favorite producers in the country, we also grew up together and attended the same highschool so I’d been fiending for an opportunity to make a song with him. I can’t communicate how talented that dude is, in the one day we spent together in the studio he transformed the bones of that beat with some of the funkiest key playing I’ve ever seen. I have a huge amount of respect for Prime as a lyricist, that was one of the last tracks to come together on the album and I knew I wanted a feature on it, Prime was always in my mind as someone to get on the album so I’m really happy we could do that.
The whole album has a very personal flavor to it, Was it always your intention to go down this path or did it just evolve that way?
I think it’s important to write for the heart, I’m not strictly the kind of melancholy portrait the album paints me but when I sit down to write I want to write about things that touch me and for better or worse those things are often my personal problems. I operate under the knowledge I’m not the best rapper in the world, hell, I’m probably not the best rapper in my suburb. If I didn’t bring something new to the table there would really be no reason for anyone to listen to my music, I figure by trying to break down some of the stereotypes of local hip-hop music I’m offering myself the biggest chance to develop a supporter base, the whole process of writing is also very cathartic and has helped me get through a lot of things.
Phatchance lives and breathes hip hop, he raps about what he feels and what influences him, he loves sharing his stories, his passions and his hurts with all and he’s not scared to do so. Phatchance delivers with confidence, maturity and style. As he said himself he may not be the best rapper in the world, but its clear he knows his hip hop. This is a brave release, Phatchance really has taken risks with Inkstains, where others would have played it safe. It’s pretty difficult to be over critical of anything in particular. It may not be the cup of tea for some, but at the end of the day quality hip hop is quality hip hop.
If the quality alone didn’t win you over, I’m sure the free bonus disc that comes with Inkstains will, featuring fellow I Forgot, Sorry Crew members Coptic Solider and Mind Over Matter. This bonus disc comes with a decent selection of songs, and gives us a real taste of what the IFS crew are all about. Expect big things from these guys in the new year!
Now you have had some pretty kind comments from the Hilltop Hoods in regards to your music, has this added any pressure?
I wouldn’t say it’s added pressure if anything it helped me actually get the album finished. I’m operating under the assumption most of the album is probably not to those guys tastes, afterall many of the tracks are in a grossly different direction to the music they make, but since The Hoods formed the backbone of my musical education it feels great to have a wink and a nod from Suffa.
Will we see you performing around the nation with the I Forgot Sorry crew in the new year?
You better believe it, I’m currently booking a run of shows nationally for March, before then I’ve got spot shows under the NYE period and a spate of random performances before the end of the year. Next year I want to take my music everywhere that wants to have me, hopefully this album is received well enough to warrant that.
All in all, Inkstains is a top release. Phatchance has chosen well on the producer front and has collabed well with his sensible guest list. With crews of the likes of Spit Syndicate and more recently Horrorshow – Phatchance, is clearly among the new school of Australian Hip Hop acts pushing for a more meaningful style of hip hop. With insightful rhymes, a truthfulness that will smack you in the face with a hammer plus a bonus CD freebie, how could you turn Phatchances debut solo effort down. We rate Inkstains a large 4.08 out of 5.
Be sure to grab your copy from all the usual places.
Phatchances Myspace
Phatchances Twitter: @phatchanceau
JB-Hi Fi online order here. Official Webpage here.
It’s been a long time coming but it appears there is finally movement at The Optimen base camp. Over the last few days, we have seen the opening of the their new Myspace, also an update of their website (pic above), and the official announcement of the new album, The Out Of Money Experience.
The Out of Money Experience will be dropping in (about) March next year.You can download the first single of the album, Fire Fighters, for free (and it’s a banger) via their website here.
Fans of Lazy Grey should also check out Something in the Air feat. Lazy Grey and Laneous (info on these guys coming soon) on The Optimens Myspace page here.
Three of Sydneys premier acts are teaming up to see 2009 off with a massive night of slamming hip-hop and reggae-infused jams. On Friday the 18th of December, the Oxford Art Factory will host Spit Syndicate, The Tongue and Chasm & Vida Sunshyne in what is sure to be one of the biggest nights on the local music calendar.
After bursting onto the Australian hip-hop scene last year with an ARIA-nominated album and two national tours, Sydney wonderkids Spit Syndicate have been relatively quiet in 2009 as they prepare their sophomore record. They are breaking their 12-month hiatus with their first headline show of 2009, showcasing some new material as well as rocking the crowd with some established favourites. Accompanied by the larger than life DJ Joyride, the SS live performance involves banging beats, live instrumentation and a whole lot of energy.
The Tongue is one of Sydney’s most celebrated MCs. Initially known for his freestyle/battle skills he was quickly snapped up by iconic hip hop label Elefant Traks and has since released an EP (“Bad Education“), mixtapes and a full length album Shock And Awe. His radio-hits include “The Punch”, “Real Thing”, “Bad Education” and “Animal Crackers”. He has collaborated with the likes of Urthboy, Bertie Blackman, Katalyst, The Bag Raiders, Muph And Plutonic etc and supported international acts such as Dizzie Rascal, Pharoahe Monch and Public Enemy. His latest mixtape “The Tongue Is Dead” can be downloaded for free here and his much-anticipated second album will be released in 2010.
Chasm and Vida Sunshyne have recently released one of 2009s most groundbreaking records, Move, a critically-acclaimed album which traverses the global spectrum of soul, reggae, and hip hop. Chasm Sydney-based producer-extraordinaire Chasm (of Beyond the Beat Tape and Astronomy Class fame) has teamed with -by-way-of-Ghanas Vida-Sunshyne, a powerful and extremely talented performer who has spent the last year touring the world with the Mista Savona Band. Together they are an electric collaboration of musical talent; and their dynamic, genre-smashing live show is an experience not to be missed.
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