Australia’s hip-hop scene has grown exponentially over the last few years. The emergence of superstars like OneFour, The Kid LAROI and HP Boyz has shone a bright light on what’s going on around Australia, and it’s seen the scene shift and morph. When titans of a music scene make it on a global level, it starts to shine a light on those that are making waves in the underground. Fans of OneFour/HP Boyz are likely to fall in love with acts like New Wave and RealDealSkeng, while fans of The Kid LAROI will want to check out SAHXL.
Look even deeper, though, and you’ll start to see the green shoots of the underground poke through. Scenes like the Australian SoundCloud rap scene are in their infancy, relative to their overseas counterparts, but communities are already starting to form around the music these artists are making. Speaking to Rude Baby Records founder Gabby Bortolot about the Australian SoundCloud rap scene, a scattered yet exciting movement, she highlights the community that forms whenever these artists play a live show. “Because rap shows are often few and far between, it’s those fans that go the hardest,” she says.
“They’re the people buying tickets weeks before the show, rocking up soon on doors, being vocal at the front of the crowd, moshing, etc. They’re so awesome, and definitely, a huge reason why Rude Baby has such a strong community.” Sydney MC Scan, who’s a close friend of the Rude Baby Records community, echoes this idea of showing up to celebrate when it matters most. Shouting out Rude Baby Records, he says, “[Rude Baby] took me from just doing shit on the internet to putting on shows. All I want is for people to enjoy my music and have fun so it lets me have fun with them and I really love performing.”
Throughout our conversation, Scan urges fans to tap into what’s going on online – especially on SoundCloud. Pockets like the SoundCloud rap scene are popping up across the country, both in person and online, and it’s creating a snowball effect. Artists that are challenging the norms are increasingly finding their audiences, which encourages people to make the jump from being a fan to being an artist. It’s exciting to think where the scene is going to be in a few years, because there are more artists than ever pushing the sonics of what is considered Australian rap forward.
However, not every Australian artist pops off in Australia first. YNG Martyr found an Australian audience after he was already a global underground star, following the success of tracks like the viral ‘Nike Ticks’. Reflecting on his trajectory, he says, “I think I did things in reverse.I became an international artist before I ever had any success in Australia. As the years have rolled on though, I feel that we have broken the mould of what Australian rap music “is”, and we have opened the gates to so many different subgenres of it. I’ve started to land festival slots, and feel accepted in my home country, which is something I genuinely didn’t think would happen.”
In the last 12 months, though, YNG Martyr’s been a steady presence on the Australian festival circuit, and Australian audiences have fully embraced him off the back of tracks like ‘WAIT’ with Logan M, ‘Overthinking’ and ‘Love Boy’. He’s passionate about the Australian rap scene’s trajectory and says variety is the scene’s biggest strength. “Australia has a crazy underground scene, and the main strength I think is that we tamper with a lot of different sounds,” he explains. ”That’s our biggest strength, we have hella artists from every genre, who all come through with a different flavour, and different definitions of these pre-existing genres. The scene here takes notice of what is happening in other countries, but always adds their own sauce. I compare it to how the UK Drill scene took note of people like [Chief] Keef, and created their own genre out of that. I love that about us.”
If you’re looking to dive deeper into the world of Australian rap, then it’s worth tapping into what’s going on in the Australian rap underground, as it’s a swirling world that is as exciting and chaotic as anything that’s happening in Australia at the moment. Like Scan, you might want to trust the SoundCloud algorithm – he says he will “always rave on about the autonomy of SoundCloud and the quality of the algorithm” – or you could listen to us! We’ve put together 9 artists from Australia’s rap underground that you should have on your radar, from a number of sub-genres and sounds. Grab some headphones and take a crash course in the weird and wonderful world of Australian rap.
Check out the full list below and get these 9 artists on your radar!