Hilltop Hoods Bliss N Eso Beef

"We were white MCs. This was pre-Eminem."

Australian hip-hop has never been equally diverse and important as information technology is correct now. You've got A.B. Original winning the Australian Music Prize, Sampa the Slap-up promoting gender equality, L-Fresh The Lion representing Australia for YouTube'south Creators For Alter plan, and Remi opening upward about mental illness and substance abuse — and that's but in the last few months.

But it wasn't always this way — it took years for the genre to bear witness itself and for the local hip-hop scene to build itself upwardly from scratch. Elation Northward Eso have been around since the start.

The Sydney trio were some of the earliest pioneers of Australian hip-hop, and certainly i of the first to attract mainstream attention. They've seen it all, from physically handing out CDs at tiny gigs and relentless regional touring to major label deals and international shows. This month Bliss North Eso returned with the new anthology Off The Grid,their sixth full-length since 2004.

To marking the release we had a chat to Jonathan Notley (the 'Elation' in Bliss North Eso) to notice out how Australian hip-hop made it to where it is today.

---

Let's commencement at the very beginning, the primeval days of Elation N Eso and the Australian hip-hop scene. What was information technology like?

[The scene] was virtually not-existent. In that location were a handful of acts doing their thing. Information technology was an underground scene, merely it was very, very undercover. There was no real internet, so we found out virtually stuff through tiny lilliputian columns or mentions in street printing.

Going to loftier school in Australia, at that place was nobody to ask simple questions like, "How do y'all make tapes? How do y'all tape songs? What'due south the engineering science? What machines do I need to get?" In that location was no ane to ask. There was no instruction manual. It was just usa fumbling around in the dark, pedagogy ourselves, slowly gaining knowledge over those showtime few years.

Nosotros literally started out recording our cassette tapes with two crush boxes. If y'all imagine our head is in the middle, we'd take two smash boxes on our shoulders. Then one on each shoulder: 1 playing the shell, you're rapping in the middle, and y'all're recording onto the other i. That's how archaic it was when we first started making tracks.

"There was no instruction manual. It was just the states fumbling around in the dark, teaching ourselves"

Plain we also got laughed at. We were white MCs, this was pre-Eminem. Vanilla Ice was effectually, but there was still the misconception that white guys can't rap. So we had to deal with all the ridicule that came along with that, especially in high school.

We're lucky to be i of the very, very few acts to pioneer the scene with a couple others, and really forge the way for a lot of artists at present. It'south cool to be a role of history in that sense.

Totally. At the time radio wasn't even playing US hip-hop, permit solitary Australian.

Certainly not. Community stations would take 1 testify a week for i hr, which was a local DJ who played hip-hop, peradventure a couple of local songs. If you got lucky. You'd go into a CD store, a record store, and y'all'd try to discover the hip-hop section, but well-nigh didn't have an "urban" or hip-hop section. Nosotros had to brand that happen.

Then when did you notice it starting to alter and people paying attention?

It didn't happen overnight. It took years and years, relentless touring. When we had our first CD, we'd accept to go and create opportunities for shows. We'd attempt and get on whatsoever kind of support nosotros could.

We were the commencement hip-hop grouping to always make a promotional mixtape in Australia. Our DJ made it and we used that as a promotional tool, we'd literally hand them out. We'd notice fans during the early stages of the internet, maybe ane person in each town that liked us, or was willing to help. Or was a friend of a friend and we'd ship them a hundred CDs and get them to mitt it out all around town and create some fizz before we came to our show.

Two of Bliss N Eso's early press shots

Those shows became successful. Nosotros'd get like two hundred people in, which was huge for u.s. back then. Information technology was all about creating your own groundswell, and hustling hard.

Nosotros were the kickoff band to bring hip-hop to a lot of regional locations around the country. They were pretty starved for live music then information technology became a big deal. We built our fan base of operations one fan at a time. Meeting them, taking photos, shaking hands, signing CDs. Making a connection.

"We were the first band to bring hip-hop to a lot of regional locations"

It's paid off over the years, but it took a very, very long time for united states of america to quit out twenty-four hour period jobs.

And hip-hop slowly began to built upwards a real audience around the state.

It was a gradual process. You got your postage stamp of approval with things like the ARIAs. The Urban section never used to exist, that was created. That was a large moment.

Honestly information technology'south always bugged a lot of hip-hop artists because "Urban" ways R&B and hip-hop and rap, simply we all kind of keep it in our ain lanes. Anyway, we weren't complaining. Nosotros were happy nosotros were included.

The band at the 2008 ARIAs

It'south changed so much. Now y'all've got fully fledged platinum artists doing really well, commanding large crowds, touring nationally and even overseas. At first it was just us and the [Hilltop] Hoods. Now yous've got other acts coming upward nether u.s.a. and doing really well, like 360, Illy, Seth Sentry and Thundamentals. The quality of the music has gotten then much improve over the years.

"I don't count Iggy Azalea"

It's now at an international level, I feel. And that's why it'due south an heady fourth dimension for the genre hither, for the first time I really feel like we'll go an artist who makes it overseas. I don't count Iggy Azalea.

Yes. It's not just that the local audience has grown, simply the quality has become and so much higher.

The music is like some other earth from what it used to be, and that inspires younger acts. You'd be amazed how it used to sound in some of these cassette tapes back in the day. But that's not a diss, information technology's a natural progression. There's more healthy competition, more engineering science, and there's more noesis, and you sympathize how things are happening. You can connect with so many different people effectually the globe.

—

Bliss North Eso's new album Off The Grid is out now through Illusive/Flight Deck. Details on their upcoming bout tin be found on the Frontier Touring website.

lopezpreavermy.blogspot.com

Source: https://junkee.com/got-laughed-bliss-n-eso-early-days-aussie-hip-hop/104293

Share this post