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Underground > Radio & Music >

Try This Band: Hilltop Hoods

  
 
ORA ORA ORA ORAAAA!!
09:08 / 13.11.06
Here's some songs, for your ears to test:
The Calling
Dumb Enough
The Sentinel

The Hard Road
Clown Prince
What a Great Night
Circuit Breaker

Right. These guys are from Adelaide, which is far away from me, and not somewhere I'm inclined to go, so I only heard them with The Calling, having missed their more underground days, though you can pretty clearly hear their rhyme battle past in their current lyrics. The Calling was a goddamn phenomenal album, I think the first Aus hip-hop album to go platinum.

The Hard Road is better. I don't exactly know what about it is better, I can't pick it apart. I guess it's the production, but it might also be the delivery, and the subject matter. The Hilltops are never going to be as socially conscious as The Herd (on which topic I'll maybe make a thread later - their latest album, The Sun Never Sets, is tremendous, but didn't get much sales, as far as I can see), but there's a lot more commentary on life today in the Hard Road, and it shows a bit more political awareness. But political awareness is boring! The production is, I guess, punchier? Yeah. That sounds about right. The album as a whole just hits harder. Right in the middle of your brain. Man, I'm the worst talking-about-music person ever (you should see me code about design, though!), I'm sorry I'm not being more clear and concise.

The album as a whole has a narrative flow which the last album doesn't have. Song subject segues into the next song, or the next song references the last song, in a very satisfactory way. There's intercut bits of people telling Pressure and Suffa (the MCs, who should have been introduced earlier, but weren't, due to authorship limitations) to get their act together and make a goddamn album, already, which for some reason makes the album itself much better. Possibly because they've got material from when the album was already late in the album itself, and I can relate to last minute/past deadline work.

I'm going to let you listen to these tracks, and get back to me, ok? I'd like you to do that.

Incidentally, the Hilltops were responsible for the most pumped and excited crowd I've ever been a part of, at the Big Day Out a couple years ago. They were in a small oval-ish barn, while some giant international star played in a stadium nearby, and there was about twice as many people in there as was allowed, and as actually fit. People were crowding around the doors and side exits, about 5 metres deep, to try and catch a glimpse of the stage. All of us, jumping and pumping fists in the air at the same time. The day was hot as hell, everyone was soaked in sweat and it was just fucking amazing. No-one cared about the shit conditions, it was just music and nothing but in anyone's mind. Their crowd control is incredible. Unfortunately they don't get up here very often, and I've only seen them live once, but they're still at the top of my live list. If they're anywhere near you, ever, go see them.
 
 
stabbystabby
00:12 / 15.11.06
ah, ozzie rap. gotta love it.
 
 
ORA ORA ORA ORAAAA!!
10:22 / 15.11.06
you do. you also have to tell me why.

or why you don't. It's up to you, mostly.
 
 
stabbystabby
22:24 / 15.11.06
well.... the absence of references to bling is a biggie. i do like hearing the ocker accent as well. and oz rap tends to be funkier than most commercial rap. and funny too - butterfingers, Curse ov Dialect, Morganics.....
 
 
Regrettable Juvenilia
05:02 / 16.11.06
Man, white people are so clever.
 
 
ORA ORA ORA ORAAAA!!
06:47 / 16.11.06
yeah, I guess they are.

I was more looking for comments on this music specifically, but I guess if you want to talk about the race balance in australian hip hop, then that's cool too. Seeing as it's a good idea to get new discussion threads started in this forum, and all that.

I'll let you go first, though.
 
 
Pepsi Max
08:10 / 16.11.06
The Oz rap I'be heard is as unrecognisable to its US origins as UK Grime - which you could argue is its the polar opposite. The backing tracks for Wiley, Lethal Bizzle, Dizzy et al are cold as all hell (eski). Whereas the samples in Oz are warm'n'fuzzy funk, soul, etc. The lyrics are either earnest loveletters to the scene (yes, that means you, Bliss 'n' Eso) or laddish, beered-up bonhomie (Hilltop Hoods). I saw The Herd a few years back and thought they were bloody awful.

There are some fantastic lyricists here in Sydney (J Rap, Anonymous, The Tongue are some of my favorites) but the musical backing is often very conservative. Ironically, there is also a strong avant-electronic scene here is as well (e.g. Modular, Cyclic Defrost) but as far as I know the two have little in common. Shame...
 
 
ORA ORA ORA ORAAAA!!
09:11 / 16.11.06
really? How long ago is a few years? I've seen them a couple times in the last two years, and they've been really good... Though I've never seen them with the whole, what, 11 members they've got? I can see how that could get too messy to cohere onstage.

Their latest album is really good, have you heard it? I'm not opposed to putting samples of it in accessible places.

Hilltops actually seem to split about half/half scene loev (or mockery. love of their crew, not so much other people) and booze anthems. I didn't really give a good representation of the album here, come to think of it, but there's only so much uploading I can justify to myself as giving people a sample.

I've got to admit to being more interested in the politically motivated hip-hop than scene stuff or drinking, but this album took a visceral hold on me.

I agree that there's a tremendous difference between oz stuff and the UK/US, but I lack the detailed knowledge to define it clearly. I'm actually hearing a fair bit of Del in the hilltops new album, but he's not really your paradigmatic US rapper. There's also at least some cooperation between UK artists and, well, the hilltops - Mystro and Braintax are on the hard road, I'm pretty sure braintax was on the last EP too. I don't know much about them, are they usually associated with the whole grime thing, or ? They seem a little more relaxed in their delivery than I associate with grime, less angular sounding.

One of the reasons I posted this, actually, is to get the opinions of the international set, here, but I see that I completely failed to mention this. I, personally, have no idea where the style of australian hip-hop came from, but if anyone has a chart of evolution and influences for hip-hop from the first MCs in jamaica (or whatever you choose to define the start of hip-hop as) to modern times where there's at least one style per country - I'd like to see it.

One of the main differences, which flyboy has already pointed out, is that hip-hop is much less a "black" musical style, here. Mostly, I'd imagine, because there's many less 'black' people here than in either the US or the UK. And, of course, because decades of systematic repression means that those Indigenous folk who are around are generally not given the sort of access to a) resources for recording b) spaces for performing for anyone other than their own folk and c) media attention, that your average white dude has.

There are a couple of indigenous or partially indigenous groups, (1200 techniques, nokturnl, and the wilcannia mob are the only ones which come to mind, sadly), and Morganics is doing a lot of work with Indigenous people, MC Wire particularly, lately. Hip-hop seems remarkably unrepresented in the Deadlys.


This is probably a new thread, now.
 
 
ORA ORA ORA ORAAAA!!
09:16 / 16.11.06
P.S. do you have any samples of J Rap and Anonymous? I've heard the Tongue, now that he's getting pushed pretty hard around the traps, but I am so very un-scene, and I've not really heard anyone outside the big couple. I should hang out at the landsdowne more, I guess.
 
 
Pepsi Max
19:49 / 16.11.06
I saw The Herd at their 2003 album launch at the Gaelic Club. The acoustics weren't the best. And their supports (Cursed ov Dialect - who were a complete mess on-stage but lots of people have bigged up their recorded material) and Combat Wombat (who sucked majorly period). I may have to get the album & revise my opinions.

The Herd reminded me so much of UK alterno-festival bands like Senser and Back To The Planet from the early 90s - whose attempts to mix hip-hop with rock were clumsy in the extreme. But like I say, might have to go back and revise that.

I am less concerned about the politics of the crew and more about their approach to music. Some of the best music can be made by those with reprehensible views.

I used to frequent the battles at the Lansdowne but have completely lost touch with that scene.

As for the colour of the Australian hip-hop scene, you have to remember that the only connection between US blacks and Australian aborigines is the colour of their skin and the attitudes of white people. There is no reason per se why hip hop should be more relevant to them than a white kid in Parramatta.

I think my frustration with Australian hip hop is that it is still in awe of the US. And it's very sonically conservative.

But that same accusation could be made against most of Australian rock and pop.
 
 
ORA ORA ORA ORAAAA!!
00:40 / 17.11.06
As for the colour of the Australian hip-hop scene, you have to remember that the only connection between US blacks and Australian aborigines is the colour of their skin and the attitudes of white people. There is no reason per se why hip hop should be more relevant to them than a white kid in Parramatta.

Oh, I know. But flyboy seemed to think it was important, for some reason. And there is the vague sense of hip-hop as 'resistance music'. Maybe. But yes. I mostly addressed it because I didn't want this thread to look like a mindless celebration of white supremacy, even though that's really not relevant here...
 
 
Alex's Grandma
01:18 / 17.11.06
I put myself through about ten minutes of that. But it wasn't easy. As a consequence, I think I can honestly say that in terms of what Australia's given the world, (even in those terms,) this album still looms up as a somewhat grim episode.

I haven't thought about this very much, it's just how I feel.

Accordingly, I guess the next thing to do is find a drum machine, a set of decks that someone hopefully wasn't sick on at a party a couple of years ago, and then set my utterly bird-witted opinions about what it's like in the ghetto to music that was a bit out of date ... I suppose a while ago now, from the safety of my bedroom. Even though I'm forty five.

Basically, I think the Hilltop Hoodz won't see me for dust.
 
 
Regrettable Juvenilia
14:56 / 18.11.06
I'm with Alex on this one: my attempts to give Hilltop Hoods a fair hearing have been severely curtailed by an inability to listen to more than the first 30 seconds of each song. The one that starts "it's your round!" was particularly shocking. Blood came out of my ears.

It's the blokiness of it that I can't stand - Hilltop Hoods are just normal guys, yeah, down-to-earth guys, regular guys like you and me, mate. Guh. Reminds me a lot of the worst UK hip hop, i.e. a lot of the pre-grime, pre-Sway stuff that got a bit of attention from the mainstream media. Just thoroughly mediocre, really. And if the production is "funkier" than "most commercial rap", then it's only in the sense that the Red Hot Chili Peppers are "funky", i.e. godawful.

I mean, I'm sure there is some good Australian rap, but band names like Curse ov Dialect and Morganics (Morganics? are you sure?) don't exactly instill me with hope. I quite like some MC Trey stuff that I've heard, but even she's a little too - I dunno, Ms Dynamite in Jools Holland -friendly mode? - for my tastes.
 
 
Pepsi Max
06:18 / 19.11.06
There are plenty of Jay-Z/Eminem/Michael Franti wannabes on the Aussie hiphop scene - but there is no one that wants to be a Timberland, a Neptunes or a Wiley.

If there is, please tell me.
 
 
stabbystabby
20:46 / 19.11.06
if you dislike the blokiness of the Hilltop Hoods, try Morganics. much less blokey - he also does a lot of production for Indigenous hiphop performers.

other recommendations: TZU, Maya Jupiter, Indigenous Intrudaz, Dragonfly, Briztronix, Macromantics, maybe even 1200 Techniques.
 
 
stabbystabby
20:48 / 19.11.06
I mean, I'm sure there is some good Australian rap, but band names like Curse ov Dialect and Morganics (Morganics? are you sure?) don't exactly instill me with hope.

as opposed to 50 Cent, Jay-Z, Timbaland and Fat Joe?
 
 
Regrettable Juvenilia
21:11 / 19.11.06
Yes, as opposed to those.
 
 
stabbystabby
23:06 / 19.11.06
when i said australian rap is funkier, i meant that it's closer to early rap in terms of beats than the R&B style hiphop that's popular at the moment. definitely not RHCP style - not that there's anything wrong with the Chili Peppers.
 
 
Regrettable Juvenilia
23:16 / 19.11.06
So it's stuck in the past? Why is that a good thing?
 
 
Crux Is This City's Protector.
23:55 / 19.11.06
I'm not sure that employing a style similar to styles past can be immediately identified as being 'stuck in the past.'

Any more than RA the Rugged man building an entire rep off telling everyone in earshot how he was listening to hip-hop before them.
 
 
stabbystabby
00:49 / 20.11.06
why is it a bad thing?
 
 
Pepsi Max
07:26 / 20.11.06
xstabbyx> It's not bad. Just a bit boring. Like going to see a covers band pretend to be The Stones or The Beatles.

These outfits can be entertaining but rarely does an Aussie hip hop track stop me in my tracks and surprise me.

Australia - The Mike Flowers Of Hip Hop...
 
 
stabbystabby
07:36 / 20.11.06
perhaps - i find R&B influenced hiphop very boring, so, ehhh, different strokes and all that.

One i forgot to mention - the Resin Dogs. Good production, very danceable.
 
 
Disco is My Class War
09:59 / 21.11.06
Hilltop Hoods really frakking suck. This is not music.

Apart from Maya Jupiter, who I have a huge fondness for, and maybe Mc Trey, who I used to like years ago, I really can't stand Australian hiphop. Curs ov Dialect, Morganics, especially Hilltop Hoods. The latter, yeah, it's blokey and dumb and stuck in the past. Australian MCs have mostly stuck to an 'authentic' sound and tried to maintain their 'roots' in the absence of any.

That said, I believe Sydney and Brisbane have huge hiphop and R'n'B scenes that tend to have a lot of Pacific Islanders involved. They're just not on the radar, much.

Then you have the Avalanches. But I wouldn't class the Avalanches as Australian hiphop. They're in a class of their own.
 
 
Pepsi Max
04:31 / 22.11.06
>Then you have the Avalanches. But I wouldn't class the >Avalanches as Australian hiphop. They're in a class of >their own.

The Avalanches were good in a DJ Shadowy kinda fashion. And they are DJing at the Modular Xmas Party - which I will go to if I can find someone else interested...
 
 
Disco is My Class War
11:25 / 22.11.06
In Melbourne, sorry. Looking forward to seeing them DJ at Golden Plains. With the Slits. THE SLITS.
 
  
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