Indeed, winning his first MC battle when he was just 17, the lad felt that really set the scene for him. “I was young, but it didn’t feel young to me,” he explains. “My best friend is a rapper from Adelaide called Dialect. He was winning battles when we were 14 so that made me feel like a late bloomer. At the time, I just knew I could freestyle a little bit. I’d always written raps, but I had absolutely no idea how to make any of that into real music or what steps to take.”
The prize for winning the battle as it turned out though, was time in the studio. That spurred a demo CD which resulted in an EP and then an album and a raft of touring.
“When my song So Good got some traction on the radio I decided I didn’t have much else going on in life so I should give music a serious try,” he says. “It all just flowed on from there. When I did the Loners Are Cool EP, I really wanted to tell a story about the lone side of me; I wanted people who related to that to feel better about themselves. To be honest, the project was a massive struggle because I parted ways with my producer and had no budget to make the EP.”
As it turned out, everything happens for a reason and when it was all finished up, the only song that he felt he would listen to if it wasn’t his, was Eyes On The Road. “So I started working on my LP and based it off that sound,” he reveals. “It’s coming out in the middle of the year and has been a real labour of love. I have been driving around listening to it and smiling to myself. I don’t want to talk it up too much, but I’m happy that I’m getting better and I intend to keep getting better.”
Finally, he reflects on what makes this all worthwhile – his very raison d’être. “It’s all for the people, to the people. I always keep the philosophy that musicians are supposed to be the voice of the people and not above them. That’s why I prefer to meet fans and interact with them and that’s why I do my best to reply to people on social media.”
Life of a real MC? Must be.
BY RK
