With nothing much else to do in Ringwood, the 23-year old decided to start rapping in between smashing cones and skating ledges. From flipping freestyles in his room and his car, he’s built a massive online following that’s led to sell out headline shows on his current Fire tour, and support slots with Ice Cube, Azealia Banks and most recently Seth Sentry.
They’re some big name support slots, but Ooze has no trouble naming his favourite tour so far. “I would have to say Seth’s probably, because I got to go all over Australia and check out everywhere. Plus we had a few days off where we could just go and explore.”
However, the most receptive audience he’s performed to was at the Come Togetherfestival in Sydney with other acts such as REMI, Thundamentals and Horrowshow. “There were so many people there, I’d definitely say that’s my biggest performance to date,” he says. “It depends on how the crowd’s feeling though when compared to the mixed bag festivals. When I went on stage I had so much energy and just maintained it throughout the whole set, so that’s what made the crowd so into it and made the atmosphere amazing.”
A characteristically relentless performer, Ooze says he nearly passed out on stage at a recent headline show in Adelaide. “I think it’s about keeping the rate of performance up. On the Seth tour we had five days performing and then two days off, so it’s almost like a work out in a way. If you continuously do it, it’s natural and becomes easier. But I don’t work out man, I’m fucking unfit. So when it came to the Adelaide show, I jumped off stage and I was dizzy as shit. It was really hot in the room and I was freaking out because the room was so packed. I wondered if anyone had dropped something in my drink, but it just turns out I’m totally unfit [laughs].”
Ooze’s sense of humour is key to his music’s appeal, and his casual nature has given fans incentive to beg him to add extra shows to his current tour. “When you’re a rapper, you’re also an entertainer,” he says. “When I do video freestyles in my room, I get my mates over and there’s beer on the walls, someone’s kicked a hole in the wall. But people like that because you’re rowdy and it’s pretty much stuff that they do with their own crew.”
This rowdiness is cranked up to 11 in the rapper’s latest video Fire, complete with pyrotechnics. He admits he “didn’t know it was going to be that crazy”, which suggests Ooze rocked up to the shoot and realised that he was nowhere near qualified to be the adult in the situation.
“Oh man, you’re so right,” he laughs. “Take the jumpsuit for example, it was way too small. If you see me in the clip, I try and raise my arms and I couldn’t even get them above my head. There’s fire going off everywhere while I’m struggling. It was nuts.”
With a sponsorship from flavoured milk producers Nippy’s already on his side, if he sets fire to anything at one of his forthcoming shows, Ooze reckons he’s got it covered. “Oh man. I had so many at the Adelaide show I wanted to make a bath out of them because we couldn’t take them on the plane. But we had a few too many drinks so that never happened. But maybe I should ask Nippy’s for a fire hydrant? That’d be a great way to make sure shit doesn’t go wrong. Let’s see what happens.”
BY JONTY SIMMONS
