For years I had trouble getting into the smattering of hip hop being produced down under since the 1990s - most of it was too indebted to acid jazz and whacked out beats that just didn't flow and the stories were too generic, not a organic part of the Aussie urban story and perhaps because of this, the aussie accent stood out commically, caused by this even more than its lack of familiarity.

In recent years though I have been loving Aussie hip hop - it has now turned a corner where an urban Aussie can listen to the stories being rapped and immediately nod and laugh in recognition, all the while nodding or jumping to beats and mixing that is well in touch with both old school roots and modern magpie eclecticism in a fresh way that the long established US and UK scenes increasingly lack.

Anyhoo, for those who are interested, check out some fine recent Aussie hip hop releases for your listening pleasure:

Bliss 'n' Esso - "Flying Colours"
Urthboy - "The Signal" & "Ready to Go EP"
TZU - "Computer Love"
The Tongue - "Shock and Awe"
Pegz - "Burn City"
Chasm - "Beyond the Beat Tape"
The Grey Space - "Horrorshow"
Astronomy Class - "Pursuit of Happiness"
Hilltop Hoods - "State of the Art"
Low Budget - "Laserdisc"

While the focus and stories are Aussie local, I'd still be interested to see if anyone really gets into any of this and even partly sees it like I do; that is, for an urban whitey like me who has no gang affiliation, criminal record or much bling to speak of but who still loves the wordplay and flow and foonky beats of hip hop, this stuff is therefore more enjoyable for me than most hip hop released in recent years.

As an Australian I am proud to say I hate Australian hip hop. Actually I hate most Australian music, does that mean I am racist against myself. I also hate how triple J promotes acts like the Hilltop Hoods as if they were a real band.

quote:

Originally posted by PrairieFire:
As an Australian I am proud to say I hate Australian hip hop. Actually I hate most Australian music, does that mean I am racist against myself. I also hate how triple J promotes acts like the Hilltop Hoods as if they were a real band.

Er...Australians are not a race, they are a diverse bunch of races collected together, so, no, you are not being racist.

Proudly rejecting an entire body of music does make you disappointingly narrow minded - but that is a global problem far from unique to Australia.

But thank you anyway for your constructive and illuminating response.