Mantra is fast becoming one of Australia’s most eminent hip-hop artists. After setting a new benchmark with first solo effort Power Of The Spoken, the Melbourne emcee is back with an explosive new release entitled Speaking Volumes. Combining both musical proficiency and articulate character, Mantra has delivered a seamless, holistic album. Speaking Volumes exhibits the intricate philosophizing idiosyncrasy of Mantra’s rhymes.

Publicly, yet astutely labelled ‘your favourite rapper’s favourite rapper’, it was no surprise that an inundation of accomplished names stepped forward to contribute. Speaking Volumes features an impressive array of guest artists such as Promoe (Looptroop Rockers, Sweden), Drapht, Urthboy, Illy and many more. Production-wise, the album boasts a stylistically diverse selection of sounds; each producer bringing his own realm of sonic brilliance to the fore. Speaking Volumes credits beats from the likes of M-Phazes, El Gusto and Mista Savona among others.

‘Language and words have been important to me my entire life. I believe them to be crucial to not only music and art, but to life and to humanity. They are humanity’s finest achievement, and our most valuable (non-physical) resource. I consider them to be one of the only passions in my life, and one of my only strong suits. I refuse to engage in, condone or support violent behaviour, as I believe it to be futile and appalling, as well as something that has scarred my life, so my only option is to fight with words.’ Mantra

Speaking Volumes is out now through Obese Records and available where all good Hip Hop is sold. 

Are you ready to witness the most amazing collection of local Hip Hop ever listed for auction?

The cream of Australia’s talent has pooled together for a once in a lifetime eBay listing, offering some extremely rare & desirable bits n’ pieces from their own collections all in the name of fund-raising for our friend HUNTER-SBX.
The “HEAT 4 HUNTZ” eBay auction begins late Sunday the 7th of November 2010 & hopes to raise a decent amount to donate to the Perth, Western Australian stalwart who is battling with Cancer. 100% of all proceeds of the auction will be donated to Hunter & his son Marley!

As a huge fan of the Oz scene, Hunter is an avid collector of the vinyl releases this country has offered, so it’s only fitting we offer a massive selection of some of Huntz faves from over the past 10 years. Most of the pieces on offer are long out of print collectibles with many personalized for this auction by the artist, making the items majorly rare! So…..bid accordingly!

This auction will be run by “Wordburner” a.k.a. Bias B, so you can trust the auctions will be 100% legit!

Peers of Hunter’s who’ve donated from their own collections for the cause are:

750 Rebels
Bias B
Brothers Stoney
Def Wish Cast
Delta
DJ Bonez
DJ DCE
DJ Sheep
Hilltop Hoods
Koolism
Lazy Grey
Len One
Lyrical Commission
Matty Fresh
Muph
Pegz
Plutonic Lab
Reason
Resin Dogs
Trem

Please note: this auction ends 10 days from the starting date 7th November. This is a one off event with no repeats on items offered. We’d also love to thank all those who’ve offered their hard earned time, efforts, filed back catalogs & support in getting all of this together in such a short amount of time.

BID NOW

After dropping DJ Skae’s Guestlist just about a year ago, DJ Skae is back with another killer
compilation album, DJ Skae’s A-List. This time Skae has chosen artists from around the country to
submit songs for this compilation and Australia’s finest hip hop artists have delivered some heat.

With artists from each state, Fluent Form (VIC), Draz (TAS) , D’Opus & Ro’Shambo (ACT),
Torcha & B-Don (NSW), Tommy Illfigga (QLD), Chase (SA) and Hunter (WA) to name a few, this
compilation album showcases the hottest hip hop from around the country. This album also features
international collaborations with the likes of Sereck (Def Wish Cast) teaming up with Grand Puba
(Brand Nubian) from the USA, Tha Centalinkaz featuring Showay from Japan and Invincible
Armour, a scratch crew from the UK, working with Sneed a producer from USA.

DJ Skae’s A-List features beatbox and DJ/Producer tracks as well from well known Australian
artists Rivals (Basic Equipment), DJ Morgs (Thundmentals), DJ Butcher (Crate Creeps) and DJ
Skae himself. LC Beats also drops some fire with his ‘Didjeribox’ track combining his skills as a
beat boxer and didgeridoo player.

The stand out tracks on this release are Social Change’s ‘Black Text’ which features some
dope flows over tight production by Funkwig and nice clean cuts from DJ Snair, Sceptic and
Dseeva’s ‘My Heads Up’ which is a change up from their usual grimey style to an uplifting track that
really grabs you and of course Sereck’s production and Grand Puba’s rhymes on the track ‘Wait No
More’ that will guarantee to get you moving.

DJ Skae’s A-list also shows the diversity of Australian hip hop with different sounds under the
one genre coming from crews like Daily Meds, Blades and Mdusu. This compilation album has
hard hitting dark songs to light hearted fun tracks and is sure to satisfy every listener and boasts 20
originally produced tracks.

DJ Skae’s A-List is backed by Sub Conscious Records and is coming soon to music store near you!

For more information browse www.myspace.com/a-list

If you haven’t already checked this out, then you are missing out. Go to http://rappertag.com and start with the first Video from Mc 360 essentially it is as the name says, Rappers tagging other rappers in a game of Vlog rapping.

Who knows where it will go or possibly end… Check it out now

Its been a long time between releases for MC/Producer Crixus, but for fans of his individual style of honest, introspective lyricism, its worth the wait.

“Throwaways Vol. 2” is the ?rst full length release from Crixus since 2007 & the ?rst release by newly formed Tasmanian Hip hop label, Edge of the World Records. A hectic music schedule (& life) over the past 6 years, encompassing everything from resident club nights, regular radio appearances, national & international support slots, to quiet spoken word poetry nights in dingy cafes & published work in national poetry reviews has led to inevitable delays, but its ?nally here.

But this isn’t really an album per se. It’s more a collection of songs worked on in downtime between other projects. It consists of songs that were getting dangerously close to becoming obsolete & unfelt, remixes & collaborations that just didn’t ?t snuggly enough into the cohesive artistic vision of other projects. Some songs have been heard before, but the vast majority haven’t been aired outside Crixus‘ headphones, until now.

It’s a personal and cathartic journey through a few of the darker corners of Crixus‘ mind. From the story telling social commentary of “Grow a Pair” & “Danny” to the obligatory breakup song with crooning vocals of “Don’t Tell Me”, Crixus has touched on all areas of the sometimes painfully honest spectrum. It’s songs of neglect, depression and loss, but more importantly, its songs to move on.

With all art & design handled by the talented Archibald M. Popes, “Throwaways Vol. 2″ comes together as a completely complimentary package.
You can stream the album at http://crixus.bandcamp.com or download it directly from here

www.myspace.com/crixus
www.facebook.com/crixusmusic

Charge is the Second Full Length Album from Melbourne Mc Eloquor. Second? It’s easy too miss good artists these days. But in this case, Eloquor admittedly wouldn’t be surprised if you missed his first with his first album being a low budget production that he mostly put together himself.

Charge is anything but with production, beats and features from well known Australian Hip Hop celebrities including M-phazes, Jase, Slap618, Doc Felix and Lauren Gillard to name a few.

Now under the guidance of Frank Mincone aka Slap618 as his manager (Myspherical Entertainment & Obese Records) Charge is an album with a message. To me this me this message was move forward, don’t have regrets, constantly push what you think is possible and take control of your own destiny. I know that’s quite a few messages all rolled into one, but when you listen to this album I think you will agree.

Charge is the feature track for this Album and where the Album takes it’s name. This isn’t really a criticism but for an album with notable guests I found it odd that Charge’s chorus didn’t come with a bit more punch. I mean, this would have been a perfect opportunity to get a cunts in a room and scream this hook (CHARGE) into the mic. Maybe it’s just me or maybe because it’s part of the albums flow and the self introspective message that this album carries throughout it’s entirety and something he wanted to do himself.

Keep on ft Lauren Gillard is a inspirational track, which for me really set’s the pace of this album. The video clip features what appears to be a broken family and a man struggling to come to terms with what never was or what never eventuated. You need to check it and make your own mind up.

A song I can relate my own experience of becoming a father Daddy’s Girl ft Cisco Tavares is probably my favourite track on the album. Eloquor drops his experience with the birth of his daughter like it happened yesterday. Something all first time Dads can probably relate to. I’d never heard of Cisco Tavares and on the first few listens I thought it was a sample, it wasn’t until I picked up the press release and did some Google searches that I found he is a local R’nB artist. (well he lives in Australia now, so by Aussie by laws #1321321 * anyone who’s been here more than a year we can claim as our own) I will definitely be checking more of his stuff in the future.

The last track on the LP Like The Clouds also ft Lauren Gillard but more interestingly samples from his Grandmother who this album was also dedicated to. The translated Hungarian vocal sample translates to “On earth we are merely guests, time here is short, the whole thing is like a soaring cloud”. After hearing this track, it becomes obviously apparent where Eloquor has found a lot of his inspiration and guidance throughout the years and what made him the person that he is. In my opinion, Eloquor seems extremely grounded and happy with the person he sees in the mirror every day. Something we should all strive for.

There’s a bunch of other dope tracks on this album that I didn’t cover. You really need to give ‘Charge’ several listens before it WILL become one of your favourite releases of 2010. ‘Charge’ by MC Eloquor is available now where all good Hip Hop is sold and distro is through Obese Records.

You can also read a recent interview with Eloquor at Certified Scribe

Broken Tooth Records MC Maggot Mouf next release ‘You’re all ears’ will be on the shelves later this week July 17 2010. A kid from Canberra, Maggot Moufs new Album contains 16 banging tracks of ill Aussie Hip Hop.

‘You’re all ears’ includes work from Sammy Scissors, Ciecmate, 1/6, Scotty Hinds, Dekoda and additional production from the Joey Gargoyle and Bigfoot.

Have a listen to Wat U Lookin At’ from  ‘You’re all ears’ below

Heads are fiending for the New Optimen Crew release, due March 2010. In the mean time, Red Tape Entertainment has been kind enough to let us have a listen to a feature track called Fire Fighters. If you like what you hear you can show your support or hear more tracks at their myspace account below.

In the mean time have a listen to Fire Fighters

http://www.myspace.com/theoptimen

Some interesting pics from the 2009 Zulu Nation Anniversary gig. Pics are by Charlie Ahern. You should probably go to his website http://www.wildstylethemovie.com/ and buy some shit off him.

Click on the image to see more pics. You may need to login to Facebook to view.

Looking good Excel!

At the stage where Australian hip hop is reaching a broader audience than ever before, Visions (MC), Kahs (MC), Cheech (MC/Producer), Omega Beats (MC/Producer) and davidL (DJ) have formed Headstrong Company to spread their collective message of truth, belief and how make every minute count.

If you like rapid fire flows, intricate wordplay, thumping beats and tech scratching all combined to send a message with a meaning, look no further than Headstrong Company’s self titled 14 track debut.

The last five years have been spent perfecting this masterpiece for the streets, to ensure you won’t find any filler tracks on this well crafted representation of what it is like to be part of the Company.

Their energetic and electrifying live performances with the likes of Brother Ali, Delta and Staen 1, Def Wish Cast, Percee P, Social Change, Adroit Effusive, Mindfield, Dialectrix, Low Budget, Spit Syndicate and Bias B have now been transformed into the latest tasty treat to escape the Crackhouse. Once this album hits your system, pump up the volume and enjoy some of the best music Adelaide has to offer.

Guest appearances of the album include DJ Sum-One, DJ Sanchez, and the Crackhouse crew.

Whether you are in Melbourne or any other part of Australia or even the rest of the world, you can check out Top Billin Radio with Sherrif Rosco and Lee Rawles every Friday night from 10pm (AEST) on RRR FM.

Train Of Thought member Level Headed has just dropped his long awaited solo album Spice Of Life. This South Australian took some time out to have a chat to our own G Force about the inspiration behind the album, the good and bad of being part of a group and the general state of oz hip hop at the moment.  Not to mention get you hyped up for what promises to be a hectic tour to launch the album.

First up congrats on the album Spice Of Life. 5 years since the Train Of Thought (TOT) album. Were their plans for another crew album, was the solo first up or did it just turn out this way?

It just turned out that way; Debate is master beat maker since the early days before TOT, since 96. He was still making beats whether we were doing anything or not. After TOT dropped I moved to the country to teach and half the crew went overseas so it fell apart a bit. It was hard to get everyone together. I had gathered a few beats from Debate, just making a few tracks to stay in it and it got to a point where we realized we could do an album. Then I heard from Hacksaw after 3 years missing and we hooked back up. Then TOT just jumped in. We somehow got verses from everyone and it sort of became a TOT album almost under my name. I am happy to rep though, anything out of Debate’s lab is under the TOT label or TOT productions. We don’t have plans for another TOT album though; it is too hard to get all 4 of us together to write on the same topics and wavelength.

Using Debate the whole way through creates a “complete sounding” album, were you looking at other producers at any stage?

I maybe would have looked but I moved to country SA and lost contact with a lot of the scene. I knew I could have asked Suffa and Trials but I know they are flat out. Reflux was meant to cut when Hacksaw was AWOL but he came back. Next album I will use a few more producers. I mean Debate has hundreds of top quality beats with a fair bit of variety, definitely not all the same but he is a good mate and regularly see him so we will have to wait and see.

There is an SA style on the album. If I didn’t know who you were and where you were from I could still pick it as an SA album. Where do you think this style comes from and are you even aware of it or am I just categorizing SA?

I think because we had such prominent leaders in the Hoods who led the way they influenced everyone with their style and people came out similar. Also the twang of the accent. I do agree though, I think Social Change and now Headstrong Company have that same vibe also.

There is a reasonable upbeat party kind of vibe on the first half of the album then it switches to a bit darker. Is this a play on the spice of life and the good and bad theme throughout?

The album definitely had a lay out which fitted best in my head, which is the way it felt right. I kind of wanted beats with guitars at end for some reason. I also didn’t want to blow people away with deep shit straight away. Light hearted to heavy. It also starts with the solo tracks, first five to run with then onto the tracks with features.

Of the heavier and darker tracks, “Too Late” really stood out, especially as you are a teacher, where did the inspiration come from for this track?

I was fascinated with the massacres and the issues behind them. Kids getting picked on, youth alienation and so forth. At first I had written the track addressing these issues directly but I thought it came off a bit soft, I wanted a bigger impact. Some people gave me advice to not do it as I was a school teacher. I try to keep it separate though; my students can’t buy my album off me. For the most part I tried to keep the album clean. Trials destroyed that with his huge amount of weed references in one verse though, haha.

So do the Kids and their parents know you are an emcee?

Yeah for the most part they do. I try not to swear when I spit to me swearing is not used to show lyrical ability. I try to keep topics a bit coded and subtle, using samples of tracks to highlight stuff about past shit like smoking.

8th degree on the track “Bring Them Down” is a Hed Pe kind of hook, is this something you have been trying out, how did it come about?

Yeah, more a sort of a Rage style I was keen on trying it out. I wanted to do something not many people have done and I had mates who we could work with. Everyone has chicks on choruses and orchestral stuff and it seems a bit unnecessary at times and people doing it just because it is what they think a hip hop track should be like. It was something different I wanted to do without compromising or selling out, but still different. Few beers later and we worked it out. 8th degree were a late 90’s metal band that I know, they are inactive now so it was kind of a shout out to them.

Besides that track most have a 4 bar emcee layered hook that would work well live. What is the importance of sing a long live show hooks?

The TOT album only had two tracks with actually hooks the rest were cuts and it was awkward and weird live. So I learnt from that in what works better live, I continuously progress with live shows in mind. I really just wanted something to do during hooks! Hip hop is going towards a more hook related style with more focus on song structure. I don’t see why everyone needs to use birds on every hook though, bit of overkill. Some tracks I am enjoying are killed when a chick starts to sing on the hook when it really isn’t needed and I switch off.

Who chose tracks on the interlude “bring ya back to life”?

Me and mates sat down and chose them together after recording on weekends for the whole first part of the year. We had 30 tracks at the start! They were all well known, and it was hard to cut down anymore. I wanted a unique skit. We have a live rendition of bring ya back to life, juggling then into the scratches of that interlude, smashing it.

Back to SA, bigger crews blowing up, Oars, Hoods, has it affected the scene there and expectations?

Probably not too much, I mean Hoods are alone when it comes to their level but Oars are probably on the same level as some Obese and Elephant tracks artists. Like anywhere you have a top tier of artists and it then works it way down. There is a lot of respect in the SA scene and people know who has been around for a while. I would say the younger people who are killin it though would be Riverland, Social Change. Dialect. The expectations are high but I think people are meeting it. Of course you gotta check for Vents, Oars, Hoods and also Headstrong and Trane.

So where do you stand on young kids releasing product early? Do you think people should be releasing EP’s, demos or Full Lengths? Is the scene swamped?

To an extent, no one is saying you have to press 3000 copies. I have received good feedback on my CD but now my distro company Amphead has folded so I have to do self distro. There is no one stopping you doing it, so if kids want to press up stuff they can do it. CD cost $2, sell it for $5. No one is buying Cd’s, so it is still just to get your name out there then you need to focus on Merchandise and shows. Having an album, 12 tracks instead of 6 is where it is really at though; no one can fuck with that feeling.

So you think it will go back to people hustling their own stuff, backpacks as a way of selling?

It is disappointing but I don’t know whether it will ever go back to the old school way of slinging CD’s. People still download; they just don’t want to pay for it. iTunes has fucked it. People tell me, hey I heard ya CD but they didn’t buy it and friend just loaded it onto their iTunes. They don’t realize the effect it has on artists. Create another medium, MP3 sticks that blow up like James Bond after downloading. I pressed 2000 copies after we sold 3000 of Moving Heads. I am confident in the album but two weeks after it dropped there are 30 sites to download it and there is nothing you can do about it! If someone shows enough interest I would give them a free copy rather then having them download it. I want people to have it and the artwork and see the work put into it and have people appreciate it. Read about it and get involved in it. We are a bit saturated though there is so much music to get and gather. I understand people can’t afford to buy it all.

You have a Reason Collab from Melbs but the rest are from SA. Anyone else you wanted to collab with Aus Wide?

Reason and I are both teachers and this is something we had in common, I met him through uni and stayed with him in 04 while on tour with TOT. He is a legend and we get along real well. I jumped on his album Life’s a Lesson and an 8 bar verse on jump ahead. So we did the 24 to one remix. It was a fucking nightmare to do, took weeks to write. It was really hard to do, hard to feel it, I really wanted it to be more than just a count down, and it had to sound concise. As for other artists I am too far away, I would like to work with Thundamentals and Dialectrix. I don’t want to work with people unless I have had beers with them though and get along. We have just had City Wide from Geelong, jump on as a clothing sponsor with 3rd Chapter clothing so I am pretty sure I will do something there. I mean Pressure owes me a verse and he knows it. Suffa owes me a beat. But I am not one to seek charity or push mates, I am not going to cash in off their success.

Tour upcoming? What can we expect, looking forward to it?

We have written a new intro, coming out to an old song with specific intros for each state. We got Headlock and Trials in Adelaide with their verses, Reason in Melbourne with his. It is just a vibing show, want it to be a fun show. We have spent a long time rehearsing with better integration of the DJ. I want to turn the DJ into a part of the group lyrically. I have seen a lot of live sets try this and not do it well but I reckon we got it locked. I would love if I could jump on the decks like Finesse but I can tell you that ain’t happening!

www.levelheaded.com.au
www.myspace.com/levelheadedmc

Goto to check the new Video from Level Headed titled “The Hills”

Pick up Spice Of Life from all good Hip Hop outlets and check the launch coming soon near you! Check the flyer on your right for gig details!