The Herd: Collective Mentality

Doing what they have always done is what makes The Herd just as intriguing now as they were in 2001. Their longevity in the scene, perseverance and consistently bringing about change with every record that has made them one of Australia’s most premier live hip hop acts. It’s 2012 and The Herd is acknowledging their unity of over ten years and MC and writer for the collective, Shannon ‘Ozi Batla’ Kennedy highlights this as he explains where The Herd’s long-standing one-headed opinion is at now.

The eight-piece outfit is a segmented octagon of producers, instrumentalists and MCs such as Urthboy, Unkle Ho and Kennedy, who returned after his first solo LP, Wild Colonial to co-write Future Shade and insists that the work is the same in either a group or solo record. “It doesn’t matter what you have done with solo work the hard things are hard and the easy stuff is easy. In some ways it’s a relief to put out a solo record, having total control and when you go back to the collective mentality it’s also a relief that you’ve got someone either side of you to bounce ideas off and inspire you.”

Together with many individual talents, they are set to converge on stages across our major cities with – on selected dates – Thundamentals and new Elefant Traks MC, Sky’High, on theA Thousand Lives Tour, aptly named after the track off their latest LP, Future Shade. “That song’s a reflection of our time in the band,” says Kennedy on naming the tour as they did. “That has become a minor theme running throughout the album as well. And it’s also a reflection of our ten/eleven plus years of touring.”

The Herd’s agenda has always been one of political awareness over their five studio albums and despite the political maelstrom that invokes such an opposing opinion in the band’s writings, Kennedy explains, new material can sometimes be hard to raise without revisiting subject matter from many of their previous tongue-in-cheek slights at the befuddled balance of power governing this great land. “I don’t know about anyone else but, yeah, sometimes the writing can be hard. And I think the reason is when you have a catalogue behind you, after time it gets hard and you scratch your head to avoid covering the same ground. I think with our focus always on the political theme and in our approach through all our music, with how those in charge are running the country, it’s never gonna be too hard to keep coming up with new subject matter. And we won’t run out of topics anytime soon with guys like Clive Palmer and Bob Katter running around. Did you hear Clive Palmer’s one today?” Kennedy asks rhetorically of the mining magnate. “The mining tax is basically a conspiracy between the Greens and the CIA to rob him of his wealth. He went on the ABC and said it.”

The band’s long-enduring career opened in 2001 when the core artists of indie label Elefant Traks collaborated together to showcase the roster. The Herd released their self-titled LP that same year and spawned an Aussie classic, Scallops. But it was their 2002 follow-up An Elefant Never Forgets that gave the band their controversial tag with tracks Burn Down The Parliament and 77%, the latter attacking at the heart of Australia’s racist element. The Herd left behind an indelible stamping of political correctness on their outspoken and building controversial reputation. Counting four albums forward (which includes a remix album) and while the politicking stays coming thick and ready, having all the artists falling back into step, away from family, careers and other music commitments was not easy, as Kennedy admits, despite him being the drifter of the bunch.

“No. No, not at all. For me, I’m the unattached drifter and I’ll do a gig whenever. You know, there’s a whole bunch of kids and jobs and households that have to be left for possibly their only time off and time with the family for a gig every weekend, so it is a big commitment and Toe-Fu has really been putting in the hard yards recently. He lives in Newcastle and it takes him a good two/two and a half hour drive [to Sydney]. He’s been trekking down for rehearsals and it’s hard to get everyone together. I’m really grateful to my bandmates who do have a lot of other commitments and they’ve stuck with it and at this stage in our careers there are some of my favourite bands that have packed it in. When you have the choice of working nearby and making a lot more money and having a lot more free time it becomes tempting to pack the music in. So I’m really grateful to them that they’ve stuck with it. There’s something to be said for perseverance.”

Last August’s fifth LP shows the band never grows moss as they roll in continuous momentum, seeking higher grounds of musicality. This has given the band a true appreciation in creative currency. Kennedy places the secrets of holding relevance in a youthful and energetic industry down to each of the band’s eclectic upbringing, a worldly bunch of enthusiasts brought together in a melange of homemade hip hop. “The Herd has always been constantly heading in new directions. I think it’s in the nature of who we are and the backgrounds that we come from, musically. It’s just been a constant process. I think the difference with this one perhaps is that it’s like a collective coming together on a compilation of different artists’ tunes while still being part of The Herd. But this brought about such a cohesive approach to our writing.”

As all eight descend upon our live scene once again, coinciding with the release of their new EP Better Alive, their shows promise to bring with them all the lights and lustre of some of Australia’s most celebrated hip hop live musicians through a newly developed concept of narrative and visual performances. The Herd is very lyrical-based and going live with the more serious-toned and softer-spoken tracks like Shihaba and My Sister’s Palace from Future Shade there is the threat that it disrupts the crowd’s rhythm. “At our last shows we played these in the quieter moments in the set,” says Kennedy of how The Herd handles those sombre moments. “I think when you start getting conscious of the peoples’ reactions you can loose your confidence on stage pretty easily and you can get nervous if you think people aren’t jumping around and dancing then you’ve somehow lost them. But that’s certainly not the case, so we really want to provide some lightness and darkness contrast to the set. And you know, our knees are getting old – we can’t dance around for an hour and a half anymore,” Kennedy quips.

By Rip Nicholson   //   411@hiphop.sh

KRS-One: Judgement Day

THE TEACHA KRS-ONE INTRODUCES RIP NICHOLSON TO HIS SCHOOL OF HIP HOP.

KRS-ONE interviewed for Rip2Shredz  // Street Press Australia //  Hiphop.sh @ 08:45 AEST Saturday 4th February, 2012

Oprah visited down under, even Queen Elizabeth and her grandson Prince William walked our red carpets last year. Now we wait, firmly held in 2012 for the inaugural visit of hip hop’s leading protagonist, acting strictly for the cause and survival of a culture. KRS-One, (born Lawrence Parker) is poised in San Francisco to board a boat and head for our golden shores. Afraid of flying, Parker will take the month-long trip down under with an agenda to inject knowledge into our our hip hop culture with a “booster shot.” Following some stringent protocol to get him in session, Parker lets loose over 50 minutes with a booming authority over his words. Holding a genuine concern for the upkeep of his culture, Parker lays out an economic model for the survival of Australia’s hip hop scene in today’s new world, which he believes finds the balance of power shifted in favour of it’s forebearers and creative souls who maintain the culture’s equilibrium behind it’s commerce.

Charting a takeover, Knowledge Reigns Supreme Over Nearly Everyone (KRS-One) sets sail to arm us in readiness for the new world. “I’ve waited a long time for this. There is a couple of places I’m trying to go to over the next three years. And Australia is just one of them that I’ve been trying to get to for a many years,” admits Parker, who explains the trouble he had with promoters not understanding the goals of his touring plans and treating hip hop’s most active ambassador as an artist only. “There has always been challenges, so when i come to a place i don’t just want to come to the place, perform and leave. I don’t like flying into a country, flying over a country. Beyond that, go straight to the hotel from the airport and to the venue and to the hotel and to the airport and then say ‘OK, I’ve been to Australia.’ That’s not my style at all so i waited it out.”

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Joelistics - Here’s Joely!

HIS LABEL BOSS CALLS HIS NEW EP INDIE DANCE RAP. JOELISTICS, HOWEVER, CALLS IT MUSIC. HE TALKS TO RIP NICHOLSON ABOUT THE DRAMATIC REINTERPRETATIONS OF HIS SONGS.

JOELISTICS interviewed for Rip2Shredz  //  Street Press Australia  //  Hiphop.sh @ 19.00 AEST - 23rd February, 2012

Last May, TZU MC Joel Ma (otherwise known as Joelistics) dropped The Voyager, a globe-trekking word for the wise conceived and written whilst riding the Trans-Mongolian Railway and living in the confines of a cold Paris winter. Here, Ma cogitated over his travels and wrote of the cultural awakenings life away has fed him. Since his last national tour, Ma has been residing in Berlin, Germany. “Travel is in the blood, I don’t know any different,” admits Ma, born to a Chinese-Australian father and an Anglo-Australian mother, who raps of growing up feeling disconnected from his own culture, almost on the cusp of foreign on his own soil.  “I think travel is a good antidote to ignorance and I recommend it for everyone.

I love travel and I was brought up a traveler. My parents broke up when I was two, so when I was growing up in Sydney I used to spend two weeks with my dad, then two weeks with my mum, I did that until I was seventeen. I used to pack my bags every two weeks and shift house. I was born in Malaysia and spent a year growing up in Singapore. I’ve lived in Shanghai, Paris, Berlin and Tasmania.”

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“Now I’m looking for MCs, your most talented ones. I’m the best in the world. So when i land, you better be on your A game Australia, I’m not playing. I’m not here to rap for half an hour and record a little video. You’re gonna get 2 two-hour sets, no doubt. Freestyles all day. I’m there to show Australia what hip hop is. 

“This is judgement day right here. All them DJs that play wack, rap music that you’ callin’ hip hop - I’m callin’ them out! They better not show me they playlist or ask me to be on their radio show. If they keep playing that nonsense that we are so sick of hearing you’re not gonna get much from KRS One. You are gonna get a reprimanding, yes you are!”

- KRS One : Interview for Hiphop.sh (Feb, 2012) [READ HERE]

Hermitude: The Devil’s Music

WITH A NEW ALBUM JUST AROUND THE CORNER, HERMITUDE ARE LOOKING TO KEEP THE DANCEFLOOR MOVING, AS LUKE DUBS TELLS RIP NICHOLSON.

Luke Dubber (Hermitude) interviewed for Rip2Shredz  //  Street Press Australia  //  Hiphop.sh @ 15.00 AEST Monday 15th November, 2011

The makings of Hermitude has always been without an MC, or any lyricists to complete the hip hop act. Two instrumentalists, Luke Dubs (Luke Dubber) and Elgusto (Angus Stuart) from the Blue Mountains and on the eve of their national tour and one week from finishing their fourth LP, Dubber discusses the growing pains of their act over the years and making sure their latest album is a strictly no-talking LP of synth-driven hip hop that crosses over into a real engaging live product.

This will settle any thoughts of Hermitude sinking without a lyricist or even a hype man in Australian hip hop, despite the industry thriving with schools of MCs. Hermitude’s hustle has matured their act to the point where there is no room for a vocalist of any kind, although Dubber admits, getting there has been a learning process.

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Rakaa Iriscience - Wearing The Crown

 BEFORE THEIR SIXTH ALBUM DROPS, DILATED PEOPLES MC RAKAA TAYLOR (RAKAA IRISCIENCE) HAS FRAGMENTED THE DISCOGRAPHY TO INCLUDE HIS FIRST SOLO LP, CROWN OF THORNS, IT’S ALL LOVE, HE TELLS RIP NICHOLSON AND INSISTS THAT HIS RECORD IS “LESS OF A DEPARTURE AND MORE OF A CONTINUATION” OF THE GROUP’S LEGACY.

RAKAA interviewed for Rip2Shredz  //  Street Press Australia  //  Hiphop.sh @ 14.15 AEST Monday 17th October, 2011

[FULL Q&A INTERVIEW HERE]

“It has definitely been therapeutic. It has made us want to get back in the studio together, it has made us truly appreciate our individual growth, and it has allowed us to go find new things to bring back to the family.  There are no weak links in the crew, but there is a deeper magic that can be felt when we are all up there together,” admits the Los Angeleno artist, referring to Dilated Peoples, a group, a group that has always played a pivotal role in Southern Cali’s left-sided movement to advance a more consciously-aware state of hip hop. “The solo magic is sparking though. Everything is growing. I love rocking my Crown Of Thorns set though. I love to see people’s faces light up and see the different people react to different songs.”

Despite holding down his own royal affair, it’s fellow Dilated Peoples MC Evidence’s Cats & Dogs (just released) that’s held the main focus of Taylor and the Peoples’ as of late. “Cats & Dogs is at the front of my mind right now. Any project that the family does is a family project, and that is where we want everyone focused right now. Go get Crown Of Thorns and study that, then get Cats & Dogs and study that. You will need to get up to speed and prepare yourself for [upcoming Dilated Peoples album] Directors Of Photography.”

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Reason - Out On A High

ABOUT TO RETIRE FROM THE HIP HOP WORLD, REASON CAN WALK AWAY A CONTENDED MAN AS HE REFLECTS WITH RIP NICHOLSON 

REASON interviewed for Rip2Shredz  //  Street Press Australia  //  Hiphop.sh @ 19.30 AEST - Tuesday 20th October, 2011

Before he leaves us for good, the path that Jason ‘Reason’ Shulman has blazed becomes ever more apparent with every new hip hop joint stamped into the history of Australian music. Fifteen years ago one MC lead an assault of Aussie rap and gave us an American franchise reared strictly on home soil, representing our own struggles and poetic renaissance of expression. On his final exit, new album, Window Of Time, pieces together one man’s legacy and the inward paths to furthering hip hop on our own home turf, for our own identity.

Shulman created a distinction from the trend of rap music that infiltrated the early development of Australian hip hop. He persevered against the grain and nurtured a new wave of local dialect, cutting the umbilical from the American-accent and covenants that was ready-laid in uniform. From the once-dubbed ‘Occa-rap’ to the strength of real talk rap that is widely acknowledged and celebrated on a mainstream level currently, this was an issue that once tortured the plight of pioneering artists like Shulman. But today, the way the art has blossomed, he is at peace with all dialects and enunciation that permeates within our culture.

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The Cypher #1

The BET Hip Hop Awards was recently served up and apart from seeing the return of DMX and Heavy D live and LL Cool J immortalised this year, the cypher, once again became the show’s highlight package. Lil Wayne took both artist and live performer of the year, but when Chris Brown’s Look At Me Now (featuring Busta Rhymes and Lil Wayne) takes most awards including video of the year and the Beastie Boys’ aren’t even nominated, who gives a shit about the rest? The awards won’t be remembered next week but the all-star cypher will go down as one of the most memorable. Everybody got down on their 16 bars, no weak links and scratching each MC in, was none other than the legendary DJ Premier with James Brown’s Payback.

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Illy - Stays On Chase

FINISHING HIS DEGREE RECENTLY, ILLY CAN NOW SOLELY FOCUS ON THE MUSIC. EVEN WITH HIS SUCCESS, HE TELLS RIP NICHOLSON THAT HE WOULD STILL ALWAYS DO IT FOR THE LOVE, GETS SATISFACTION FROM BOTH RECORDING AND PERFORMING LIVE, AND DOESN’T HAVE TO GO TOO FAR TO FIND AWESOME BEATS.

ILLY interviewed for Rip2Shredz  //  Street Press Australia  //  Hiphop.sh @ 13.00 AEST - Tuesday 6th September, 2011

Burn City’s illest MC seems to always be caught in the chase. His first was Long Story Short, his second was a law degree and then The Chase, released last October. Since then, the rapper has been touring so many festival circuits and trying to fit in study that after graduation in June, only now can Al ‘Illy’ Murray focus all of his attention and talents on his next album. “I dunno if i can call it The Chase Two, but the next one is always going to push me to the ends more, man. I’ve only just started to be able to sit down and write with no distractions. I was definitely going through a lot. The album came out and i was studying to finish my degree by June. Then I went on holiday for a bit to celebrate, so I’ve been away up until a few weeks ago. I’ve only just started working on new stuff now, without that weight of university to deal with. And now it’s kinda like the calm before another storm, but I’m off to a good start. I think it’s going to be a really good summer and I’m fucking stoked to be honest.”

With an alternate career held firmly in place, Murray is completely honed in to making his third album his best work. “Dude, it’s definitely one that I’ve got tucked up under my sleeve now. I feel like I’ve earned the right to give my music a crack and just solely focus on it for a while man. I couldn’t be happier that I’m in a position to do that.”

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Naughty By Nature - Strike A Nerve

ONE OF THE BIGGEST BREAK OUT ACTS IN HIP HOP, NAUGHTY BY NATURE HAS ALWAYS BEEN ABLE TO STRIKE A NERVE, HOLDING DOWN THEIR TRUE IDENTITY WHILE TAKING IT TO MAINSTREAM NOTORIETY WITHOUT HAVING THEIR GHETTO PASSES REVOKED. TWENTY YEARS AFTER O.P.P. STICKERED THE CHARTS, THE NEW ALBUM ANTHEM INC. IS SET TO CEMENT THEM REAL RAP IICONS. VIN ROCK TALKS TO RIP NICHOLSON.

VinRock (Naughty By Nature) interviewed for Rip2Shredz  //  Street Press Australia  //  Hiphop.sh @ 09.20 AEST - Aug 25, 2011

[FULL Q&A INTERVIEW HERE]

Naughty By Nature went back to their gully, Illtown roots of New Jersey to shoot the video for a new single, but as Vinnie ‘Vin Rock’ Brown explains, they never left. Now fresh from a tour with Redman and Method Man stretching from France to Brasil (and Australia this month), the hardcore hip hop trio feel as young as ever on stage.

“We been movin’ around so much lately. I can’t even tell,” Brown comments on the group reaching the age of fathers to some of today’s top hip hop talents. “We all still young and very youthful and we’re out there working on stage, jumping around and burnin’ them calories.” Retiring is not in the sums for Brown, either. “It’s just that in our culture where we have ageism running wild. But, the reality is do you wanna listen to a 21 year old for your whole life when you’re a forty and fifty year old? Or would you rather have your peer that you grew up on, still catering to your demographic?”

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Funkoars - Life’s Not Serious

AS DANIEL ‘DJ REFLUX’ YATES EXPLAINS TO RIP NICHOLSON, FUNKOARS’ NEW ALBUM MARKS A NEW AGE FOR THE ADELAIDE FOUR-PIECE RAP ACT. THEY HAVE NOW BECOME THE FUNKOARS 4.0 WITH HAIRCUTS AND REAL JOBS TO DO IN HIP HOP. 

DJ Relfux (Funkoars) interviewed for Rip2Shredz  //  Street Press Australia  //  Hiphop.sh
@ 18.00 Monday 12th August, 2011

With plenty of drinks consumed over endless rounds of live shows for The Funkoars, It’s been three years since the success of The Hangover has sobered them up. Despite hits to their health, they’ve collected their talents into an even deadlier, angst ridden, epic sound.

DJ Reflux, producers Sesta and Trials and MC Hons have always driven the scourge of society into their witty repertoire and, while their early releases labelled the Adelaide outfit as drunken style rappers, after The Hangover the fast life has taken it’s toll, with Trials suffering from ill health. On their fourth LP The Quickening, they’ve curbed their habits with longevity in mind.

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Interview: The Herd - Still Thick

DESPITE ADHERING TO AN ETHOS BASED ON CHANGE, THE HERD FINDS THAT SOME THINGS STAY THE SAME, ESPECIALLY IN A POLITICAL SENSE. OZI BATLA SPEAKS TO RIP NICHOLSON.

Ozi Batla interviewed for Rip2Shredz  //  Street Press Australia  //  Hiphop.sh
On 18.30 Thursday 24th August, 2011

“Same as always, things start off as bare bones and they get thrown back and forth and people add little bits to the Frankenstein, here and there until we get an entire beast and set it out on the unsuspecting public,” says Ozi Batla (aka Shannon Kennedy), of The Herd’s latest LP, discussing the group’s attack on bringing their new music to life and the personal and political sides to it. He’s one of many in The Herd, but alone the MC has just come off the back of his Wild Colonial LP to partake in the massive new Herd album, Future Shade. And it’s the long-standing friendship behind the band, the record label and a large slice of New South Wales’ avant-garde and independent music fraternity that has kept The Herd close at all times.

The Herd came together over Scallops in 2001 and the line-up has solidified into MCs/producers Urthboy and Ozi Batla, Unkle Ho (producer), Toe-Fu (guitar), Sulo (beats and guitar), Traksewt (piano accordion, clarinet and beats), Rok Poshtya (bass) and Jane Tyrrell (vocals). Having released five albums to date, very few outside of the Wu-Tang Clan have managed one album, never mind a career-spanning discography, yet The Herd conglomerate has always made it work through lifelong friendship and of course a common thread in similar interests in all styles of music.

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Drapht - Murdering Jimmy

EVEN THOUGH DRAPHT KILLED OFF HIS SUCCESSFUL ALTER EGO, RIP NICHOLSON FINDS HIS ALBUM NEARLY KILLED DRAPHT HIMSELF.

Drapht interviewed for Rip2Shredz  //  Street Press Australia  //  Hiphop.sh
On 17:00 Wednesday 17th August, 2011

Paul ‘Drapht’ Ridge introduced to us to Jimmy Recard in 2008, and since then his fine malt lyrics and golden boy charm have made him one of brightest talents in the national scene. Jimmy’s influence took the MC from his nine-to-five out headlining late-night pub crawls and parties around the country, and a shitload of radio play. But he’s always looking to the next one and in order for Ridge to grow as an artist, Jimmy had to die on this year’s The Life Of Riley LP.

Back with Mr. Trials, Drapht continues with the Paul and Dan show with more of what you like and then some – but at a cost. When Ridge first aligned with Trials in 2008 for Brothers Grimm he ventured into the den of the depraved Funkoars in Adelaide and the pair debauched their precious time in sessions of Jagerbombs, beers and playing the pokies. Despite this, they pressed on to release one of the highest-selling independent records of the year. But with his suffering from a stomach illness, Ridge explains for their 2011 reunion, he and Trials set a more sensible diet during their time spent on The Life Of Riley.

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Oz rapper, Blest has blessed us with his PSA to help raise the awareness for teenage suicide prevention. “Where She Lay” features Megan Vessi with production by Sam Jones at the Skybar Studios.

Video By Elizabeth Blossom of Blossom Productions. 

[Blasphemy Records 2011]

London: Lit Up & Looted

A couple of weeks back the world sat and judged many youths of England as we watched them in hoodies burning down the high streets of London, smashing and snatching every sneaker and TV they could carry. On the face of this it seemed so nonsensical to most of us watching from afar, and merely kids looting for the fuck of it and they’re parents should have taken them in hand and off the streets. We were quick to vilify and condemn them for such violent uprising without a thought for why the hostility. Feeling complete disdain for a system that seems to continually fail them and a society that wishes not to recognise them, youths of UK’s underclasses feel like the lights have been shut out on them, completely. And when a police officer fatally shot a young and unarmed black teenager, London’s digitally-networked teens had finally had enough. They took to the streets and put the nation on blast one year out from London’s 2012 Olympic Games.

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