Articles tagged with ‘authenticity’

• Australian Hip-hop as a Subculture

  Originally published in the journal Youth Studies Australia in 2003, ‘Australian Hip-hop as a Subculture’ is an essay that applies ideas from subcultural theory to Australian hip-hop, relating the defining features of Australian hip-hop to the theories that the ‘Birmingham School’ applied to subcultures like Punk in the 70s.

  Tags: authenticity, MCing, independent record labels, four elements, Tony Mitchell, subcultural theory, community radio, graffiti, Sydney, DJing, breakdancing, Conference Papers

• Circus Maximus (Review)

  A review of Unkle Ho’s second LP Circus Maximus published in Music Forum.

  Tags: authenticity, multilingualism, globalisation, Tony Mitchell, Music Forum reviews, multiculturalism, hip-hop and folk music, world music, sampling, Elefant Traks, instrumental hip-hop, production, Press & Media

• The DIY Habitus of Australian Hip-hop: Embodied Histories, Community and Scene

  If habitus is regarded as ‘deep seated generative principles of thought, perception, appreciation, and action’, this ‘fit’ seems eminently applicable to the ‘embodied history’ of hip-hop subcultures and the expression of their ‘objectified history’ in practices such as recording, performing, internet interaction, music journalism, and independent radio and television broadcasting.

  This paper, originally published in Media International Australia, looks at the Australian hip-hop culture in terms of its do-it-yourself ethos, which is, in part, a result of a lack of support from the commerical record labels. Tony Mitchell here discusses the artists, groups and independent labels that have championed this DIY ethos and have built a community of practice outside the mainstream industry.

  Tags: localising hip-hop, community radio, authenticity, independent record labels, Tony Mitchell, Aboriginal language hip-hop, DIY ethos, Pegz, Elefant Traks, Obese, Hilltop Hoods, Koolism, Reason, Indigenous hip-hop, Conference Papers

• Urthboy & Ozi Batla

  Urthboy and Ozi Batla are two of The Herd’s MCs, and members of the Elefant Traks record label. They both have other endeavours, Urthboy with two solo albums so far (Distant Sense of Random Menace, 2004 and The Signal, 2007) and Ozi Batla with his group, Astronomy Class (Exit Strategy, 2006). In this interview, conducted in 2004, Urthboy and Batla talk about the reaction to The Herd’s second album, An Elephant Never Forgets, particularly the lucid, political tracks ‘77%’ and ‘Burn Down the Parliament’. They talked about their discomfort as being pigeonholed as straight-up political rappers, commenting on the innateness of politics in everyday life and the desire to express opinion and to encourage dialogue in art rather than engaging in polemics. They also talked about the way that The Herd and Elefant Traks work as collectives, and the idiosyncrasies of the Australian hip-hop scene: its fans, artists, styles and practices.

  Tags: Ozi Batla, Astronomy Class, hip-hop and folk music, authenticity, Urthboy, The Herd, Sydney, Elefant Traks, politics, Interviews