How Hustle Hard Tv redefined West Sydney

This was actually my first ever post back in 2017 which is nuts that this things existed that long.

 As we sit on the eve of 2020 it's looking like the 20s is going to be a really formative decade for our scene, I have a feeling it could be to us what the 90s was to America and the 10's was to the UK. I'm leaving the bulk of this the same - so ignore the weird structure of it all - , i just thought it would be cool to tweak this a bit for 2019, also,barely anyone read this the first time it went live.  This could be my last post of the year on my little blog, I've been writing on www.thewestern.com.au so go sus that out if you wanna see what a write like when I actually have to do a few drafts. 

Sydney has always been a divided city, east and west, north and south, city and suburb. The divide has shaped the dynamic of many subcultures and this rivalry seems to be perfectly highlighted in the story of Australian hip-hop. The west has been home to Sydney's working class since the city's establishment - whether it be  the original slums in the inner west during Sydney's infancy, or modern-day TV shows like Struggle Street putting a spotlight on poverty in Mount Druitt -  it's safe to say that the West has always had a reputation for poverty and crime. The East-West rivalry is more than just a petty feud, it encapsulates two different ways of thinking, urbanite vs suburbanite  and opportunity vs lack of opportunity.  

When hip-hop arrived in the 80s most would have assumed Western Sydney to embrace the art form that had traditionally been an expression of the poor. Apart from some early contributions in hip-hop and graffiti, Western Sydney's commercial success in hip-hop has been lacklustre and no artist has seen much mainstream success until the last few years. For a long time Australian hip-hop had struggled to tap into working class audiences. In my opinion, this is due to lack of accessibility. Before the internet, it was the kids in the city who had the hip-hop shows, had graffiti stores in their areas and even interacted with guys from the States or the UK who were rarely seen in Sydney's west. This brings me back to one of the main elements of our West-East rivalry, the imbalance of opportunity between the two sides of the City. The Sydney scene was in an awkward position - a genre that had generally been reserved for the poor was being championed by upper-middle-class kids. Successful acts like Horrorshow and Bliss n Eso weren't from particularly rough backgrounds, and this is no fault of their own because there was clearly a market for what they did, but as a consequence their movement lacked an energy, an energy that's hard to replicate, the energy of the working class. Of course, there were known acts from the west, one of Australia's very first hip-hop collectives, Def Wish Cast was from the west, Hyjak and Torcha were also known in hip-hop communities around the country (even if they did stay  underground their whole career). What I'm trying to say is that arguably the birthplace of Australian hip-hop, Western Sydney, was not seeing the same success of east London, northern Paris  or the Bronx - these areas became synonymous with hip-hop culture so why wasn't West Sydney being treated the same within Australia? why was the industry ignoring the west?

Def Wish Cast 1993

The Internet changed the way we consume music and interact with artists, no longer were the radio, television, and magazines the gatekeepers of music. Anyone could discover the most underground of artists from the comfort of your own home. The growth of the internet resulted in the decline of traditional media's grip on what youth consume. Throughout the 2000s, the internet started to play an increasing role in the dynamic of hip-hop scenes around the world. Nowadays it's hard for us to even imagine hip-hop without the internet.
The rise of the internet had finally brought in a sense of balance in our city when it came to opportunity - it didn't matter anymore if you couldn't make it to the local hip hop event, or you couldn't network with the right people, all you needed now was an internet connection to make your voice heard.  Youtube channels and websites started to pop up around the world, basically, every hip-hop scene had its own corner on the internet - big or small. 2005 saw the birth of WorldStarHiphop it soon became the dominant player in online hip-hop in the United States - similarly, SB:TV was born in 2007 and became the number 1 hip-hop channel on youtube in the UK with other titans like Link Tv and GRM Daily soon to follow. All this to say, by 2010 the internet was the main medium that youth used to interact with their favorite artists and it wasn't long until Australia would see a similar sort of online outlet.

On November the 7th Hustle Hard Tv was created and changed Sydney hip-hop forever. Our own little corner on the internet had been established. Ten days after its inception the channel uploaded Gravy Baby's first ever clip, 'what it is'. The music video suffered a symptom many young hip-hop scenes outside the States suffer, a forced American accent. Excluding the accent, the video was as Western Sydney a  video could possibly be and the hood styled video format was the perfect recipe for a successful Western Sydney based hip-hop channel - for Westies, by Westies. 

Gravy Baby- What it is

Thankfully it wasn't long until a lot of the rappers on HHTV shook off their American accents and embraced their own slang . Gunsta, the creator of HHTV, was doing what hadn't been accomplished in Sydney, consistent uploads, regular rappers and an openness to posting new rappers or artists outside of Sydney. Within a couple of years, HHTV was able to establish itself as the one stop shop for DIY  clips and it was unapologetically  Australian. This was the kickstart the Aus hip hop scene needed. It's no surprise that the rise of HHTV was met with opposition, the term 'gutter rap' was the popular label used to criticise the new style of production, especially in the East. Ironically the term 'gutter rap' was embraced by many in the sub-genre who almost preferred not to be grouped with the traditional, inner-city, feel good hip hop that had been the main style during the 2000s.By 2012 artists like Gravy Baby, Nter and Kerser were racking up hundreds of thousands of views, their songs could be heard playing from mobile phones at parks and train stations all over Sydney. The Sydney hip-hop landscape was barely recognisable from 10 years earlier. 

Kerser Vs 360 

One of the biggest boosts to what most were now calling 'gutter rap' was the 360 vs Kerser battle, I won't get too into it now, but it was such an interesting time in Australian hip-hop, in short, it was the perfect battle; Sydney vs Melbourne, working class vs middle class, metro vs lad, it seemed like the final showdown between the two factions of Australian hip-hop. Everyone was talking about it and everyone had a favorite of the two. As of now the battle has 3 million views on youtube which is high for battle rap standards, even in the States. The battle introduced a lot of people (especially those outside of Sydney) to 'gutter rap' and the battle legitimized Kerser as a big player in Australian hip-hop. The release of Kerser's debut album The Nebuliser saw an end to his collaboration with Hustle Hard. His nation wide fan base gave him the opportunity to start up his own youtube channel. The Nebuliser was a huge success, it was followed up by the Nebulizer national tour, where many Hustle Hard TV artists supported Kerser on stage and were able to get a feel for what professional rapping is all about. Kersers departure from Hustle Hard Tv was not the end of the HHTV story, many artists on the channel had strong fan bases and could count on their videos getting hundreds of thousands of views, consistently. Together, Nter and Gravy Baby would take the reigns as the stars of HHTV. Whenever they came together they were able to almost effortlessly create Sydney anthems. Gravy and Nter's two big collaborative tracks 'Holy Water' and 'My City' have 5 million views between them, and that's not counting the millions of times they've  been played as downloaded tracks offline. 

Nter- The Return

As it stands right now HHTV  has uploaded over 500 clips and has amassed over 38 million views. HHTV is the most successful Australian hip-hop outlet by far. It's been a launch pad for dozens of MC's in Sydney and proved that success is achievable without a label or budget. HHTV introduced the blueprint for artists nationwide.Over the past few years it seems like the success of HHTV has started to slow down, but this in no way signifies a slow down in the growth of Sydney hip-hop as a whole. Many rappers from Sydney have seen what Hustle Hard achieved and are following the blueprint, just more independently. Hustle Hard