The Rise of 66records

I have to say, of all the countries with a hip-hop scene Australia has got to have the least amount of Africans which is kinda surprising seeing that most scenes whether it be the US, UK, France,  or Canada, all these countries biggest rappers are black. For most Aussies, if you ask them to name you an African rapper they'd tell you Ur Boy Bangs. Who, before you laugh, is one of the most viewed rappers in the county, appeared in a KIA ad, was the first Aussie rapper on Jimmy Fallon, and in my opinion, a pioneer in the sound Lil Yachty made popular. (he also made all his beats). I know it's probably going to impossible to convince people Ur Boy Bangs is an underestimated artist/producer/entrepreneur/mogul so that being the case, there isn't really any notable African Australian artists. With almost 400,000 Aussies with African heritage, it really is surprising that there hasn't really been a proper lane for African Australians, of course, there are a few artists like Manu Crooks out of Sydney, but these artists are far and few. When you say African Australian a lot of people will think of Melbourne, home to a large number of East African Australians and the notorious gangs made popular by the media like Apex Predators. It's in these streets of Melbourne that 6 years ago a record label was born that would focus on African Australian artists, 66Records. 66Records is shrouded in controversy, one of their events in late 2018 caught media attention when a brawl broke out leaving 7 hospitalized and the record label was even featured on Four Corners ABC. Beyond the controversy, 66 records are producing top quality music videos covering all styles of hip-hop.


I'm not going to lie, the first time I stumbled upon 66Records I thought it was just B-grade American rip-off music that wouldn't catch on.
But after a couple returns and some new discoveries, my opinion made a 180-degree shift. Although the American accent is still there, which 99% of the time doesn't work and isnt memorable, I found that some of the 66records tracks were pretty catchy and even with the accents could stand up to any Aussie tracks id heard and even lots of the stuff coming out of America. The first track from 66Records I really fucked with was BBG Smokey - Only One, the song is clearly heavily influenced by NBA Young Boy from Louisiana and the Visuals could be straight out of London. The song and the visuals were well produced, catchy and had a laid back vibe to it, I thought it did a pretty good job at capturing the energy of the African Australian experience in Melbourne. Now don't get me wrong ALOT of the videos on 66Records are American look-alikes that are mediocre but there are some proper gems on the channel. Pronto - One Day is one of these gems that is super catchy and feel good, I remember playing this with some mates and it was a great song to just kick back too. Both Pronto's One Day and BBG Smokey's Only one are fairly new and hopfully a sign of whats to come. I can totally see 66Records dominating the Melbourne scene in a few years. I think the next step for 66Records is to just maintain the consistent uploads and maybe even reach out to others in the scene, I can totally see a BBG Smokey and Kid Laroi collab.

UK influence in Australian hiphop

Hiphop is  a funny thing, it is the most black American art form there is but it's a global phenomenon. The black experience and hiphop are almost inseparable, so when hiphop spreads to somewhere outside of America it almost always maintains an Americaness to it. The UK, one of the early adopters of hiphop was no exception from this.  Although the UK had a connection to hiphops founding city New York through both cities having large Carribean and west African communities London still had a long journey to finding its own identity. 1980's Uk rappers like Dizzy Heights were almost indistinguishable from US rappers of the time. The 90s brought the Uk abit more identity with the popularity of jungle and garage music, but that wasn't even considered hiphop! 2000's birthed Grime, the first truly British sub-genre of hiphop with household names coming from this new scene like Wiley, Dizzee and Tinie Tempah. This early period in grime even had an effect on Australia with the arrival of Fraksha from England and his formation of Smash Brothers, the first Grime crew based in Australia.

Dizzee and Wiley

By the late 2000s Grime in the UK would die down and be replaced by more American styles, Grime crews in both the UK and Aus would remain underground and local. In this dull time both Brits and Australians still looked towards America for the new trends, until 2012. There is no exact date but I like to pin it to Skepta's Ace hood flow music video, this, for me at least, was the start of the Grime renaissance. The following year would see an explosion in Grime with old artists like Skepta, JME, Kano and Wiley making massive comebacks and new artists like Stormzy and Section Boys finding new success. This 2nd wave of Grime was different to the first in the early 2000s because it had a global impact with UK artists finding die-hard international audiences in the US, mainland Europe, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. The Grime comeback peaked in mid-2015 with the release of Stomzy's park freestyle 'Shut up' and Skepta's long-anticipated video for 'Shut down' which even had a cameo from the worlds biggest rapper Drake. This period was so massive for the UK scene that they probably will never again look to America for trends, the biggest artists in the UK are from the UK. New genres came out of this time like Uk Afrobeat and Uk drill the latter of which has seen some success in Australia too.

With the arrival of Uk artists to Australia through tours and festivals, it seemed clear that this new British resurgence would rub off on the Aussie scene. It was possible to create a hiphop scene that was almost 100% true to the culture, there was finally proof, a blueprint. Of course, there has been grime acts in Australia since the arrival of Fraksha like Thats Them crew from Sydney, Alex Jones and Mr Wrighty;shit, no one should forget the time Kerser jumped on a grime track with Thats Them.

By 2018 the kids that were around during the grime explosion of 2014 were older and drew fashion and music influences from the UK.
Artists like Shadow, Chillinit, Wombat and Hazrd were all giving grime a go, and it was working. But with this new found success many were questioning if the scene was going backward, that we weren't going our own way but just replacing America for England, and can you blame them? For so long Grime had been an exclusively British style and for some, the accent change just didn't work. Others pointed to groups like One Four who were criticized for completely ripping off UK drill. In an interview with WDE One Four member YP said that they were heavily influenced by Uk drill rappers because they live like them. The succes of acts like Chillinit, Wombat and One Four can be largely owed to the rise of UK influence in Australia and more interest in that style, and while som critics say it's a generic bite of the UK style it's undenyable that it's had a positive impact on the growth of Aus hiphop.