Searching For Usta

Searching For Sugar Man was a 2012 award winning documentary directed by Malik Bendjelloul. I remember watching this documentary when i was 16 and being totally fascinated by such a freak story. The story goes like this: 

In the early 1970s, Sixto Rodriguez was a Detroit folksinger who had a short-lived recording career with only two well received but non-selling albums. Unknown to Rodriguez, his musical story continued in South Africa where he became a pop music icon and inspiration for generations.

Something about an artist being famous without him even realising it captivated me. I found the story very melancholy, beautiful because an obviously talented artist was being recognised somewhere in the world - but also tragic, because Sixto Rodriguez was old, near homeless and way past his prime by the time he discovered that he was a rockstar on the other-side of the globe. For most of Sixto's life he regarded his music as under appreciated and failure in terms of public recognition. Searching For Sugar Man represents the story of the starving artist and the beauty in which that represents. 

Usta, an underground rapper from Sydney's South East matched Searching For Sugar Man's story pretty closely, at least among my mates. Usta has always been one of those artists that didn't need a video clip, he didn't even need good sound quality. All of my friends had their own favourite Usta songs, whether they be his emotional tracks or his staunch ones. The length of Usta's catalogue is also pretty impressive for Aussie standards, only last week my friend showed me an Usta track none of us had heard with only 20 views - and it goes.  Usta is a top 10 in Aus rapper for most of my friends, but when you bring up Usta to many Aus hiphop fans, especially younger ones, you're either greeted with a confused look or "oh yeah that guy that did the 32 bars freestyle in city". I do meet people that recognise Usta, but it's rare. More often than not it's usually other rappers I see that show love to Usta, not the consumer. Usta's look, sound and style was as Sydney as it comes and during this time of Polynesian domination in Australian hiphop it's hard to imagine that Usta was one of the few, if not the only, Polynesian street rapper during the early part of last decade.

Usta perfectly encapsulated the later stage of the gutter rap movement  during 2010-2013, he seemed like the natural progression after Sydney Serchaz. Usta was even given an extremely rare co-sign from Kerser on the Fortnightly Report show in 2013 when he was asked who his favourite up and coming rapper was. In 2013 the future looked good for Usta, with his slow climb of the HustleHard TV leaderboard and recognition from some giants in the scene there was no doubt that Usta was going somewhere. That didn't happen though, with a string of legal issues, a drug problem and the threat of deportation back to New Zealand, Usta's music was put on the side, with the occasional period of music releases.   

Usta never reached the level that alot of us had predicted and his newer songs never really hit the same. Usta never really had a social media presence, which added to his charm but also didn't really help in the age of Instagram. For me, I will always consider. Usta one of the most realist rappers to have graced the Sydney hiphop scene. The guy has banger after banger with under 50,000 views while his attitude and style has become the new norm within the scene.

Was Queensland the biggest winner last decade?

Queensland, the Sunshine state, the Texas of Australia. For a long time most have equated the northern state with hot weather, XXXX and Pauline Hanson supporters, but over the last few years the states premier city, Brisbane, has seen an explosion in local talent. Growing up I always considered  Brisbane a backwater in terms of Aus Hiphop - Sydney had its gutter rap movement, Adelaide had its giants like Hilltop Hoods and Vents, Perth had Drapht, and Melbourne was, well, Melbourne - But Brisbane had never come up on my radar growing up - Brisbane has easily been the underachiever of Aus HipHop.

The first Brisbane rapper I  came across was Nerve back in 2017 on a grime track called Survival. It was probably the first time id seen a younger rapper doing grime so authentically, and when I learnt that Nerve himself produced the beat, i was sold. Rapper/Producers are a rare breed in Australia and it's definitely one of Nerves main selling points, the relationship Nerve has with his beats shines through on tracks like Walk & Talk, Gone Stupid and Run That. Over the last few years Nerve has proved that he is one of the hardest working in the game right now, (it's pretty hard to believe this guy manages doing University as well) - you get the sense that those around him have an equally good work ethic including fellow Brisbane native Kyle Golly. Kyle Golly is founder of No One Network, easily one of the most exciting companies in Australian hip hop today. He's kind of the Cole Bennett of Australia - Kyle Golly has been able to create a distinct brand identity with his music video production and work ethic. The two have been able to really create a healthy environment for hip hop to thrive in QLD .

Queensland has also been seeing some changes on the other side of the hiphop spectrum . No other part of Australia has benefited more from the Islander Hip Hop explosion of 2019 than Queensland. In the Islander hiphop space, Queensland is number two, an impressive leap from a decade ago. Drawing from high populated Islander areas like Logan and West Brisbane, Queensland has been able to trail Sydney as a stronghold of Islander hip hop. Acts like NME, Lisi and personal favorite KDM, have been racking in millions of views with originality and a new take on what Sydney created. NME, Logans answer to One Four have almost 3 million views on their break out track German and their follow up song Suave cemented them in the scene by showing off their charming, back and forth chemistry. One of their members , RB (@rb_4k) has one of the most memorable voices I think i've ever heard in Australia, it reminds me of  Sheff G from New York. NME are far from a One Four clone, they have a really fun dynamic and they're able to effortlessly go back to back on a track. On the other side of Brisbane in the West, there's Lisi, he caught my attention late last year with his track The Come Up, a fun laid back track with some of the cutest visuals I think i've ever seen. Lisi gets his younger brother to lip sync the first verse of the song as if it was him 5 years ago, a cool idea and a change from the usual Islander hip hop videos that we were seeing in the second half of 2019.

The last of the big three Islander acts in Queensland are KDM On The Track, a young, feel good, family friendly trio with some of the catchiest melodies on the continent. In my opinion groups like KDM are exactly what we need if we want this current wave of hip hop to have any longevity. KDM don't take themselves super serious, which is refreshing,and their family friendly language gives them the opportunity to make a much bigger impact on mainstream Australia than their more violent counterparts. Just like NME, what makes KDM is the chemistry between the trio, of everyone in Queensland I think KDM are the most exciting, especially because they're only like 17 or something.

One thing I think Australia has been lacking, especially in this current wave, is female rappers. With the explosion in female rappers in America and the UK i'm honestly surprised we haven't really seen any girls making big moves in Australian Hip Hop. Only a few weeks ago I came across a rapper called Unamii, she's an African girl from Ipswich - which I think has to be a first in Australian hip hop? - and I was surprised i'd never heard of her considering the views this video had (200k). Although Unamii commits a crime we hate on this blog, an American accent. It's just acceptable because you can hear the natural accent come through. Unamii flows comfortably on a drill beat and if this is her first video, which I think it is, there is a lot of potential. Unamii has the looks, attitude and flow to be the number 1 female rapper in the country. There's definitely a giant gap in the market when it comes to female rappers in Australia, I know personally speaking, a lot of my female friends are begging for a dope female rapper in Australia. If Unamii sticks around I definitely think she could do big things for women in Australia and African-Australians as well.

Over the last few years we've seen Queensland go from an Australian hip hop backwater to arguably the second most important state in the country. With exciting acts on all ends of the spectrum I think the change in Brisbane's cultural diversity over the last couple decades may be one the key reasons why it's seeing success in Hip Hop now. Brisbane's large Islander community has helped the city catch the Islander hiphop wave from the southern cities,it also has to be said that hip hop lovers and creators have been putting in groundwork which has helped establish Brisbane and Queensland as hotbed of Australian hip hop.