Having sold out his debut Australian headline show in just a matter of hours the East Atlanta rapper J.I.D has confirmed a second and final show at Melbourne’s Max Watts on Friday, March 1 due to overwhelming demand!
Final tickets go on sale at 12pm Friday, January 18. For complete tour and ticket information, visit: livenation.com.au.
Growing up on a mix of his parents’ collection of classic funk and soul LPs, J.I.D first appeared on the Atlanta hip-hop scene with his debut EP “Dicaprio” in 2015. After a stint at Hampton University playing football, J.I.D hooked up with fellow MCs as part of the Spillage Village collective – eventually making the move to drop out of college and focus solely on music. In 2014 he set off on tour with EarthGang, Bas, and Ab-Soul – this allowed J.I.D to craft his skills, and a year later he recorded and dropped the “DiCaprio” EP, which saw him team up with a host of producers, as well as EarthGang.
Following up as a sequel to his 2015 SoundCloud EP, J.I.D’s sophomore album “Dicaprio 2” features a star-studded list of collaborators and producers, including 6LACK, A$AP Ferg, Joey Bada$$, Ella Mai, J.Cole and even features one of the last tracks ever produced by Mac Miller – out now on J. Cole’s label, Dreamville. Bringing back the three-verse structure, the mixtape structured album is a sheer skill-display – showing off how far his songwriting skill has grown since his debut album, “The Never Story” in 2017.
Last seen touring Australia in 2017 on J. Cole’s 4 Your Eyez Only tour, this will be your only chance to catch a glimpse of J.I.D’s dexterous, fired-up flow while on tour for Perth’s recently expanded rap and bass-heavy Hidden festival.
J.I.D
Catch Me If You Can Tour – Australia Max Watts, Melbourne Wednesday February 27 – Sold Out
Friday March 1 – New Show!
TICKETS ON SALE 12PM FRIDAY, JANUARY 18
For complete tour and ticket information, visit: jidsv.com & livenation.com.au
Cardi B is set to take off to Australia and New Zealand for the first time for a string of festival shows on either side of New Year’s Eve. With the Migos recently canceling their related Australian festival tour appearances earlier this month, Cardi B now herself headlines the Origin Fields out west in Perth, Australia with Denzel Curry, Smokepurpp, AJ Tracey and Khalid also on the bill. Cardi then heads to Sydney for her sold-out New Year’s Day Festival headline, continuing her whirlwind tour.
Cardi B then heads down to New Zealand for the very first time to headline the both 20,000+ sold-out North and South Bay Dreams festival shows the very next day – proving New Zealand has a very strong appetite for large hip hop festivals.
Nicki Minaj and Rae Sremmurd are set to headline the massive 7-date FOMO Festival Tour which takes in all major capital cities across Australia and New Zealand by BBE early in the new year. Leading an all-star lineup including also Amine (replacing Lil Pump) and Mura Masa, FOMO is the first major summer festival of 2019 in Australia and promises to draw in massive festival crowds throughout with some shows already sold out. With further sideshows announced, major Hip-Hop festivals seem to be back in action down in Australia to stay after a couple of years in more recent times of relative absence.
This year’s FOMO festival builds off the back of a wildly successful festival run for FOMO previously, aided by a stellar line up of SZA, Post Malone, RL Grime, Kaytranada and Zhu amongst others back in early 2018. Their 2017 bill included Desiigner, Metro Boomin, GoldLink, Flosstradamus, JME (UK) while their first festival bill in 2016 had Skepta (UK), RL Grime, Boys Noize, Jamie xx and the award-winning Australian rapper Tkay Maidza taking to the stage. With both Nicki and Rae Sremmurd making their way to Australia this time, 2019 promises to be the biggest one yet.
Few names if any hold the legacy in Australia for the stamp of quality that Unkut Recordings does. Since its founding in 1997 by Rob Nat of Unkut.com and Trem of Lyrical Commission, it has developed into the epitome of its tagline – quality over quantity. While the broad fan base may at times be hanging for a new Unkut release, once it is delivered it has always proven to be raw dope. Held with the utmost respect by all, somewhat your favorite rappers most respected label, it has been responsible for not only arguably the greatest group album release ever but also several classic solo releases that are timeless classics.
The Unkut Recordings story was born out of Rob Nat’s fledgling Unkut Productions in 1996 and became formalized the year after in the lead up to the debut Sheer Talent EP from Trem. The excellent 4-track 12” release was followed up with the year after in 1999 with Trem’s Amateurs and served to cement both Trem’s and Unkut’s position as in a then still-developing Hip-Hop landscape in Australia at the time.
The following year saw Rob Nat release A Night On The Tiles, proving to be his most substantial solo release and now a highly sort after classic nationally. The label’s close working relationship to Melbourne’s legendary Nuffsaid Recordings provided them with a quality stamp of approval even before the music was played at a time when relationships were about quality control over industry favors. Coupled with significant notable features, live shows, radio appearances, crushing open mics and the sorts, Unkut forged their own path when there really was none and created their own brand.
A couple of years hiatus until the next release resulted in December 2002’s The Stage Is Set by Lyrical Commission. A super-group of sorts, the new group saw the bringing together of Melbourne’s two leading solo emcees in Brad Strut and Trem with Bob Balans (of The Formulators duo previously with Rob Nat) plus arguably Australia’s greatest ever hip-hop DJ in DJ J-Red. The result of these four coming together was what many consider as the greatest hip hop album ever to be released from Australia.
Going from strength to strength, Unkut put out Terntable Jediz classic August 2004 album All Out War before following up the next year with Lyrical Commission’s highly anticipated next chapter with their “Murderous Metaphors” 2005 EP. This release was internationally notable for containing features from Brooklyn’s Q-Unique (of The Arsonists) and Celph Titled of The Demigodz, along with the overall quality again proving to be much more than a good release hip hop from Australia, but of such quality as a great Hip-Hop release full stop. This would in retrospect prove to be a key feature of the Unkut story, that they were bringing Hip-Hop in all its aspects to the fullest quality that could hang on any stage worldwide.
The next release would be Brad Strut’s long-awaited sophomore LP Legend: Official that dropped in June 2007. The first track for this classic solo release was the three-minute heater diss-track “Monopoly” produced by Prowla and aimed largely at Obese Records, widely regarded as the best diss track from Australia Ala Ice Cube’s “No Vaseline.”
This 16-track release from Strut was a classic from start to finish, featuring Philadelphia’s Outerspace and Brooklyn’s late and great Sean Price (RIP) of Boot Camp Clik / Random Axe and a wealth of the usual Unkut suspects. Following the reissue release of Strut’s classic 2001 debut album The Authentic LP, Brad Strut released the substantial double-disc The Fallout Shelter EP, which featured a Remix disc from a somewhat who’s who of Australian producers.
Following this, all eyes turned to the most highly anticipated Hip-Hop release in Australia ever in Trem’s debut full solo album in 2011’s For The Term Of His Natural Life and it even exceeded the lofty expectations surrounding it by all. The 18-track release is the solo release of the last decade from Australia and featured DJ Revolution, long-time collaborator Q-Unique and a who’s who of Hip-Hop legends from Australia. The award-winning accompanying visuals completed the entire roll-out, with the video filmography team of FULL CLIP showcasing why they are widely considered as the best in the business down under.
Following a string of monumental releases in a rapidly changing musical landscape, Unkut Recordings seemingly took a bit of a break until the signing of Brisbane group Kings Konekted. K-Double proceeded to drop the Hip-Hop album of the year in 2015 in their debut LP on Unkut Recordings in Value Of Adaption. Superbly crafted from start to finish, the release was arguably the most polished product to have been released from Australasia since Trem’s 2011 debut solo album.
Fans of Unkut Recordings can look forward to new releases coming from the Kings Konekted camp, L-Flows and possibly more in the short-term. The wait is always worth it, so get familiar with Unkut Recordings extensive back catalog in the meantime to hear some of the best music Australia has offered over the last two decades. Quality over Quantity.
Far from an overnight success that he may appear to the casual fan, ChillinIt has been patiently developing and honing his craft for many years into one of the most exciting rappers to emerge out of Australia. Getting somewhat of a breakthrough via the influential Hustle Hard TV YouTube some six years ago, the talented […]
Far from an overnight success that he may appear to the casual fan, ChillinIt has been patiently developing and honing his craft for many years into one of the most exciting rappers to emerge out of Australia. Getting somewhat of a breakthrough via the influential Hustle Hard TV YouTube some six years ago, the talented and versatile Sydney rapper has recently released his excellent debut album “Women, Weed & Wordplay” to widespread critical acclaim and success. With an impressive independent 1.5 million-plus streams with no playlist help or distribution deal in the first week alone, the proof is in the numbers for the versatile wordsmith with the album charting at #1.
Along with contemporaries Wombat, Nerve, Talakai, Shadow, Huskii, Lil Sknow, Mitchos Da Menace, Triple One, TRYL and Skrub, ChillinIt has led the charge for the new generation of skilled emcees to emerge from down under – aided by the excellent work that the affiliated Body Bag Media platform has been able to develop. Building on the style of the independent foundation created by the likes of Kerser, Fraksha, Fortay, and Alex Jones before him, ChillinIt has certainly emerged in the last year or two with a legion of fans and a strong potential to take his refreshing sound truly global. His music has already organically linked him to the UK, scoring a spot on JDZ Media and a collaboration with English grime emcee Kamakaze.
The charismatic ChillinIt oozes star factor and has cultivated a family of fans known as the #420Fam. It is easy to see why he has developed such a rabid following in the recent years, with skills and authenticity on the microphone only matched by his energetic live shows that have many saying are some of the best in the country. There’s no rapping off phones, there’s no stumbling and fumbling his way through live shows just near complete hungry, raw, professionalism. Amassing tens of millions streams/views in the last year or so alone, ChillinIt definitely has the potential to be one of the first rappers from Australia to truly break through to the contemporary American market and has already sparked significant major record label interest. The hungry rapper is keen to showcase his many different styles with lyrical content to match almost any mood.
If reaction videos were a gauge of his potential overseas, he may eventually prove to be as fire globally as he is at home. With a strong, consistent work ethic already in the young talented artist, it will be an interesting few coming months to see how ChillinIt is able to negotiate his increasingly new levels of success which only seems to develop by the hour. A truly talented rapper at the core, Australia is proud that such an artist is leading the charge and expect him to level up again soon. Expect to see him on further major Australasian tour support and festival slots by his own accord soon – before taking the world by storm.
Check his debut album “Women, Weed & Wordplay” streaming now and catch up on his extensive back catalog before it’s a Chill takeover. #420Family
