One of New York’s finest, rapper Hoodie Allen makes his live debut in Australia. And to be honest, it’s about damn time.
“It’s definitely overdue,” Hoodie agrees. “I wish I could have come years ago but it’s really great that it’s finally happening.
"I’m very interactive with people on social media so for years I’ve seen people be like ‘come to Sydney!’ and ‘come to Melbourne already!’. So it’s great I can finally do it and get to meet the people who I see on the Internet and meet them in real life.”
And meet them he shall, because every ticket for the upcoming ‘Hanging With Hoodie’ Australia tour also grants a meet-and-greet to get up-close and personal with the man himself. For Hoodie, it’s all part of becoming the artist he wants to be.
“It really comes down to how I want to treat the people who support me and I feel like it’s important for them to know how much their love is reciprocated, and this is just one of the ways that I can do that,” Hoodie says.
He goes on to say that nearly seven years on from releasing his 2012 debut EP ‘All American’ and another three full-length studio albums since, Australian fans are going to be getting the full Hoodie Allen experience.
“It’s really cool for a market like Australia after putting out so much music because I get to play a really wide range of new music and old music,” he says.
“I have no idea which songs people are going to gravitate to more because someone who comes to the show may have been a fan of mine for seven years now and someone may have found me six weeks ago. So in that sense I think it’s going to be a really unique experience.”
Hoodie’s most recent release is his third album ‘The Hype’, which came out at the end of September last year. He says his aim with ‘The Hype’ was to collate the various sounds and styles he has played with over the years to produce something that was dynamically and sonically his own.
“It was me taking a lot of the sounds that I’ve played with over the entirety of my career and making music that felt good, and felt honest and fun and real, that was my main goal with it,” he says.
“I’ve tried to make a packet for myself where I have a unique bubble that sounds like me between pop and hip hop, and I’m very fortunate to find enough people who like what I do that I can now go to Australia for the first time, so that’s great.”
An artist clearly looking towards securing long-term success, Hoodie says his first trip to Australia certainly won’t be his last. “Honestly it’s partially a bucket list thing, to cross another great place off the list, but I would love to be able to come back to Australia,” he says.
“My goal is that this is a successful tour and then I can come back do some festivals and make it more of a habit. No more waiting for five years before another tour there, that’s my goal.”
Hoodie Allen Australia Tour 2018
Fri 7 Sep - Woolly Mammoth (Brisbane)Sat 8 Sep - Howler (Melbourne)
Sun 9 Sep - Oxford Art Factory (Sydney)
