Upcoming hip hop heavyweight JK-47 brings his rapid-fire rhymes to Groovin The Moo this year, solidifying the past two years of work since releasing his stellar debut album 'Made For This'.
The record, featuring hits 'Guess Again', 'On One' and 'R.I.P', earned JK-47 Album Of The Year at the 2021 National Indigenous Music Awards and cemented his status as one of the country's most promising hip hop acts."It's just phenomenal, there's nothing like it," JK says of the support he has received from his fans. "I can't even put into words how thankful I am to do my thing onstage and just be appreciated and taken in the way I have been."
JK-47 has established a reputation as something of a truth-teller, weaponising the philosophical school of hip hop to open a dialogue with his audiences to dissect important issues.
"Hip hop is such a broad genre, and you can do what you want, but I drew my inspirations from the fellas that spoke about real things, gave a voice to the community and the issues going on," he says.
"Coming together, meeting and talking about those things and progress – that's what it is, because when you talk and have a yarn about these sorts of things, progress is made.
"It doesn't matter if it's just talking or if it's music, there's progress there if you want to touch on the real things and have a conversation with the crowd."
It is this conversational nature of his stagecraft and the connection it fosters with the audience that JK-47 fears he will lose as his career progresses in leaps and bounds.
"I like to conversate, I don't like to just play my songs track after track, I like to speak about the track and how it came to life, just have a yarn onstage," JK says.
"To be honest, that's the kind of thing I'm dreading: the crowds getting bigger and not having that connection as strong.
"Even though there's heaps of people, you can't look at one person directly in the face I'd imagine, because there'd be so many people looking at you. But for now, it's amazing, man."
That same concern is niggling at JK-47 as he prepares for Groovin The Moo, but he's not letting it get the better of him.
"[It's] exciting but at the same time I'm thinking 'will I lose that connection, will it maintain?'.
"These are just thoughts in my head, but obviously any chance to play and connect with that amount of people is amazing. The energy is there and I'm keen to bring it."
Though JK won't give away any details about what he has planned for his GTM set, he says he's currently working on his second album, which will be produced entirely by his DJ – producer and trusted stage partner, Jay Orient.
"This one is going to be solely produced by my man Jay Orient, because I had a couple producers on the first one. . . this one is going to be totally Jay Orient," JK says.
"You know how it goes, get better the next day and the day after that, so [we're] just trying to level-up with this one. It's going to be the best one yet, obviously, but we're just going to keep getting better and better."
JK-47 plays Groovin The Moo in Maitland, Canberra and Bendigo next month. He also appears at Bluesfest (Byron Bay) 15 April and Splendour In The Grass (Byron Bay) 24 July.
Groovin The Moo 2022 Tour Dates
Sat 23 Apr - Maitland Showground (Hunter Valley)Sun 24 Apr - Exhibition Park In Canberra
Sat 30 Apr - Prince Of Wales Showgrounds (Bendigo)
Groovin The Moo 2022 Line-up
Alice IvyBroods
Chaii
grentperez
Hilltop Hoods
Hockey Dad
Hope D
Jesswar
JK-47
Lime Cordiale
Mashd N Kutcher
Masked Wolf
Middle Kids
Montaigne
Peking Duk
Polaris
RedHook
Riton
Shouse
Snakehips
Spiderbait
Sycco
Thomas Headon
Wolf Alice
With hosts Dijok & Jawbreakers
Plus triple j Unearthed, Fresh Produce artists, Welcome To Country and community programmes
