As Hilltop Hoods’ MC Pressure, aka Daniel Smith, looks forward to touring the hip hop veterans’ just-released powerhouse seventh album, ‘Walking Under Stars’, he also reflects on a career that has been both a lot of fun and, at times, a very hard road.
The group recently played a thundering set to hordes of revellers at the annual Byron music mecca Splendour In The Grass, and it was obvious how far the Hoods have come since they first played the festival ten years ago during their breakout 'Nosebleed Section' days. “Splendour was massive. I hadn’t been since they moved location so it’s pretty awesome. The new site’s wicked ... It felt like it was twice as big as the other one,” he says.
“It’s one of the first festivals we ever played so it’s cool to be able to go back there ten years later and smash it again."
It was also plain to see how much the domestic hip hop scene has exploded in that time — a phenomenon that Pressure and his partners in crime have played a key role in. "The [Splendour] roster was full of hip hop acts — not just Aussie ones but big-name ones and all the guys that played were getting massive crowds," Pressure says.
"The scene is just huge at the moment. It almost feels like it's going to overtake rock & roll. In a country like Australia with an industry dominated by rock, to be competing for that guernsey of top spot is just insane. I never thought that would've happened ten years ago."
“My son was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia in February last year and I actually took six months off music to become his primary carer and lived in the hospital.”
As leaders of the pack, Hilltop Hoods are ever conscious of maintaining a unique voice among the growing crowd — which is evident on their new record that picks up directly where its predecessor, 2012's 'Drinking From The Sun', left off. “'Walking Under Stars' is the companion piece to 'Drinking From The Sun'. It’s part two of the album," Pressure says.
"We actually started writing the concepts around the same time as 'Drinking From The Sun', so it’s fairly continuous from that album. As a whole album it’s a bit more soulful than the last record, a bit more progressive as well. We’ve tried to keep it fresh at the same time ... but not stray too far from our signature sound."
While songs like the recently released first single 'Won't Let You Down' and pre-album teaser 'The Art Of The Handshake' have received plenty of airplay — the record is this week's Triple J's feature album — one track on 'Walking Under Stars' stands out personally for Pressure — 'Through The Dark' was written during his son's difficult but ultimately successful treatment for cancer. “My son was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia in February last year and I actually took six months off music to become his primary carer and lived in the hospital that whole time and I wrote that song while I was in there caring for him," Pressure says.
"It’s just come on a year since he finished his chemotherapy and he’s in full remission so no signs of the cancer, so it’s looking like he’s been cured. It’s been an incredibly trying ordeal but it’s one we’ve come out the other end of."
While acknowledging the group's status as the country's pre-eminent rhymers, Pressure plays down their pioneering status when harking back to their humble beginnings. "There was a very small scene [when starting out in '90s Adelaide]. It was mainly DJs and open-mic nights; there were one or two crews doing their thing," he says.
"We were also really into '90s American acts like Public Enemy, Nas, Organized Konfusion. As far as pioneers go we looked at older crews like Mama's Funk and Def Wish Cast as the guys who pioneered Australian hip hop. Having said that, I think we've been responsible for taking it to the next level and reaching a much wider audience with Australian hip hop. It's come in leaps and bounds since we started out."
The emcee is also keen to keep track of younger hip hop acts emerging in the Hoods' wake. "Without being biased — 'cause he's on our record label [Golden Era Records] — I really like Briggs, an indigenous rapper from country Victoria who is just about to put a new album out [August 22] called 'Sheplife' ... I've heard it already and it's a fucking amazing album so I can't wait for him to put that out and for the rest of the country to be able to hear that."
While recent years have seen Pressure and the lads play the likes of UK mega-fest Glastonbury, Swiss hip hop festival Openair Frauenfeld and countless sold-out theatres and arenas, it wasn't always easy. "Luckily no horror gigs in the last few years. But I remember the first time we played Sydney when we started out and the first show in the CBD was good but the second was down south at an RSL and about five people showed up. That was probably the worst."
While those thinly populated, character-building shows are long behind the group, Pressure says their success certainly hasn't gone to their heads. In a genre that, at least overseas, has often been famous for its hubris, murderous rivalries and crazy gig riders, Pressure has no time for mud-slinging. "There's a lot of music out there I'm not feeling but I don't like to waste time and energy on hate," he says.
No colourful, debaucherous superstar riders, then? "We're pretty lame with riders, to be honest — just a few bottles of spirits, a carton of beer and some food," he chuckles. "You just see some of the dumb shit people order and I just think of the people who have to make it. You don't want to piss off the people making your rider."
