Sydney rapper Joel Rafidi has stripped down his hip hop sound as part of a unique busking trip last month.
“I've had 80-year-olds coming up to me, just loving it,” he says about his recent east coast busking trip.. “Everything's documented on social media, through my Facebook and tweeting where we're we’ve been, city by city.”
The first-of-its-kind tour for an Australian hip hop artist, Joel's adventure began in Brisbane on the 8th September, with the young emcee then travelling more than 2,000kms down the east coast of Australia, rapping with his acoustic guitar in local malls and at high schools. The trip was part of the promotion of his debut album 'Phases'. “‘Phases’ for me is all about those overwhelming emotions that we can't control at different points in time,” Joel says.
The album runs through a diverse range of moods — from blind anger on 'Riot!', to humorous parody in 'The Single'. “'Riot!' is my angry phase ... I guess hip hop is power at certain points, at certain times. That's what connected me to hip hop in the first place — with Tupac and the strength in what he said [with his] lyrics. It's [was] an emotional point in time, where I didn't really care about much and I just had to write it down.”
Produced by Daniel Antix and Reece Szabo, the album swings between attitudes accordingly, mixing old-school hip hop and soul with modern rock. It's no surprise, considering Joel cites artists such as Tupac, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Frank Sinatra as his influences. “I'm not prejudiced about music — if it sounds good to me, I connect with it … Genre isn't something that's important.”
The first commercial release from the album, 'Do It Again', has received airplay on 50+ stations throughout the country. But the young emcee understands he has a long way to climb to reach the goals he wants to achieve. “I don't think anyone is born great at anything.” he says.
“If you have passion and keep doing it and doing it, you get better. It's the same with anything in life, practice is everything.” That’s a mantra he seems to live by, writing lyrics for over 300 songs in 2010 alone.
As a young musician in his native Liverpool, Sydney, Joel grew up playing bass guitar in bands and didn't discover hip hop until he was 15. “Lyrically, hip hop is something I connected with immediately.”
And, like most emerging artists he found the most difficult step was to break free of preconceived notions of who he should be. “The biggest hurdle was just coming to terms with this being 100 percent what I wanted to do … and just letting people know. It's very, very scary at first to get yourself out there as an artist and to be judged for everything you do. But once I crossed that barrier and felt free to express myself however I wanted, there was a dramatic improvement.”‘Phases’ is available now. Joel Rafidi plays at Brass Monkey in Cronulla on 9th October.
