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People seem to either love or hate Aussie hip hop. But here's a thought - why can't we just have hip hop that is from Australia? Melburnian wordsmith Ryan Egan is changing that perception with his fresh raps and unpretentiousness.
Paper-Deer swapped stories with Ryan Egan on his mix tapes and life as a hip hop artist.
Paper-Deer hears that you got your start as a hip hop artist from rapping at parties as “Fly Ry”. When did you start getting interested in urban music, and was there any secret rapping in front of your bedroom mirror involved?
Honestly I was listening to my parents’ music until I was thirteen, fourteen. That was mainly sixties and seventies rock, blues, soul, pop and all the etceteras. Then when I was fourteen a friend played me some Wu-Tang and Dr. Dre and my entire perception of music was completely flipped. From that point on, hip hop slowly took over and I just became obsessed with it, not just the rapping but the production behind the music, the stories, and everything else associated like clothing and sneakers. There was a heap of secret rapping going on in my bedroom, mostly muted when other people were home [laughs] and then nice and loud in the garage where I knew no one could hear. True story – I came home on a Saturday afternoon when I was 15 and my parents asked me what I was doing all day. My reply was, “I went to the city and I won an emcee battle.” They had no idea about me and rap before then. I guess that’s just suburban life…
Why did you decide to use your birth name instead of the typical stage name business?
At the end of the day, I just feel weird telling someone I have a stage name. I don’t know why – just feels a bit awkward to me, so I started using my own name. I was comfortable with it from the start, and the fact that it had some people looking at it like “what the fuck” made me want to use it even more.
Your blog is called Cassette Walkman. Are you a big fan of Walkmans and retro cassette tapes?
[laughs] I’m a fan of both actually. I just see a Cassette as a metaphor for an era when you could make a mix tape for a friend. You were sharing art and spreading the word about something you liked. A blog really is no different in my eyes. You can give someone a link to Cassette Walkmans and all my music, influences, favourite images and videos are all there, like a modern day cassette I guess?
You’ve been to the US, and Paper-Deer has heard you describe how the New York scene is massive and open-minded. Do you think that the Melbourne or Australian hip hop scene is harder to get anything going?
I do, but only because our population and demand is smaller. NYC has more bars, clubs, nightlife and just general people to fill certain places on a nightly basis – so opportunity is way more evident and you feel it when you are there. Hip hop that’s being made in Australia is still really young. Sure, it’s come a long way since the late nineties (yes, it existed then) but it’s still relatively young. So even though there’s more radio play and exposure, there still a lot of people that are unaware of it and still adapting to its style and sound. So I guess in that sense too, opportunities are still a bit more limited than if you were a rock band looking for gigs.
But in terms of opportunity there is in NYC – it was on another level! People were out there everyday trying to make something happen as opposed to waiting for it. Dudes are selling their mix tapes on the sidewalk, promoting themselves 24/7, trying to get you to listen. I was walking down the street one day and saw Bobby Hundreds (who runs LA Lifestyle Brand, The Hundreds) and handed him a copy of The Intern – the next day I’m being blogged on a site that has over a million views a day. After that I literally walk around a corner and A-Trak casually strolls by me. You’re eating lunch and Natalie Portman is at the table beside you. It’s seriously like that, everyone’s either in pursuit of the dream or living it.
Melbourne has a massive music scene, but a lot of it revolves around indie, electro-rock and experimental pop music. Is it hard getting a gig in this town?
I’d be lying if I said it was easy, and that’s not in a bitter type of tone, it’s just that you want to align yourself with the right artists and be seen by certain crowds, especially when the music you are doing is a bit eclectic and left-field. There’s no point me opening for a headlining act that gets up on stage and starts cussing the crowd. So I’ve had to decline certain gigs just because I know it’s more productive to record more material or chase a different slot that might be available. I will say this though - a lot of promoters get stuck into the routine of booking the same acts for every show and don’t bother listening to the demos that have been sent to them, or even reading the artist bios. I just wish the live music scene in Melbourne for hip hop was a bit more competitive, or competitive enough to keep the artists sharper.
You’ve also said in an interview that you believe that artists shouldn’t worry about genres and stereotypes. Are there any closet musicians that you love that would surprise people, given your hip hop leanings?
[laughs] There are plenty! I’m known to listen to some Howlin’ Wolf on Saturday nights and Buddy Holly on Sunday mornings. I can talk The Beatles catalogue with the best of them, Bob Dylan too. Bruce Springsteen is an endless supply of motivation, and there are weeks where I just listen to The Doors non-stop. And The Velvet Underground? Don’t even start me. I know I’m really late on this, but The XX’s album blew me away. Incredible stuff.
Tell us about all about your mix tapes. (E.g. how often you release them. Where you record them? Who works on them with you?)
In April this year I released The Intern, which was pretty much an LP but I made it a free download because there was way too many sample clearances to do if I wanted to retail it. The Intern was basically a bit of everything, rapping with melodies, hooks, I kind of just used Hip-Hop as a starting point and branch out from there to wherever. Then in June I put out the first instalment of Tapes, Decks & Paycheques when I was in NYC. I did it just as a way of saying “thanks” to my fan base but it was much better received than expected. Then in September I released Tapes, Decks & Paycheques 2. I had that much material done by that point that it was only fair to put some of it out there, so far the response has been great. Tapes, Decks & Paycheques was a lot more based on Hip-Hop and its core values and me just re-assuring everyone that I can still rhyme words.
Download Ryan's Tapes, Desks and Paycheques 2 here.
LINKS:
ryan egan - just keeps gettin better and better...
ReplyDeleteand this one has some crackers on it...
lemonade - being my favourite...