Koolism

Veterans of the Australian hip-hop scene, Koolism have been around since the mid-90s, pushing their always funky beats and positive rhymes. Surviving the days of Australian hip-hop being seen as a bit of a novelty, through the rise of Hilltop Hoods and up until today, Koolism have been solid the whole way through.

Coming to Adelaide as part of the Adelaide Uni O'Ball lineup, Koolism are also releasing their third studio album later in the year. With the lineup featuring more rock than hip-hop, MC Hau hopes that the show will provide an opportunity to hear something they wouldn't normally. And hey, maybe even like it enough to grab the new album, who knows?

"Back in the days when we first started, we kept getting put on bills like this. You'd see people's faces like 'what the hell's this? Where's the instruments?'" Hau laughs.

"But nowadays more people are aware of hip-hop and Australian hip-hop, so more people are open to it and maybe even like it. When I saw who was playing, I just thought 'oh, ok... We'll just have to do the best we can,' and we might even gain a few new fans."

Although a lot of people don't realise it, Australian hip-hop's been around since the late 80s, with groups like Def Wish Cast rapping in Australian accents years before Hilltop Hoods dropped their first album. Unfortunately for those involved, it wasn't taken very seriously by anyone outside the scene, and Triple J approached it more as an experiment than anything.

"Triple J's always supported us, whereas back in the day it seemed like it was more of an experiment for them, them playing an Australian hip-hop song. Almost like a novelty, I guess. But now it's like a normal thing, you'll get local artists getting feature albums,"

Although nobody could really claim that Australian hip-hop's in a worse position now than it was ten years ago, Hau thinks that there are some aspects of it which could probably change for the better.

"I've noticed that kids nowadays will only listen to Australian hip-hop. I don't agree with that, they'll say that anything else is crap. That mindset is the same as somebody who won't listen to hip-hop at all, the same kind of ignorance. That's a bad thing that I see. But of course that being said, overall it's in a better spot now. Hopefully people just get more open minded, on both sides of hip-hop."

The third album from Koolism is set to be released later on this year, and Hau mentions it being more of a continuation of their sound rather than anything radically different.

"It still has the Koolism vibe to it, you'll definitely know it's Koolism. We don't try to contrive anything, whether it's a breaks tune or a jungle tune, it is what it is - whatever we write on the day is how it goes. It will be a lot different to other Australian hip-hop groups, but for Koolism it's not that far a stretch."

With their albums consistently two-years apart from each other, Koolism either work really slowly or do a whole lot of other stuff in between. Given that producer and DJ Danielsan just helped produce Axe Aklins' solo debut, and that Hau's been featured on a bunch of really successful Australian releases, it's probably more likely the latter.

"I've been doing a lot of cameos lately, I was on Urthboy's new album, 'Astronomy Class', Resin Dogs' album, the Hilltop Hoods' latest, Katalyst. So it's been really good for me to be able to work with others and rhyme on other people's music. It's good being able to do things we wouldn't normally do, then come back and work on Koolism."

As a producer and MC duo, Hau and Daniel pretty much have their roles cut out for them when it comes to which parts of the music they make. Hau says that they also approach the entire project in different ways as well, with Hau bringing a positive, emotional kind of energy to the sound, while Daniel looks at things more scientifically.

"When I first met Daniel, his thing was to make music for computer games," Hau states, laughing. "He was very good with electronics. Myself, I'm more emotional and I think that comes from my upbringing and dealing with life issues. It's a good balance, we both feel music but we look at it differently. He does look at things technically but he also has style, he goes off feel. I think together we make a good balance."

Ben Ford-Smith

Koolism play at the University of Adelaide O'Ball on Sat 15 Mar.