By Andrew

The Adelaide-to-Oz connection in Australian hip-hop is a breeding ground for some of our best artists and is known to a lot in the industry. Subsketch is one such MC who made the connection early on in his career. Alongside some our finest including Terra Firma, Hilltop Hoods, Cross Bred Mongrels and basically any of the Certified Wise crew; the South Australia influence on Australian hip-hop is strong and vitally important when historically describing the scene. Even new wave SA artists such as Jimblah carry the flame for the middle state’s dominance on well written and introspective hip-hop. But what of Subsketch? Is he really the World’s Worst Rapper?

Far from it in fact, with the sly self-deprecating title an obvious misnomer. From the start of ‘World’s Worst Rapper’, it becomes apparent Subsketch’s latest album expresses a thoughtful and intelligent delivery thankfully still alive and well in the scene so full of new wave party hip-hop tracks and artists. From someone who has been commentating on the scene for a long time and writing for even longer; Subsketch is a warm late nineties Australian embrace. As soon as I heard ‘Where are you hiding?’ I was transported back to the Stealth Magazine days and dreaming of working alongside Blaze and Doctor Phibes in the heady days of artistic and cultural integrity we had for just a fleeting moment. Followed by the awesome-nerd-ness of ‘Han Solo’ which has the Two-Up vibe going on in it with special guest appearance from King Rollo but keeps the humour so deadpan the average listener would think it a serious opus dedicated to every thing which epitomises the cult career of Harrison Ford. This is a tight album for what’s basically a small time mixtape, but that makes it sound hokey. Which is far from the depth and creative display ‘World’s Worst Rapper’ is.

Its easy to compare Subsketch to other artists and not to detract from what is basically a very Adelaide sound, Subsketch has the delivery speed of Dialectrix, the timbre of Mantra and the introspective construction of Terra Firma. I even feel little notes of Ozi Batla in the voice with Australian accentuations prevalent in the delivery of 16s and for this I am thankful. Very few people will hear Subsketch, but fuck them. When you have Simplex producing for you and people such as King Rollo and Kate Wadey guesting; the real heads know where its at. I’m always banging on about the underground in these reviews but for me its where I live. Subsketch hasn’t just arrived overnight though. He was the recipient of The Hilltop Hoods Initiative in 2006 and has more than few releases under his belt just as good as ‘World’s Worst Rapper’. Yet while the industry controllers are throwing fifties at 360 and Kerser like the scene poledancers they are, true artists like Subsketch are quietly going about their business with or without the recognition they truly deserve. This mixtape can be grabbed through my eternal source of new music, Bandcamp, and for free if you want too; which just highlights what the art means to Subsketch.

The mixtape comes in at just 33 minutes in total, which, for hip-hop is short but potentially for free; what the fuck do people want? Every track is solid and none drop the ball. That’s a hard call in this cheap-release environment with artists dropping the ball just as often as dropping tracks. Subsketch is an artist to appreciate in this industry and I am happy to present this to you. Plus I have to be honest, if he hadn’t contacted Audiocracy asking us for a look, we would probably have never found it. So as a callout to all Australian artists not sure about PR; do it. Some independent writing and journalists crave the next best thing but even we miss what’s right in front of us some times. Thankfully Subsketch hit us up and I’m very grateful for the opportunity to listen, support and inevitably form more musical neural pathways through the underground.

***MORLOCKS FOREVER***

9/10 Tasty Rap Biscuits {Abrasive Andy}

Subsketch’s Bandcamp Page – World’s Worst Rapper