
After dropping his debut LP Shock And Awe in 2007, The Tongue has continued to solidify his presence locally with a couple of outstanding mixtapes: Redux and more recently, The Tongue Is Dead. The pair showcase a robust versatility as well as fleeting moments of experimentation said to be the cornerstone of The Tongue’s ensuing follow-up LP due in 2010.
What’s been going on in the land of The Tongue since your debut album? What’s changed?
Well I’m a better rapper than I was and that’s through doing lots and lots of shows I would say. I guess just getting better at the craft and all aspects of it from performing to organising to being a bit more disciplined. Shock And Awe took me almost a year to make whereas these mixtapes generally take me three months so hopefully I’ll just keep getting faster and better at it.
What did you see as the advantages of bringing out another mixtape at this point in time as opposed to an EP?
It’s a mixture of things. I want the next album to be a bit more experimental. I want it to be pretty different from the other stuff. So for me, the mixtapes are a chance to show off my straight rhyming skills basically. Also the mixtapes are much easier for me because the number one problem I have in the creative process is finding instrumentals that I like. I think there’s a lot of good beats being made in Australia but they’re not exactly what I like or what I want to do. It’s been a bit of a struggle becase a lot of the best producers are really busy, really expensive or live far away so there’s a lot of problems. The mixtapes are a way of staying sharp, to get better at music you’ve got to keep doing it, like a boxer going back to the gym.
The mixtape obviously takes its cue from De La Soul’s second album. How did you see the concept as fitting in your career right now?
I just thought noone in the Australian hip hop scene has died yet. In the States there’s Biggie and Pac, Jam Master Jay, a lot of great artists have died and you see what happens after they die, people actually stop and pay attention to them and realise the amazing talent. Biggie seems to be more celebrated and appreciated now than when he was alive. I’ve always wanted to do a concept record but worried a little about restricting myself too much. Then this idea came along and I realised I could have fun with it…I can do a rap from heaven, I can have Urthboy doing a eulogy for me, I can have my Dad narrating the first skit. I also liked the idea that it would say ‘The Tongue Is Dead’ in a lot of publications so people would spin out.
You seem to have approached this mixtape in the same manner you might with an album. Is this the way you see it?
Yeah. A lot of dudes, when they do a mixtape, they have a book full of raps that they haven’t used, maybe not even songs just verses and the just find a beat to rap over. That’s cool but there should be more to it than that if you’re going to respect your listener. You want to make it as entertaining as possible so yeah, I do try to approach the mixtapes like an album-a variety of styles and songs-actually making songs, not just spittin your 16’s that your not going to use otherwise. My mixtape is my best shit at the time, not my left over shit.
“…A lot of dudes, when they do a mixtape, they have a book full of raps that they haven’t used, maybe not even songs just verses and the just find a beat to rap over. That’s cool but there should be more to it than that if you’re going to respect your listener…”
The Tongue Is Dead obviously features covers of previous songs. What are you looking to achieve in your interpretations? What’s your philosophy on it?
Well it’s two things. One is to show my respect to the originators. The reason I pick those songs is because I think they are classic, amazing tracks in most cases. The other side is, I meet a lot of dudes on tour who have this very strange approach of ‘fuck American hip hop.’ They think it’s wack, they think Jay-Z is wack, they think Lil Wayne is wack, they think most American stuff is shit. Hopefully people will hear stuff like Imagine and go back to the original Dre and Snoop track and realise it’s a great song. I’m hoping people will hear some of the tracks I’m referencing and go check out where they’re from. Hopefully it will be educational.
There’s a strong anti-authority stance on The Tongue Is Dead. What do you see as the drawbacks of modern policing?
I think fundamentally you have to look at the type of people that decide to become police. I thought about it at one point, that might shock a few people but it’s true, I thought about becoming a cop. Then I realised I don’t agree with half the fucking laws they’re paid to enforce. I’ve protested against various shit, that’s our right to say we don’t agree and we should not be stopped or silenced in any way. I’m not saying everyone at protests are a perfect angels but I saw people pepper sprayed, beat down, girls trampled under horses and it’s just like there’s no need for this shit. With APEC, they came into Sydney and just completely shut down the city, all these roads and cops everywhere and helicopters in the fucking sky three times a day. You just start thinking ‘hang on a second, this is just a private army for these guys who claim to be our government.’ I don’t think Malcolm Turnbull is in any way qualified to be the next prime minister, he’s a multi-millionaire and he’s never spent any of his personal money helping other people, he doesn’t seem to have any great ideas for this country, he’s just a dude who wants to be powerful. The police are just going to do whatever he says. If he wants to bring George Bush to town, feel like a big boss and shut down Sydney and the cops are just going to do it then how can you respect the cops? If they’re not going to question the orders they’re given then how can you respect them? The rights they got through the terrorist stuff is just crazy, they should not be allowed to do half this shit. They should not be able to detain you without a charge and say that you can’t contact people, that’s fucked.
You’ll be supporting Pharoahe Monch on a couple of the legs in his upcoming tour here. What has been the most memorable live show you have played?
At the start of the year I played with Public Enemy, that wasn’t the craziest show I’ve done but their album Muse Sick-n-Hour Mess Age was one of the first hip hop albums I ever bought. So for me to be supporting them was this weird, come full circle feeling. After that night I thought ‘wow, maybe I don’t need to do anymore hip hop, I’ve done enough, if i quit now I can say I’ve opened for Public Enemy.’ But then again, if I had of stopped there, I wouldn’t be supporting Pharoahe now. Playing with Dizzee Rascal just after he had a number one in the UK-that was a hype show as well. Big Day Out was another one because that was something I went to a lot as a kid, to actually be on the bill was crazy.
You seem to be pretty creative with your hustle with Shock And Awe having received partial government funding. What schemes have you got going on to keep the funds up?
Well you can make quite a lot of money from mixtapes. I can get 1000 pressed up for around $1200 and then if I sell them at shows for $10, I’ve got nine grand. Selling 1000 mixtapes is not the easiest thing to do and it’s not going to happen in two weeks but the with Redux, we got rid of 2000 copies and had 8000 downloads so that’s 10 000 people hearing a mixtape. So you can start to see how it’s really useful, especially with album sales going down so much. I’m always hustling one way or another, you’ve got to, nobody’s going to do it for you.
So you definitely think it’s paramount to be creative business-wise in a declining industry?
Yeah you can’t rely on just being a good muso anymore, you have to have your facebooks, twitters, myspace. You have to make sure your show is dope. You have to hit up the right promoters, get friendly with them. You have got to be a complete management team.
Besides the new album and the Pharoahe support, what’s on the agenda for the next few months?
I’ll be playing Peats Ridge Festival, doing a few shows with Astronomy Class as hype man. Next year will just be buckling down with this album basically, continuing the search for beats. I’ve got some cool stuff already but hopefully I’ll have the record more or less done by the first quarter of next year. Hopefully going on an overseas trip after that.







