The Sleeping Monk

Sleeping Monk has been a central component of Sydney hip hop for the best part of 17 years now. Yet, for someone so involved in the scene, through a number of groups including: Easybass, Frequency Unknown, Ear Infection and Upshot, he has only just released a solo mixtape entitled Unreleased. In effect, it is more of an entree, intending to re-introduce listeners to the esteemed MC.

Unreleased has been exactly that-unreleased for a long time now. Did you ever feel the pressure owing to the high level of anticipation for your debut album? Or did it give you confidence because so many heads were extremely eager to hear what you have to offer?
I was pretty amped to get something out, it’s been 5 years since I released Fulltime MC. I’m always recording, so I’ve always got something up my sleeve. Since Australian hip hop has changed so much, even in the last 5 years, I felt I needed to re-introduce myself with this release. Just a preview of what’s to come. I’ve been recording heaps lately and always got extra ammo in the vault.

The album is only $15. Is Unreleased more for the love of it?
It WAS $15, now I’m just given it for free. Like I said before, I’m trying to re-introduce myself to the new heads who may be new to this shit. I’ve been rapping for 16 years and been a fan of the culture for over 20 years, I’m not old school and not new school but staying relevant is very important to me. So I wanna give the people something for free so they got the choice, like listening to something on the net. If they like it, cool. If they it hate it, cool. At least if they like it they might buy my next shit.

Knowledge is a very strong focus of the music you write isn’t it?
Totally. An MC with no knowledge is nothing.It’s the backbone of what you write. Like Kool Moe Dee said: “…Knowledge is king…” right?

The album has a rich lyrical gamut, how did you go about balancing the various concerns?
An album should be like a good book or good film. It should have continuity and flow. The lyrics as the music have to keep the listener’s attention as well as be cohesive and original.

Did this make the decision easier to go with a number of producers to provide beats rather than just the one?
When it comes to beats and producing, I’ve always worked with many different cats who i respect. There’s so many of my friends who make beats that I feel very lucky cause they always got a beat for the Monk for which i am eternally grateful. At the moment I’m working with a few cats like Sereck, JP, Smoking Jodes, Sandro and The Defiant. Strictly fam, know what I mean?

Despite this variety, how did you manage to establish a musical cohesion throughout with more than five producers on board? Each with their own style…
It like a puzzle. Every track has a piece and place in the album, it’s just piecing it together through the process of elimination. Apply what’s useful, discard the rest.

What did you look for when choosing emcees to feature on the album?
All the MC’s that feature on the album are guys that I’m down with,people who are my fam and my friends. Mr Clean and Loko 1 I’ve known for over 10 years, I’ve rolled with those guys since day one so they had to be on the album. Chaos Maths also featured on the album. I met their producer/DJ Smokin Jodes who moved to my suburb 4-5 years ago and we just started chillin’ from then. So I have been working with them cats lately. Also there is an interlude which features my mate Robbie Randle on the mic, just talking some shit. But seriously folks, look out for this cat in the future. He’s from the Northern Territory. He’s got mad skills and drops serious knowledge from a political/indigenous perspective. I’m making sure that my crew get their names out there before they drop their solo efforts.

Is the track The Chi a summation of your lyrical intentions?
The Chi is definitely a part of me. I believe in the philosophy and principle of it. Lyrically, physically, mentally, all that shit is powered by the chi.

“…An MC should adapt to his place in time but at the same time raise the bar consistently to stay ahead. I maybe older than a lot of MC’s out there but my experience I use to my advantage…”

You have a distinctive rhyme style which is characterised by frequent use of internal rhyme. Is this the result of many years of crafting?
I believe my style is basically me. To be totally yourself when you rhyme makes you totally unique. Nobody sound like me cause nobody ain’t me, only I can be me. An MC should adapt to his place in time but at the same time raise the bar consistently to stay ahead. I maybe older than a lot of MC’s out there but my experience I use to my advantage.

What was the reasoning behind the numerous instrumental interludes on Unreleased? Were the slices of musical richness merely balancing elements?
I love albums that have musical interludes. They are necesary elements to an album cause your’re crafting music. Music is a balance of vocal and harmony. The album shoud be a trip.

How has the passing of your good friend APEX manifested on the album?
APEX was indeed a good friend who taught me a lot about life not just hip hop. He was firstly my friend, hip hop came second in our friendship. He always encouraged me with my projects and we had always planned to work together again. He had produced some tracks for me which I will release in the future.

Was it a hard decision not to write any rhymes for the beat of his you feature on Unreleased? Or would you rather have let his music do all the speaking necessary?
I actually recorded lyrics to the track which APEX heard and approved of. I think I decided to take them off to let APEX’s beat do the talking. It’s one of my favourite beats made by him.

You have a strong sense of pride for the city you represent: Sydney. Is Syd City Kings a means of roll-calling those who deserve it? Those who should be named? Those who have been around from the beginning?
Damn right. I felt this track needed to be made to pay respect to the old Sydney hip hop scene who paved the way for all the new blood. These are artists I looked up to and artists who came up the same time as me. Peace and respect to the old school.

What is your favourite track off the album and why?
That’s hard question.It would have to be a tie between Control Alt Delete and Scientifico. I think I’m at my lyrically strongest on those two tracks

When are we going to see some Sleeping Monk live?
Soon, I’m planning a few projects in 2009 so hopefully I’ll be travelling with one of them in the near future. It would be good to play some gigs & connect with the heads interstate.

www.myspace.com/thesleepingmonk

Spit Syndicate

Epitomising the vibrant new generation of local hip hop, Spit Syndicate command attention with a brand of music packed with energetic flows, great conceptual variety and a unique, hybrid sound. Their debut album, Towards The Light, is a wonderful spectrum of emotions and ideas. From party fueled tracks like Here Today, Gone Tomorrow to the raw sentiment of On And On, Nick Lupi and Just Enuf approach many topics with audacity. This passionate sense of style is underpinned by a number of producers including:  Jase, Fame, M-Phazes and L.A. heavyweight Ro Blvd. I spoke with Nick recently and here’s what he had to say.

It doesn’t seem so long ago that you churned out your debut demo The Future’s Bright, how does it feel to have risen to prominence so swiftly?
I don’t think we’ve risen to prominence, that’s probably a bit generous. 2008 has been a good year for us, we’ve got lucky with some shit, but at the same time, a lot of the moves we’ve made this year have been a few years in the making. We’ve been putting a lot of time and effort and cash money into this little Spit Syndicate operation since early 2006. Still, there’s so much to do. Plus, we’ve made a fair few fuck ups thus far, you gotta keep learning from them. But to answer your question: it feels lovely

You refer to mistakes thus far, what has been learned from these trip-ups?
The recording process is probably the best example, from just how to handle ourselves in the studio, to the process of selecting beats, writing lyrics, getting musicians and vocalists in to record. Even the logistics of doing it all, the way we did it with different producers in different locations, etc, it was a huge learning process. Next time it’s going to be done much more efficiently. But it goes the same way with writing lyrics, some of the shit we wrote for the album we wouldn’t dream of releasing nowadays. There needs to be progression. Our live show has improved too, and that comes from just doing shows and shows and shows. It has all been a learning process.

So basically, the lessons you would expect from recording a debut album?
Exactly right. it’s your first time doing it, we did it pretty much completely on our own too, there wasn’t much input from executive producers or a record label.

There is a great deal of musical talent that features on your new album, how did you go about selecting and pursuing those who you were after?
The majority of the guests are just close friends, so there was no real selection process. Solo features prominently and that dude has talent out the ass, as well as being our homie. The vocalists, like Sarah Corry and Miriam Waks, are again friends of ours who we wanted to be involved in the next project. Same goes with Rowan Dix(DJ Joyride), he now tours with us and has always played a big part in our music.

How did you decide between having an individual produce the entire album or enlisting a number of producers as you did?
There were a whole bunch of different sounds and producers which we wanted to work with, I don’t think we really could have gotten what we wanted from a single individual producer. I think single-produced albums are wicked, definitely something we’d like to do in the future though.

Did signing with Obese open up a wider spectrum of possible beatmakers?
Not too sure; we’ll hopefully be doing some work with Plutonic Lab and I guess that’s a result of starting to build a relationship with Muph and Pluto, through tours and shit like that. But not in a huge way, no, a lot of the liaising with beatmakers is carried out by us at this stage.

As you were recording Towards The Light, how did you hope it would be received with audiences?
We obviously wanted it to be well-received, but we were a little bit unsure about how people would receive it. There’s some different sounding shit on there, some of it is a little bit smoother and softer than a lot of other releases, we’re still finding our feet in terms of developing our style but that’s standard for a debut album recorded at our age. We didn’t think too much about people’s reception to the album though.

You two straddle a musical line laced with swagger and traditional hip hop sounds, is swagger the primary lyrical objective for Spit Syndicate?
I don’t know if swagger is the primary objective. I don’t really know if there is a primary objective with our lyrics. Everything we do we like to try and do it with a bit of class, a bit of style, but that doesn’t mean we’re trying to be cool all the time. Doing it with class just means being honest, poignant and, often being completely vulnerable. Swagger isn’t at the forefront of our minds all the time, like when writing personal or emotional songs. Obviously, we like to pull the swagger out when we’re writing those sorts of songs, but it’s definitely not a primary objective at all

“…Everything we do we like to try and do it with a bit of class, a bit of style, but that doesn’t mean we’re trying to be cool all the time. Doing it with class just means being honest, poignant and, often being completely vulnerable…”

How was this musical hybrid initially received at Obese when recording the album?
Well, we had all but completed the album when Obese got the rough version. We still had two songs which we wanted to add to the album, we just didn’t know what songs they were(we hadn’t written anything). Obese dug the album, really liked it, they let us know what they thought was lacking and they provided a bit of constructive criticism, but not a great deal, I’d say.

In the booklet for the album, you pay respect to those you have lost, how has their memory manifested in the music?
Well, in Here Today, Gone Tomorrow, we talk about living for the day and how life is precious. But on a more general level, we hope that we’re making our friends and family and crew proud through our music, including those who are around and those who have passed on.

A lot of your lyrical content seems to be influenced by the fairer sex, is this a fair assessment?
No, I don’t think it would be a wrong assessment. We like girls. A lot of the Australian hip hop which has been released gives the impression that rappers don’t like girls, or they don’t acknowledge girls. If that ain’t the gayest shit out, I’m not sure what is. We don’t write songs completely for girls, we write songs for everybody. A lot of our songs which are ‘influenced by the fairer sex,’ as you put it, have been very well received by dudes, because they, like us, like girls as well. Who woulda thought?

The lyrical focus of the album changes direction on the track The Lucky Country. Can you describe the events which compelled you to write such a song?
Well, the first verse wasn’t inspired by any one event, it was more of a personal reaction to the racist undercurrents present in Australia, particularly the way in which the indigenous people of this country have been and continue to be treated by mainstream society. The second verse was inspired by the Cronulla riots, which had a pretty significant impact on most people in and around Sydney, it was a truly ugly day.

The political angle is a distinct change from the rest of Towards The Light. What was it about the subject that grabbed you so much? Why choose these issues?
I’m a pretty politically-minded person, I guess. I think it’s important to know what’s going on, why it’s going on. Some of my favourite hip hop is politically charged, so I’ve always wanted to write a song like The Lucky Country. It makes sense to write about the things which you feel strongly, passionately about-this is what generally produces the best music.

Are the anecdotal verses of On And On inspired by a situation you’ve seen personally or in a more dramatised, general sense?
My verse is loosely based in a situation which I’ve seen personally, within my extended family. Jimmy’s verse is based directly on his own experience and I think Solo’s is based on personal experiences too, also those which he’s seen unfold around him. The song is entirely based on real people, real stories.

All Summer Long was a highlight of Horrorshow’s recent album, The Grey Space. What led you to collaborate with Solo once more for an epilogue of sorts to the original track?
Both songs came together in a funny sort of way. I shouldn’t really tell it, because it was more between Solo and Jimmy. Our friend Jono, lead guitarist from a band called Made in Japan, wrote a guitar line and added some bass and drums to it, sent it to Solo and Jimmy separately. Both really dug it. Jimmy and Solo were painting one day and had always discussed the idea of writing a song about the one that got away, about that one particular girl. Nick went away and wrote a chorus to the guitar line that Jono had sent through, Jimmy went and wrote a verse to it as well. So what ended up happening was an extended, full version featuring all three of us on our album, and then one which was just with Solo on The Grey Space. I guess Jono hadn’t written the music for anyone in particular, we all took a liking to it and wanted to write to it. That’s the way that I understand it anyway, like I said, it was more of a Jimmy and Solo thing.

What is on the agenda for Spit Syndicate in the subsequent six months? Aiming to release another album in 2009?
Yes, we’re aiming for late 09. We’re slowing down on the gig front, just working on some new material, we should hopefully have the bulk of it done by next year but we’ll have to see how we go.

www.myspace.com/spitsyndicate