Over the course of its 15-year existence, Sydney-based hip-hop label Elefant Traks has proven to have its share of stars. Leaving aside the questionable merits of Urthboy, Hermitude and the reggae-influenced collective Astronomy Class have their moments, and new additions to the stable L-Fresh The Lion and the bluesy Jane Tyrell have proven they can hold their own.
Indeed, it seems the new crop of Elefant Traks artists could well outshine the old.
For years, Australian hip-hop has had to contend with unfavourable comparisons to its American and British counterparts; many artists, from Urthboy and Bliss n Eso onwards, have a habit of not only reinforcing American tropes and accents, but also American points of reference. This feels odd for a genre that likes to claim synergy with its origins. Artists of the quality and imagination of Tkay Maidza and REMI are scarce on the ground, despite what some Aus hip-hop champions would have us believe.
Xannon Shirley, aka the Tongue, is a mainstay of Elefant Traks. He released his first album, the politically charged Shock & Awe, in 2007 and has since put out a brace of mixtapes and three albums. Hard Feelings is his fourth, produced by Papertoy, and while it is not without its moments – the darkly seductive single You Got Me feat Mataya, for example, with its smart use of Deadmau5-style beats – it has to be said that the Tongue is a far better MC than hip-hop star (as his Sextape shows).
He has intellect and he has wit, but in the main Hard Feelings is a pedestrian slice of generic hip-hop that does nothing to further Australia’s reputation. The Tongue may well have his flow in the right place (see his immediate condemnation of Bliss n Eso in last year’s Instagram sexism controversy) but a track like the Ev Jones collaboration Setting Sun washes over the listener, as do the Ice Cube’s It Was A Good Day-like beats of Proud.
And why is he pretending to be American?
He is no Sticky Fingers thankfully, gleefully appropriating the trappings of other cultures with no apparent shame. Shirley is too concerned and aware of the potential of words for that. But he is no Gang Starr either. The opening track, The Knock, may promise defiance and support, but its proud words (“They try to tell you / That you are nothing / You don’t mean nothing / Till you mean nothing at all”) take us nowhere and have been heard too many times before.
Never Going Down fails to stand out, despite the presence of intriguing R&B rapper Ngaiire, because of its lacklustre production and tame lyrics (yet another Jimi Hendrix reference, like hip-hop doesn’t already have enough of these).
Hard Feelings is an album that encapsulates many of the problems still facing many of the previous generation of Australian hip-hop: too in thrall to its (obvious) influences, too generic and lacking in the adventurous spirit which characterises innovative hip-hop groups like the UK’s Commodo Gantz Kahn, rising US star Joyner Lucas and the Young Fathers-championed Law.
• Hard Feelings is out through Elefant Traks
