How a GP’s brutal two-word insult saved Aussie rapper 360’s life as he makes big music comeback

At his lowest point, Aussie rapper 360 was so crippled by anxiety from a drug relapse he couldn’t even brush his teeth. A doctor’s brutal two-word insult saved his life.

It took his GP’s brutal assessment to save the life of Aussie rapper 360.

The Boys Like You chart-topper was one of the biggest hip hop stars in the country during the early 2010s riding the fame wave after his breakthrough in 2011 with the Falling & Flying album which won he an ARIA award from a clutch of nominations.

As he released Utopia in 2014 and Vintage Modern in 2017, 360 was in and out of rehab for alcohol and drug addiction.

In 2015, he cancelled shows and sought treatment as his addiction spiralled to a life-threatening 100 over-the-counter painkillers a day.

Australian rapper 360 makes a comeback. Picture: Michelle Grace Hunder / Supplied.

The rapper, born Matt Colwell, was sober for more than a year. But about five years ago, he shut himself off from the world as he relapsed, beaten down by crippling anxiety and depression.

When he reached the point where he lacked the motivation to shower or brush his teeth, he finally went to the doctor.

“He was pretty brutal. He called me a fat junkie and told me I needed to sort my life out,” Colwell said.

“I was so hurt by that, but I needed to hear it because I was probably being mollycoddled a little bit … when you get in that sort of victim mindset, you start thinking everyone needs to be really delicate with you rather than tell you the truth.

“He just said it, and it stuck with me. I felt like I was just fading away, I was spiritually dead and mentally and physically so unhealthy that I reckon if I had stayed going on that path, I probably would have died.”

Rapper 360 blew up in 2011 with his Falling & Flying album. Picture: Supplied.

After four months of treatment, Caldwell thought his life was “sorted.” All he wanted to do was make music again and get back out on the stage.

Rehab partly restored his physical wellbeing – he “got off” methadone and sleeping pills but was still on other medications. It took two years of intensive therapy to “sort my head out”.

“For the first six months, I was in such a a dark place, my natural inclination was to go and use drugs or drink, even though I hadn’t drunk for a long time, to numb the pain and anxiety I was feeling,” he said.

“Oh, this is bad … I was drinking mouthwash because it had alcohol in it for a couple of weeks and I looked up what the effects of that were and then told my doctor what was happening, which I wouldn’t have done in the past, so that was a bit of progress.

“I was so on edge and so close to the point of doing something that was really going to hurt me and I needed to figure a way out.

“So then they put me on this other medication, and it’s been a process over the last four years of just weaning off all that stuff just gradually. I was on six different medications and now I’ve got two left.”

Colwell was an Aussie hip hop king when he walked the ARIA Awards red carpet in 2012. Picture: Gaye Gerard.

Colwell finally felt well enough to return to music in 2022. He linked with Australian producer and co-writer Tyron Hapi, the hitmaker who worked on Masked Wolf’s global smash hit Astronaut in the Ocean, to release a succession of singles including Knowing My Place and Made Me Like This which have generated millions of Spotify streams.

But he’s kicked into high gear this year ahead of the release of his fifth album Out of the Blue and national tour with his lifelong mate and rap collaborator Pez.

Since February, he has dropped a succession of singles which tell his story from hitting rock bottom to redemption – Save My Soul, Coastline and Been Through Hell, with Bliss N Eso and Benny Morrell.

“There’s a bit of hip hop bravado on Save My Soul, saying I’m back, I am going to kill this and dominate again. I lost that confidence for a while there, so it was good to write from that place again,” he said.

Getting back on stage has been another test and despite his fear no-one would show up at the gigs, 360 has been buoyed by the support of fans who have stayed rusted on since Falling & Flying made him a star.

“It’ll probably never get to those heights again, because that was kind of freak show, it was unnatural, but that’s okay,” he said.

“I don’t need compare myself to what I was like back then. So now I’m free to just be like, however this goes, it’s all good either way, you know?”

Out of the Blue is released in July and tickets are now on sale for the national tour which opens at The Forum in Melbourne on July 18, with all dates and tickets via https://360music.com.au/

Originally published as How a GP’s brutal two-word insult saved Aussie rapper 360’s life as he makes big music comeback