Straight outta high school – meet Lil Cue, the Eminem of Elizabeth

Lil Cue has impressive skills on the mic – but he was headed down a dark path until a program mentoring young SA musicians inspired him to change.

When Lochlan McCue’s mum would drop him at the front gate of Playford International College in Elizabeth he’d often walk straight out the back gate.

The 18-year-old rapper admits he had little love for learning, and was far more interested in “hanging with the wrong crowd and wagging school”.

It all turned around after McCue landed a musical scholarship at the start of Year 10 and quickly realised that he enjoyed making tunes more than he enjoyed making trouble.

And for the past 12 months he has participated in Carclew’s Music at Work scheme, a program that pairs young musicians with more established mentors with the aim of giving them real world skills and hands-on experience in the music industry.

The program, funded through the state government’s Music Development Office, is achieving big results and for McCue it’s helped him get something he never thought he’s see – a completed SACE certificate.

Rapper Lochlan McCue, aka Lil Cue, is one of Carclew’s Music at Work’s success stories. Picture: Matt Turner

“The passion for music just took over for me,” McCue, who records under the moniker Lil Cue, said.

“I went from not wanting to go to school to loving going to school.”

McCue admitted he put his parents through hell as a young lad, but was now focused on becoming a successful recording artist and making them proud.

“Mum and dad are so happy that I’ve finished Year 12, they’re over the moon,” he said.

“They did everything they could to keep me in school back then – and I hated them for it at the time – but I’m so grateful now. You couldn’t ask for a better mum or dad.”

Lil Cue now has big dreams of forging a professional music career. Picture: Matt Turner

McCue was mentored by Adelaide musician Kultar Ahluwalia – aka Daydream Fever – and together they worked on McCue’s track Can’t Stop Me Now.

He said ‘Let’s really put some work into this, let’s make something good’. It was probably five months of work,” he says of the autobiographical track, which is available of Spotify an YouTube. An EP coming, probably sometime in January and McCue will spend 2021 studying music at TAFE.

A live event to celebrate the first year of Music at Work is in the works, but currently postponed due to Covid.

And where does Lil Cue see himself in five years’ time?

“Rapping with (Aussie hip hop legend) Kerser,” he laughs. “That would be my dream.”

In the meantime you can catch him at The Gov’s open mic night most Friday evenings.