Australian hip hop artist Drapht returns to music after opening Perth cafe

ACCLAIMED Australian artist Drapht quit rapping to open a cafe, but it wasn’t long before music drew him back.

Drapht just couldn’t stay away from music, and he was far from forgotten. Picture: Supplied

ACCLAIMED Australian rapper Drapht quit music about four years ago to open an organic restaurant.

Burnt out from the cycle of recording and touring after four albums, Paul Reid decided to realise another dream, one which would prove as rewarding and exhausting as music had been.

Like his peers in Australia’s predominantly DIY hip hop scene, the Perth artist had played every venue and festival in the land and enjoyed crossover success on the pop charts and alternative airwaves courtesy of infectious hits including Jimmy Recard, Rapunzel and Sing

It (The Life Of Riley).

Now he poured all that energy and commitment into Solomon’s Cafe, working 18 hour days to build the business which would became a Perth hotspot among mates, fans and health-conscious foodies.

And while he had no interest in making another album, he reassured himself he could keep his hand in music by writing for other artists.

“I didn’t want to compete with friends, I didn’t want to live up to a formula and write another Jimmy Recard or Rapunzel and I just couldn’t be bothered with the music industry anymore to be honest,” Reid says.

Drapht just couldn’t stay away from music, and he was far from forgotten. Picture: Supplied

“I opened my restaurant and that was going to be the next 10 year life cycle. “The first six months killed me, those 18 hour days put me through the ringer but I learned so much in those 3 1/2 years.

“And I started writing again, I had things to get off my chest.”

Reid sold the venture at the right time, those life experiences combined with a relationship breakup refuelling his creative juices.

“I wrote and wrote, there was no pressure to do an album or anything because at the time the restaurant was doing well. And then I had an album,” he says.

He may have been gone from music but the popular, down-to-earth Drapht was not forgotten as evidenced by the guest list on his fifth album Seven Mirrors.

There’s his hip hop brothers-in-arms Briggs and Hilltop Hoods, cheeky rockers Dune Rats, the stunning voices of national treasure Katie Noonan and indie singer songwriter Nat Dunn and new discovery Bradley Stone, who he heard busking in Byron Bay.

Drapht has returned to music, using it as an outlet to relieve the stress of running his organic restaurant, Solomon’s Cafe. Picture: Supplied

The Hoods were the deadline-pushing contributors to Don Quixote, the final track recorded for the album as the much-loved trio completed their triumphant national orchestra tour a few months ago.

“They had so much happening and I’m in the 11th hour of mixing. ‘I need this song now! Please.’ I was busting their balls,” he says.

“And they went above and beyond for me. It’s all down to friendship and loyalty.”

Cleverman star, hip hop heavyweight and indigenous activist Briggs delivers comedic flair with the coffee snob skit of Scumday, his musical revenge on those difficult customers from the restaurant.

“I wanted as many friends as possible on this record so I hit Briggs up and he nailed it in three takes,” he says. “It was a bit distressing how easy it was for him to be a coffee wanker on that skit. “I think he has actually done that, I can see that now.”

Noonan and Reid collaborated over the internet on Raindrops, one of the album’s more poignant songs and it is a sublime marriage of her pristine voice and his emotional spoken word.

Seven Mirrors is deftly balanced between party anthems designed to get the mosh pit bouncing and cathartic narratives ripped from his own heartache and angst.

The track Midnight In The Hospice has been a long time coming, his truth-telling about West Australian hip hop pioneer Robert Hunter who died from cancer five years ago. It is a gut-wrenching tribute to the man Reid says inspired him to get into hip hop and gave him his first cuts on Hunter’s 2002 album Done DL when he was a teenager.

Drapht has an all star guest list on his fifth album Seven Mirrors. Picture: Supplied

The track reveals Hunter’s internal dialogue as he faced his death in the final months of his life in a hospice. It both gives him the belated recognition for his contribution to hip hop and slams those who treated him as a social media opportunity after his diagnosis.

“That track is super-confronting for myself and a lot of my friends who knew Rob for the past 20 years,” Reid says. “He never got the recognition he deserved until he was diagnosed with

cancer and then people were encroaching on his space for a selfie and social media status rather than asking ‘Hey mate, are you OK?’

“I didn’t know if I was going to release that song or not but I needed to get it off my chest finally.”

The album also enlightens us to the condition of Oikophobia, the opposite to the more commonly know agoraphobia.

“That’s about being scared to go inside and face your inner demons which has been the last 15 years of my life,” he says. “I just came back from a retreat in Ecuador so I am chipping away at

them on a daily basis.”

Seven Mirrors will be released on Friday August 19.

For all touring dates and tickets see drapht.com