Hilltop Hoods and The Prodigy dominate dance at the Future Music Festival
AUSTRALIA’S premier hip-hop outfit have spread their wings into the Future Music Festival, and revealed how they found their perfect fit in dance music.
IF you would have told Adelaide hip-hop trio Hilltop Hoods they would be performing at a dance festival in a couple years ago — they probably would have dismissed you quicker than one of their lightning fast rhymes.
But the thing is, these three guys — MCs Pressure, Suffa and DJ Debris — have made the dramatic leap from the underground to mainstream in just a few short years.
Sure they brought hip hop to the masses on their previous releases but thanks to the genre-hopping seventh album Walking Under Stars but now they’re bringing it to even more fans as the band’s dream run continues.
MC Suffa says that hip hop is continually changing in Australia and now the once pigeonholed genre is filled with sub genres and an array of different styles that have evolved into the mainstream of Australian culture.
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“You used to with be commercial or underground — those were the two things,” he explains.
“Whether it’s Remi or Tkay or the Crate Cartel family or now you’ve got the bluesy sound like the Oars.
“The scene used to be too small and insular,” chimes MC Pressure.
“It’s a great thing — now we’ve got diversity it’s easier for people to accept it,” continues Suffa.
“If you say across the board you don’t like hip hop in Australia or the artists making it — it’s because of you. It’s not them there’s so much stuff to be into now — there’s Illy, Drapht and a heaps of different voices now so no one can do the ‘all-sweeping generalisation.”
Once victims of these generalisations, the trio are now untouchable. Even they admit they are having the time of their lives at the top of the music world.
“I think everyone thinks the next album that we bring out is going to be the one that fails for us and we’ll peter out,” Pressure says.
“I even think there are people around us who think that we couldn’t do it again and we’ve had a good run.”
Suffa adds: “We’re at the stage now where we are just grateful that we’ve had the chance to do what we’ve wanted to do. Everything on top of this is whipped cream.
“We’ve never been more comfortable before and we’ve never got along as well as we have in our lives. We’re pretty happy together and the arguments are a thing of the past. I think this is something natural that happens to bands after a such a long period of time.
Pressure agrees: “I’ve never enjoyed myself more onstage or the music we are making.”
But it’s all work and no play for the boys who will have something special in store for fans later in the year before taking a well-earned break and tying a bow around what has been a five-year project for the trio.
“When we’re not touring we’re working,” Suffa says.
“We’re constantly doing things but there’s certain things we can’t talk about ... yet.”
Following the band’s blistering performance they are delightfully informed that there were twice as many people watching their set than the stage had last year — this dance festival thing might not be a bad idea.
As music royalty swan around the backstage area — everyone from The Prodigy to Redfoo (who must have been in a record number of selfies in the space of ten minutes) there’s a real mix in this year’s line-up.
Across from Hilltop Hoods’ van, young tattooed girls tightly guard Die Antwoord’s transformable before the pair exit under a shroud of security and hooded dancers.
Their show is just as intimidating.
The Prodigy, still beaming from their new studio album are pretty a pretty commanding posse too.
But among some of the only headliners doing interviews the band are quite proud of its new record The Day Is My Enemy due out at the end of the month.
“This album is pretty attacking — there’s not so many balloons on this album so we’re looking forward to getting out and showing it to people,” producer Liam Howlett says.
Future Music Festival is an aptly titled event for The Prodigy as all three members admit — they don’t look back.
“There’s no nostalgia in this band,” Maxim Reality says.
“We don’t look to rekindle things or try to rework tracks from 1996.”
“We’ve essentially stayed who we are,” adds vocalist Keith Flint.
“There’s no forward or back — we just put our mind on what is happening at the time and it organically moves forward.
Howlett, the Prodigy’s chief songwriter, adds: “Band’s that look back have run out of ideas.”
“There’s bands that haven’t put an album about in a while so they go and do the ‘third album tour’ — f--- that — we’ve still got something fresh to give them — so that’s what we do.”
SEE: Future Music Festival Sunday, Flemington Racecourse. $169, Ticketmaster.
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