‘The show killer, no filler and no
scams’ is Australian hip hop heavyweight
Delta and his much anticipated debut LP The
Lostralian is that and so much more. Most will
know Delta for his involvement with battling,
winning the two most prestigious battles Australia
has to offer, the annual Revolver MC Comp which
he took out in 2001 and the Out 4 Fame Battle
for Supremacy in 2003. The prizes from Revolver
allowed Delta to record and release the Paperweight
EP in 2001 which has gone down as one of the
Australian classics that is still relevant today,
2006 has seen the release of The Lostralian
a world class banger that stays true to it’s
roots.
What made you want to mc? Who were the biggest
inspirations to you when you began?
'I just always loved hip hop music so I always
wanted to rap, towards ’87 people like
Rakim, I heard Eric B & Rakim Paid In Full
and I just thought it was really something I
could give a go myself and it just inspired
me to do it and give it a shot. I always liked
poetry and stuff as a kid and hip hop made poetry
cool .'
Originally mc’ing was about being fresh
or grabbing peoples attention, how do you think
motivation to be an mc have changed since hip
hop’s inception?
'These days being an MC is about being rich
and little or nothing else, get rich or die
trying, get rich or die crying I should say,
it’s a very negative thing. I know that
hip hop comes out of poverty a lot of the time
and stuff but its one thing to teach kids that
being rich is everything but its good to let
them know how to get rich in other ways than
killing your fam and ripping people off. I just
think the grass root elements of the culture
are lacking a bit these days which is a negative
thing but we’ve got a lot of conscious
mc’s coming out of the woodwork so I can’t
just say that it’s all lost. There is
definitely some positive light on the horizon.'
You have been involved in Australian hip hop
since for a long time, how do you think it has
changed and how do you think those changes have
affected the music being made?
'One thing that I think is really positive
about it is that there is a lot more community
support these days and information is more readily
available. You have more websites and more communication
etcetera and then in another breath I think
that people trying to get more radio play is
changing the way we record songs which is a
bit unfortunate. People are bringing out a lot
more commercial style of music and losing a
lot of depth out of the lyricism, focus on having
some funky flute loop, catchy beat. One thing
on my record that I’m really proud of
is that there isn’t a single curse word
on it, usually unless you curse and put on this
big man act people don’t take you seriously
but people have been forced to take me seriously
because knowledge is always a scary weapon to
use. Also if you can flow and you’ve got
a decent rap going on people get behind you
pretty quickly, I’m starting to realise,
I never realised I had such a following across
the country but people say that my name is synonymous
with mc’ing now.'
As a battler, how do you feel movies like
8 Mile and Freestyle: The Art of Rhyme, have
captured the essence of battling? And how do
you think battling changed after their release?
'I think 8 Mile, don’t really have time
for but Kevin’s film Freestyle, Art of
Rhyme definitely done good things for the art
form that I love. He did a really articulate
and sophisticated representation of what it
is to be an mc and to exercise the Freestyle
art from, even separate from battling, of course
battling was a part of it but I think battling
seems to be the most viable way for people to
recognise freestyling. I’m more concerned
with freestyling as an art form than battling,
I’m a bit done with the battle art form
but I think Freestyle has done good things for
it. It’s made kids realise ‘Hey
there’s more to rapping than just battling’
, the battling is where the energy comes out
but freestyling is it and that’s why I
think people really need to get it correct that
written punchlines in mc battles in unacceptable,
it’s about freestyling and people are
losing the discipline. That’s a very bad
thing, that can only lead to a lessening of
the quality or skills required.'
You have waited almost 4 years before following
up 2001’s Paperweight, was it a conscious
decision to really take your time with the record
or was it just how things panned out?
'I’ve always been a tease, I’ve
always been a hermit, they say ‘when are
you going to do a record?’ and I say ‘It’s
coming’ and they say ‘no it’s
not’. All in good time, I just wanted
to do it right and I think time was just a necessity
but life is very distracting for me. I have
a lot of friends, I have a lot of DJ gigs been
kicking over the years in Adelaide, working
in a record store, love my family, bit of an
outdoorsy sort of dude so I just get easily
distracted. But mainly I just wanted to do it
right if we’re going to be honest with
people reading this interview, it’s just
I’m my own worst critic and for that reason
I just couldn’t record anything that I
thought was second best and I reckon the record
reflects that.
That’s the one thing I’ve always
prided myself on (Diversity), even Paperweight
was very diverse, people didn’t quite
know how to take it. The only thing that let
down Paperweight was the amount of money that
could go into the project as far as mixing and
mastering, I think if it had of been mastered
better it would be incredible but it is what
it is, it’s the same as Money Walks or
early Dedlee stuff or Mama’s Funk, we
did the best we could with the money that we
had and that’s what makes a gritty record.
People still love it, people still want copies
of it, I think it could be on eBay soon if kids
get a whiff of thinking they can make some money
off it, but I’m proud to say that I’ve
recorded a lyrical EP four years ago that people
still like and people still play it in the club,
which is a big thing for me.’
You have spent a lot of time in the US &
UK, how do you think this exposure to those
hip hop scenes have helped you to make a really
international record as opposed to a quintessentially
Australian record?
'The thing about it is, is that I never really
wrote that sort of hip hop from day one, I couldn’t
really see how I could grow up on Showbiz &
AG, Eric B & Rakim, Public Enemy, Kool G
Rap & Ultramagnetic MC’s and write
a BBQ and Beer record. I was always more like
‘Why would I stay at the BBQ when I could
go and bomb the train line?’ So I think
that was a big thing for me, drinking, eating
and shitting is something you do, rapping is
something completely different, they weren’t
things I considered worthy of my lyricism. I
was always taught that the dude that bragged
the most about how much woman he got was always
the one going home on his own and the man who
bragged the most about how much he could drink
was the one that was passed out and vomiting
on himself so I learnt that bragging about the
wrong things is a good way to get people offside.
But then again I was surprised to see that it’s
also not, you hear people like ‘I love
that guy man he raps about getting drunk every
song’ and I don’t want this to be
pointing the finger at anyone in particular,
you rap about what you feel is right. I just
reckon be yourself but don’t forget that
what you’re doing is hip hop, don’t
be a try hard sucker just be what you are. If
you’re a footy ochre be a footy ochre
but if you’re a B-Boy be a B-Boy, when
I was growing up there was punch on between
footy bogans and hip hop kids. That said I will
admit that I have dj’ed a party for the
(Adelaide) crows and had some kid come up for
me and ask for EPMD, an AFL footballer. They
were dancing to me playing Full Clip, Gangstarr,
I wish I had it on camera it was hilarious,
I dj’ed for 6 hours that night.'
Where did the inspiration for One Less Gun
come from and how did Skinnyman come to feature
on it? Do you think that gangster rap is somewhat
irresponsible for promoting drug use/violence?
'We just think guns are dangerous, I’ve
had a lot of guns around from my dads job and
my brothers job, army and coppers whatever and
I was the only one not carrying a gun for my
job, it also seemed like a lot of people were
saying ‘Oh you’re a rapper, so you’ve
got a gun?’ and I was like ‘what?’
but even if I did have one I wouldn’t
tell. I just thought that talking about it so
recklessly is dangerous, just like glorifying
alcoholism, I mean we bear a responsibility
to the next generation that we are responsible
for what we say and Skinnyman was all for it.
Skinnyman held my verse and he said ‘Man
that’s Nasty’, he was all for it
from the moment he heard me rap. He was like
‘So did you record the track’ and
I said ‘No I’m going to rap it for
you bro’ and I busted the rhyme for him
and he was all for it. I had this One Less Gun
concept in my head from day one, when I found
the sample for the track it gave me the idea
to write the song, it all comes from the OG
record, the break that I used. I took that record
over there and me and Mark (B) produced it together
and rewrote the verses over there. It’s
weird because the minute I stepped out of Australia
everything became really open to me, instead
of just thinking within Adelaide or thinking
within Australia I started thinking with the
world and that was really important I think.
That’s not something I deliberately was
seeking out, I went to the UK because Mark was
like “You should come over here and record
the album with me” and I thought why not?'
Being signed to a major theses days is becoming
more and more common, what do you think of major
label involvement in local hip hop?
'It’s a double edged sword, it can be
dangerous, it can be positive. I think at the
end of the day we need to let the record labels
know that without us they’re stuffed and
that they should have more faith in what we
do, that we are not here to be told what to
do and that they should listen to us because
we are the artists and we know kids and we know
the market, which I don’t really think
they do. They’re more like “What
we’re thinking for the video is you know,
we want you to be wearing a cage on you’re
head and we need girls in bikinis and we need
a car with suspension” and kids are like
“Well I can’t tell these people
what to do because they’re paying for
the record to come out” whereas they should,
they should be saying “Hell No, I’m
not going to stand there with a cage on my head
or with a car with suspension, I don’t
even have a car”. That’s why a lot
of these people come out and their records,
like poor old Figgkidd and other artists, I
don’t know how much of a control Weapon
X & Ken Hell are taking over their direction
or Scribe or other people or even Hilltop Hoods,
it’s very dangerous to make a commodity
of ourselves and turn into some pop bubblegum
rapper, it’s very dangerous. It’s
shows that we’ve got no backbone, like
I really don’t think that John Butler
would let the record label tell him what to
do, they wouldn’t have him in a video
with a chainsaw which is basically what we’re
doing is on parallel with that. I think we should
take their money definitely'
And do something positive with integrity?
'That is it.'
How did your relationship with Nuff Said come
about?
'Through Prowla, Prowla approached me, Solomon
had always said to me that I should go with
Nuff Said and I always wanted to but I just
wasn’t sure what kind of position they
were in to facilitate, as you can see a large
project like this with me having to go overseas
needs a bit of money. I really wanted to go
with them, Obese had offered me a deal and I
respect them as well but their roster is too
large, I wanted to be on a small label kinda
thing and have a more private, personal relationship
with my label. Because apart from with hip hop
artists as you said is that there is too much
rushing and too much spreading it thin and I
think really we need to focus our energy on
one specialised thing and make it happen like
that.'
Tell us about the guests on the album and
what they brought to the release?
'They all bring skills, integrity and they
are all individuals and they’re all intelligent
people the lot of them, a lot of heart and that’s
very important to me. I see that as very important
to the record because the record was like a
promise kept between friends, we were all going
to do this right and we weren’t going
to take any shorts or cut any corners or do
anything that went against our vision or my
vision in particular. But one thing that they
all bring is Skills and that’s very important.'
Delta's debut LP The Lostralian is out through
Shogun Distribution
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