Stock market vulturism, environmental disaster, public health crises, political unrest. Welcome to 2021. While superheroes remain the domain of fiction, what forces stand between humanity and total ruin? In my humble opinion, it’s art. I sat down on the Vibe Union podcast with Amutha and Jason to talk about the role Art can play in saving Humanity. I’m particularly keen to further explore Tyson Yunkaporta’s work bringing an Indigenous lens to solving our current woes through his book “Sand Talk“, and if anyone reading this has further reading/resources/connections to those ideas, I’d really appreciate it. I just heard him talk on the Jim Rutt Show, and also on Ruts & Routines where he actually dives deeper into the ideas discussed below.
I’d love your thoughts on these ideas and more, so get in touch if you wanna share ’em!
Vibe Union Podcast episode 16 “Can Art Save Humanity?”In case the embedded video doesn’t work, click the image to go to YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6yoY-RLOhA
Rhath’s lead single for his upcoming album ‘Orbits’ is out now on all platforms
There’s few more talented musicians in Melbourne than Rhath. Producer, Rapper, Guitarist, Sound Engineer, the list goes on and on. We first met at a Bar Oussou open mic, where we connected on each other’s music. Not long after, we were at my place, collaborating on beats he’d made with FCK. His industrial, apocalyptic sense for sound is an immediate draw-card for me. He pulls no punches with his production and his lyricism, and he’s here to say something important.
When he approached me for this collab, we were deep into our work together with Vibe Union, and he wanted to make a song that captured the madness of trying to create during the nuclear fuck-storm of a year we were having. I was working on my (still in-progress) isolation EP at the time and was getting real frustrated with the kind of stuff I was coming up with. The beat and the concept immediately struck me and I knew I had to channel that same frenetic, pent-up energy that I’d been pouring into countless games of Rocket League. I really let my insanity run loose on this one. Rhath and I have always enjoyed playing counter-characters on songs we do together, and this one really has a great tone to it. Have a listen below and let me know what you think!
Oh… by the way… there’s a full music video coming out for this soon…
I’m pleased to announce that my collaboration with Shourov is now live! Check it out below and let me know your thoughts through the social media links! Click the image to watch now
Welcome, and thank you for finding my first post. This website stuff is new to me, but as my music and my network grows, I want to make it easy for you and others like you to access and connect to it all. Thank you for being part of my test community, please leave comments or send me personal messages to help me make this the best experience for you into the future.
I hit ‘Start Stream’ on StreamYard and began one of the greatest creative undertakings of my MC life. I was gonna write 30 verses in 20 hours, and stream the whole thing – live.
Inspired by a range of creative projects I’d been exposed to over the years, it was equal parts entertainment and proclamation – “This is Serious. This is my life. This is how I live. This is how I play.”
It was an awesome experience, kicking off with my family joining me on-stream from around the world, and peppered with lovely wishes and supportive commenters in the chat throughout the day. While the task was mine alone to do, I was not alone in the endeavour. Thank you to the 23 producers who contributed beats, the 150+ people who tuned in to join the party, and for my friends and family who support me, believe in me, and continuously inspire me to succeed at greater heights.
Now it’s time to take some of those rough verses and turn them into songs. I’ve been streaming lately, and I’m excited to announce a new series as I work on one of these songs each Sunday through September. I hope you’ll join me.
If you like, please have a listen to the verses and let me know which ones you like. You can easily vote in the poll below. The highest-rated track each week will be the one I work on.
5 straight nights of little to no sleep. So much has happened in the past week, I never got a moment to sit down and write about it. Read on for Emkew news, Vibe Union news, and some huge news about our latest venture.
Hit play on this video and read on
It all kicked off on Thursday night, supporting Dave Dilly at Laundry Bar. As always his infectious and dominant energy filled the room and set the tone for the night. Kudos to all the performers there, but it’s a powerful feeling to roll up to a gig to support a Vibe Union homie and see the room fall in love with them. We on the rise!
Friday saw me in a big meeting that could see me MC’ing a whole new range of parties and events around Melbourne. Watch this space for more news to be confirmed this week – but basically, you could be seeing Emkew on the decks before long. And then there was Royalty Noise. As with last night, rocking up to Northcote Social Club as Vibe Union to support the homie Tumi the Be felt nice. And then we were treated to one of the best damn live shows I’ve ever seen! It’s always been a dream of mine to do a live set of hip hop with fully live instrumentation, and getting to see it executed so damn well was such a treat. Check out this snippet I threw up on my Instagram
And of course, once again, I got home at about 2am only to be up at 8 to get back into it. Before long I found myself at the notorious Red House of Brunswick, where D-Rad MC was hosting a get together of a range of musos. We partied long into the night, freestyling to beats for hours on end, and making up music with the Spanish-speaking housemates. Inside 24 hours I was already materialising my goals of creating live hip hop from scratch, with real instruments. I got home at a cheeky 3am.
Sunday was meant to be a write-off, but I was up again nice and early, plugging away on a proposal for Ronnie’s Blue Bar for an upcoming night (stay tuned!) Before long I was catching up with a Melbourne musician keen to get involved in Vibe Union, and it was nice just sitting back and chatting about all things music with someone from a different musical background. Then I headed over to the SalamFest picnic, where people were going to bring instruments and jam. The video at the top is from that picnic and it was a powerful feeling connecting with these talented and renowned musicians to create something from scratch. It was an honour jamming with you, Renaud, Yousupha, Kate, Mashhoor, and the entire SalamFest crew!
From there I made my way to Spike Leo’s Squad Sundays. ConnR had been raving about these events for a minute and I figured it’s always good to see how other networks are establishing in this city. There was a great turnout and I appreciated the fact that our ticket costs went towards pizza and wine to help set up a nice atmosphere. It was great to hear direct from Spike’s experiences being a player in this game for so long, and he had good advice to offer. Personally I took more away from the meta-play, understanding how he sets up the room, an atmosphere for collaboration/networking, and how he re-markets to his existing client base. Ever since a friend convinced me to watch Jordan Belfort’s Straight Line Persuasion tapes, I’ve been obsessed with reverse-engineering the approaches of industry players to unpack their approach. I like watching sales pitches purely to understand how they’re selling, not what. In all it was a great experience and it was awesome meeting other musicians like Desmond Masé, but I likely won’t continue attending as it just runs divergent to what we already have going in Vibe Union. I’m blessed with a steady stream of new collaborators and potential mentors/mentees through my organic movements in this city already, I don’t feel I need a formalised lukewarm monthly “hang” to bolster that.
And then there’s Monday. Sweet, bloody, crazy Monday. First off, the latest episode of the Vibe Union Podcast dropped. It’s an incredible ride through Tumi’s experiences and I highly recommend it to any emerging artists considering dabbling in the live music scene this year. I pushed further with the proposal for Ronnie’s Blue Bar, and we set up the event for Vibe Union’s next gig. Details here. Between 3 prospective new jobs, managing Emkew, managing Vibe Union, planning festivals, gigs, and new nights in Melbourne, and volunteering with a refugee support network, I’m just lucky I have a house to myself right this minute. It’s an amazing feeling knowing there is so much opportunity, but it does feel like it can get to be a lot at times. And in those times I remind myself to breathe, step away from the computer, re-calibrate, and refresh. There will always be work to do, but sometimes it’s more important to step away. I went to bed at 10:30 and I feel amazing today because of it.
Which is good, because today was monumental. Today I made the news:
It was awesome discussing what Vibe Union is up to, and how we’re changing the landscape. And from there, I went to meet with Ronnie to deliver our proposal:
I am pleased to announce that Vibe Union and Ronnie’s Blue Bar are teaming up to bring you Melbourne’s most inclusive Hip Hop night – Rappers Delight! Inspired by (and really missing) Hip Hop Karaoke, I put the wheels in motion to revive the night with a new look and feel at Melbourne’s home of hip hop. After meeting with Ronnie and hammering out the details, we are pleased to announce that the first ever Rappers Delight will take place on March 25th at Ronnie’s Blue Bar. Free entry, awesome DJ’s spinning the tunes, and all your favourite songs performed by all your favourite people! Watch this space for the Facebook event.
So yeah… I’ve been busy. I have one more surprise for you this week in the form of an exclusive website-only release… It’ll be out… soon. Best subscribe to the mailing list to get the jump on the news!
Emkew 