Forget about bling bling, booty’s and ho’s. Let’s talk about real Aussie Hip Hop. Let’s talk about homegrown talent. Let’s talk about dogs … the resin variety that is. It seems that in recent years, Australian Hip Hop has rapidly flourished, gaining a large fan base as well as pushing forward new and exciting sounds. Names like The Herd, Hospice Crew, Downsyde, Hilltop Hoods, Koolism and Katalyst all come to mind when considering the diverse spectrum of talent musicians on offer. Another name which vividly stands out is of course Resin Dogs. Brisbane born and bred, the mongrels from Resin Dogs are a fanciful bunch developing their own style of funk, hip hop and down tempo grooves. Major radio stations seem to have their single ‘Set it off’ super glued in the CD player, their label Hydrofunk is blossoming and to top it off the dogs have also been billed to play alongside Grandmaster Flash! ITM’s palu gets the scoop on Resin Dog’s front man Chris, just before they embark on whirl wind tour with the legendary father of hip hop.


Hey Chris, what have you been up to? How has your year been so far?

Our year has been pretty busy. We’ve been recording and we’ve just been trying to get the new album together. We didn’t go into the studio so much this time. This is because we now have our own home studios up and running. This of course gave us the luxury of more time and redoing things and getting it just right. So we’ve just been spending time on that. We’ve also been doing a bit of touring, with a few festivals, the big day out and stuff like that. Apart from that, just concentrating on getting the new album together but not rushing or anything like that. We’re just taking our time.

How do you feel about touring with Grandmaster Flash?

He’s definitely someone who I look up to. I mean, he was one of the originators you know. He and Afrika Bambaata started the whole thing off. I could say that everything we do now is probably the result of what he started; you know the whole two turntables and a mixer thing. They were the fathers of hip hop so to play a show with him is just an amazing honour. We tried really hard to get on the bill, but even just to see him play would be an amazing experience in itself.

What can we expect from a Resin Dogs performance on the tour?

You can expect to hear a couple of tracks from the new album, a few tracks people haven’t really heard before. We’ll also be playing a few Latin flavoured hip hop numbers. We’re going to keep it down tempo, and keep it hip hop instead of that kind of manic dance stuff that we sometimes do. Yeah we’ll probably keep it hip hop and get a few guest MCs. Make it a big hip hop jam. Big party!

You had a pretty huge year last year with your last album being a great success and ‘Set it off’ evidently receiving heaps of airplay and positive reviews. What was the experience like working on it and did you ever anticipate the success?

It was good for us to try something different with Ab Rude. I think with Ab rude, we’ve worked with DJs and producers from overseas but never a vocalist. So we’ve always been admirers and defenders of Australian accents in hip hop, but for us, it was a bit of a big step to work with an American MC. But Ab Rude is a great guy, we got him over, we hung out and it’s been good fun. The success has been great; we never really had any predictions. It’s so hard to record tracks and think, ‘will this get on the radio or not’. You don’t really think about that I don’t think. It’s just out of our hands. We’re just happy it’s done so well and has been recieved with open arms by the public.

You’re working on finishing the new album. Can you tell us a bit about it?

The new album, we’re looking at a winter release. That’s the thing; we’re taking our time with the release and not rush it out into the market place just for the sake of it. We’re definitely going to take our time with it. As for content, there’s a lot of vocals on this album. We’ve used a lot of guest MCs. We’re working with a few different people and experimenting with a few different sounds. There are a few slower tracks as well. I guess you can say it’s more of a growth from the first album. I know that’s what everyone says about their second album but that’s definitely what we’re trying for.

What do you think of Aussie hip hop at the moment? What artists are keeping the spirit alive?

Lazey Grey and Len 1 are fantastic; I think they’re really good. I also dig Good Buddha, the guys from Sydney. We’ve actually convinced them to do a feature vocal on our album so I think that might be the first single as well. But generally, Aussie hip hop is just wicked at the moment. There’s so much to cover and just so much talent out there!


Catch Resin Dogs on tour with Grandmaster Flash at the following venues:

Melbourne – Tuesday 13th May @ Prince of Wales
Adelaide – Wednesday 14th May @ The Governor Hindmarsh
Melbourne – Thursday 15th May @ The Forum
Perth – Friday 16th May @ The Metro
Sydney – Saturday 17th May @ Hordern Pavilion
Brisbane – Sunday 18th May @ The Arena.