(Liberation Music)

So its Aussie Hip Hop hey, nah fuck that what would they no about bling bling, Gucci and Moet. Fuck all and that my friends is exactly the point.

I’ll admit it I was a 15 year old homie with the baggiest pants I could find, a bandana and although I loathed to admit it French braids. As all little gangstas do I cringed at any form of Hip Hop featuring the hint of an Australian accent and not featured in the Source. Thankfully both my taste in clothes and my musical tastes have improved ten fold and a class act like TZU has no chance of slipping under my guard.

Back Up is the first single from their debut album to be released later this year and it shows exactly what is good about Aussie Hip Hop. Opening with a couple of scratches the beat is bass heavy and builds to a deep roll shore to give most speakers a work out. The groups rhymes are however for me the highlight as they trade lines about the old skool and growing up in 80’s Australia, how many other songs have you heard that included rhymes about tracky daks and Monkey Magic that have you bobbing your head and agreeing with what they say. This is what I found good about Hip Hop produced here, there is no talk of pushing Bentleys and four carrot Diamonds because that isn’t what they know and its refreshing as it lets the rhymes and beats do the work.

Also featured are the previously released gems Realizm, & Just for a second from their 2001 EP the former with TZUgiving their thoughts on what is real and the latter providing a sparser beat for them to get loose over. Closing out the package is L Plates from the Culture of Kings compilation that should be in any Hip Hop fans collection.

To borrow the words of TZU Aussie Hip Hop – It is what it is and its not what its not. What it is in my opinion is thriving and with class acts like this on the horizon the only way is up.