After the success of the their album The Calling, Adelaide hip-hop crew The Hilltop Hoods need no introduction. Their latest album, The Hard Road, made Australian music history by debuting at number 1 on the ARIA charts, a phenomenal achievement when you consider that they’re still on an independent record label. This promo released to coincide with the Hoods’ national tour, includes the album’s title track along with remixes by Suffa and Plutonic Lab, the instrumental versions of the original mix and Suffa’s remix, and a remix of Capturing the Vibe by Sesta of Funkoars.

The Hard Road celebrates the journey that the Hoods have taken from “high school drop-out to factory labourer” – to Australia’s most celebrated hip-hop crew. Unlike some of their contemporaries in Australian hip-hop, they achieve their success not by selling out or adopting American accents, but by producing good beats and being really fucking good MCs. The Hard Road is no exception. Lyrically, Suffa and Pressure deliver some great one-liners (“I was going nowhere like a child’s letter to god” and “I finished with a bang like Curt Kobain’s biography”), as well as their usual skilful and clever rhymes. Musically, the original version is upbeat, despite the relatively serious content, and the complexity of the music is clear in the instrumental version. The remixes, provided by Suffa, who enlists the help of his guitarist brother, and Plutonic Lab, are both worthwhile. Suffa’s remix is a little more soulful, which works well with the lyrical content. Similarly, Plutonic Lab makes the track a little more downbeat and turns up the bass a little, as well as adding some nice scratching and a little bit of brass. Both offer a slightly different take on the original track, and both remixes work well. Fellow member of Certified Wise and MC with The Funkoars, Sesta, contributes a remix of Recapturing the Vibe, another track off the album. He speeds it up a touch and adds some raucous brass, with the resulting track being a straight up party joint.

All in all, this single contains an excellent track with some good remixes. Whether or not it’s worth buying if you already own the album is questionable though.