There are few artists who rep their hometown as hard as Spit Syndicate. Despite truly being Australia wide these days, the hip-hop duo from Sydney’s Inner West have never forgotten their roots, working hard each and every year to spice up the local music culture wherever they tread.
With a few headline gigs on the cards plus appearances at Newtown Festival and the very juicy A Weekend in the Gardens, we sat down with Spit Syndicate’s Nick Lupi for a chat.
Off the back of one of their biggest tours to date, we chat local hip hop, the latest album and some upcoming shows with MC Nick Lupi of Spit Syndicate.
HAPPY: Hey, what’s going on? What are you up to right now?
NICK: Flying back to Sydney. For all it’s flaws, fuck it’s a good looking city to fly into. There’s WiFi on my plane.
HAPPY: Congrats on the album release, it’s killer. Having sat on it, and performed the tracks for some months now, how are you feeling about the record?
NICK: Thank you! We feel great about the record, its always a vibe to see people connecting with something you’ve worked on. Gotta keep it moving, though, we’re working on something new atm.
HAPPY: You’ve played so many damn shows since it dropped. When do you two sleep?
NICK: I mean, we’ve played a bunch of shows this year but hasn’t been anything toooo crazy, we’ve got more planned for next year. Sleep when you’re dead, nap where you can.
HAPPY: We really dig how hard you guys rep Sydney, especially the Inner West. Why has that always been so important for you?
NICK: Repping your locale seemed quite embedded in hip hop culture when we were coming up. It’s something we did from a young age, before we even started making and releasing music. We’re proud of the Inner West, its progressive values, how multicultural it is, how thriving the music and arts scenes are, the food is poppin too. We try and take the Inner West’s slangs, stories and shot talk with us everywhere we go. Or something like that.
HAPPY: One Day is a massive driving force behind that. What’s coming up for the collective, come 2018?
NICK: All the acts within One Day are working on their own projects, new music and more shows. We’re working on new and bigger parties and tours around Oz. Usual shit, everyone’s going hard. Come too far not to!
HAPPY: And when can we look forward to a couple more hometown shows?
NICK: Well, we are playing at Newtown Festival this month. And then we’re coming back bigger and better next year with some more hometown shows. More everywhere shows.
HAPPY: I’ve heard some people declare that there’s a ‘new wave’ of Aussie hip-hop breaking through right now. Are there any up-and-comers you’ve got an eye on?
NICK: Depends on how you define ‘up and coming’, but without getting into the semantics of that, I’m rocking with Turquoise Prince, Tone Youth, Jesswar, Pow! Negro. There’s heaps coming up though you’re right. It’s fkn great.
HAPPY: How do you think hip hop is currently sitting in Australia? Say, compared to five or ten years ago.
NICK: It’s at a beautiful place.
HAPPY: We’re looking forward to A Weekend in the Gardens – that lineup is stacked. Have you played alongside Illy, Thundamentals or Birdz before?
NICK: Illy and Thundas are old & dear friends from the Obese Records days so we’ve played countless shows together. Played a festival with Birdz over the weekend, he’s dope. Melbourne in the Spring is a special time of year, can’t wait.
HAPPY: Looking forward to it guys! Thanks for the chat.
Catch Spit Syndicate on tour:
Fri 3 Nov – Dalrymple Hotel, Townsville
Sat 4 Nov – Magnums, Airlie Beach
Sun 12 Nov – Newtown Festival
Sat 18 Nov – A Weekend in the Gardens – Tickets
