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Hilltop Hoods.
 Though
it's been a while since Adelaide audiences had a chance to see
the Hilltop Hoods in action, they've been far from idle since
they played at Victor Harbor over Easter. Touring pretty much
non-stop, they've done their best to hit some regional spots,
to "get out to a few places that don't get much hip-hop," Suffa
explains. Unfortunately, though, this schedule hasn't left them
with much time to work on new material. "We've got a couple
of new tracks but not much- we just haven't had time... we've
been trying, though."
What they have will eventually make it onto the follow-up to last year's 'The Calling,' which recently became the first Australian hip-hop album to achieve gold sales status. Now the local heroes are finding out that with success comes the weight of expectation - something that's only just beginning to dawn on them. "I said before that there wasn't [any pressure] and then we sort of had a think about it, and yeah, we probably do feel more pressure. It's not that you feel more pressure to be better, it's just that people will be dissecting it a lot more."
Without a recent album on store shelves, a DVD is currently being produced to make sure that fans have something to ask Santa for. "I'm not putting it together," Suffa tells me, "but I think the plan for it is to be a mix of interviews, tour footage and live footage, and just a couple of clips as well", and he's hoping that there'll be some good material from the upcoming show at the Thebby, which is being recorded for inclusion on the DVD. Not confining themselves to Australian audiences, the Hoods are hoping to break into some international markets as well, something that they've just started looking into. "I'd be really keen on it just for the fact of being able to travel to places, but as long as the record goes well here, we're happy. Anything on top is just gravy."
With their popularity exploding in the last year, success is pretty much a given, but this modesty is typical of Suffa, and when I express surprise that he hasn't let being in Australia's most successful hip-hop outfit go to his head he laughs, "no, I don't think so, as long as I'm driving a shitty yellow Pulsar."
Not everyone in hip-hop is so down-to-earth, though, something that the Hoods have become increasingly aware of as they've earned support slots for a number of international acts in the past few years. In one memorable week here last year, they opened for Kool Keith, Public Enemy and Cypress Hill in the space of a few days, but it's Cypress Hill that Suffa remembers: "They were fucking wankers, absolute wankers, actually." He laughs when he tells me that despite airing this view in a number of interviews, the Hoods still got asked to support their next tour later this year, grinning while he surmises, "to be asked to do it again, I don't know... maybe they just wanted to get us in the same room so they could beat us with their massive security."
All jokes aside, it's sad to hear Suffa say that he rarely attempts to talk to touring acts that he admires, "'cause with a lot of them as soon as I talk to them I'm gonna think that they're just fucking wankers and it's gonna ruin their albums for me." Conscious of the impression that they create, when the Hoods go on tour themselves they try to bring acts that they know and respect with them, which is why you'll often see them on the same bill as local boys Funkoars and After Hours as well as national acts like Hyjak and Torcha. "And we're all mates, so it's sort of like one big family with us."
They've just been announced for the Big Day Out tour, so it won't be quite as long between shows this time around, but that's no reason to miss out, because Suffa promises that "we're doing a few special things for this show," though he remains tight-lipped as to what the nature of these surprises will be, simply concluding that "people will see them on the night."
You have been warned.
Alexis Buxton-Collins
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The Hilltop Hoods play at Thebarton Theatre on Sat 20 Nov. They also appear at the Meredith Festival in December and the Big Day Out.
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