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Hilltop Hoods
 "We've done a lot in the last couple of years," Suffa MC gently reminds me when I ask him why it's time for another Hilltop Hoods DVD (their last, 'The Calling Live', was released in 2005). "Like an album and a remix album - which was basically another album - and a hundred whatever shows."
They've been the most visible members of the Australian hip-hop community for so long now that it's easy to forget how much the group have achieved, but there seems to be no danger of the success going to their heads. "I mean at gigs and stuff, because it's a hip hop night and there's lots of hip hop heads there, people recognise you. But everywhere else no-one has a clue who we are or what we do," Suffa laughs easily, before adding that "most of the people we meet at shows are pretty chilled people - most of them are MCs and stuff that come up and say hello."
Of course, these MCs also see the 'Hoods as intermediaries between themselves and Obese records, and Suffa's laughing again as he talks about it; "yeah man, if I go to the city, I usually come back with two or three demos in my pocket."
But while it's impossible to help out every struggling MC, the group remembers when they were trying to make the leap to the big time, and that's why they offer the Hilltop Hoods Initiative to help one unsigned MC every year make that transition. MC Pressure took some time out to talk about it after presenting the cheque to this year's winner, Jimblah, at the launch of the Mixedinblack initiative to promote and support the talent of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander actors, musicians and entertainers. "We got some Arts SA grants back in '99 when we were struggling and really broke, and they really helped us out. So this is basically our way of giving someone else that opportunity."
Of course, choosing a winner is far from an easy process, especially for a group with so many friends and ties in the Adelaide hip-hop community, something that Suffa is only too aware of; "that was our conundrum so we abandoned it and got a panel of four or five people - we chose the panel basically to choose the grant winner. Because I've judged MC comps in the past, and apart from the fact that talent and everything is relative - one man's good is another man's bad - if there were 15 people in the comp, you'd make 14 enemies and one friend."
All three members of the group seemed relaxed at the launch, and well they should be when their only plans for the summer are "playing a couple of festivals - we're doing Pyramid Rock, the Big Day Out tour and that's about it."
Those Big Day out shows will see the group trying something a little different in their sets, as they will have live musicians onstage and a quartet, though it's strictly a short term arrangement. "We'll always be open to do things like that, but at the end of the day our passion is traditional hip-hop, you know, two MCs and a DJ. I mean, we might do things here and there, like a collaboration, but at the end of the day it's always gonna end up back to us three."
If you want to see about as many people joining them onstage as you're ever likely to, it's worth noting that the 'City Of Light' DVD contains footage of the 'Hard Road Restrung' Launch at the Entertainment Centre earlier this year, though Suffa notes that "it's not based on [footage of the show], that's one of the features of it." So while 'The Calling Live' was mostly a document of a show at the Thebby in 2005, "we've got probably more film clips on there and more behind the scenes stuff on this one."
Released on December 8, 'City Of Light' has the same street date as the first DVD from labelmates and fellow Adelaideans The Funkoars, so that both will be ready for Christmas. When I ask Suffa if there's any whiff of competition, however, he's quick to set the record straight. "Not at all, we love the 'Oars, so I'm going for the 'Oars," he laughs. "That's Obese's fault, you can blame them."
Alexis Buxton-Collins
'City Of Light' is out now through Obese Records.
The Hilltop Hoods perform at the Big Day Out at Wayville Showgrounds on Friday 1 Feb.
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