FiggKidd www.figgkidd.com
WHAT IS FIGGKIDD?
Figgkidd may be just 21 years of age, but he is, without exception, the most dynamic new act to emerge from Australia in the last five years. A lyrical powerhouse who’s been writing rhymes since he was 14 and MC-ing professionally since he was 16, he is the rarest of beasts: a debut artist who has emerged so fully formed it’s almost impossible to believe he was never here in the first place. WHAT IS FIGGKIDD, his three year in the making debut album, is an outrageously accomplished sonic romp that mashes hip hop, rock and myriad other influences into a sound so fresh it can only be described as Figg-hop. Awash with melody, lyrical wit, aggression and acuity, WHAT IS FIGGKIDD is an album with the genuine potential to reshape the international pecking order. That’s not hype. That’s just studied observation, backed up by the musical support of some hip-hop’s heaviest hitters. Not bad for a scrawny white kid from Bankstown, huh?
Bankstown, in Sydney’s multi-cultural south west, lies at the heart of Figgkidd’s musical eclecticism. “It’s a major reason why I’m here”, admits Figg. “I used to listen to R&B in Years 5 and 6, but when I went into Year 7 you’d get defined by your nationality: Aussies would listen to rock; Lebs would listen to R&B and hip hop; Aboriginal and islander kids would definitely listen to rap; and Asians listened to R&B, hip hop and pop. So musically it was really segmented. But I used to get on with everyone. So when I hit Year 7, I was listening to R&B and hip hop, but the Aussies were throwing rock in my ear and I was picking up on all the other genres. Then after school, I met my producer, Lui and she came in with Hip Hop/Latino influences, so I was able to bring all these musical pieces together and create my own style”.
Figg started writing raps when he was about 14, but his real introduction to rap music was through R&B. “I actually sang in a R&B group with like three other chicks when I was at school. We used to go in talent contests and we used to win, all that sort of shit. That’s why there’s a lot of melody in my stuff now. But my first real exposure to rap was in the R&B tracks that I was doing, cause someone had to do the raps. Rap was still kind of a side thing at that stage. I mean, I’d started writing my own lyrics, but they were pretty shitty.”
By the time Figg was 16, he’d developed so dramatically as a rap artist that he won the very first open mic competition he entered – at an under 18s Crush party. Just one year later, and a subsequent fixture on the under 18s hip hop scene – he was being paid to MC the events. It was a pivotal time for Figg. “I was gaining MC-ing skills every night”, he recalls. “Cause the kids don’t give a f!$k. If you’re good, you’re good. If you suck they’re like, ‘boo, get the f!$k off’. But Figg’s burgeoning obsession with hip hop didn’t stop there. Still 17, and entering his final year of school, started seeking out the clubs.
“I used to go to the commercial clubs, like EP1, the R&B hip hop clubs and there used to be like black American guys on the mic and being a little young, skinny white kid, still at school, they were real hesitant to give it to me. They’d never let me have it until the end of the night when there was no-one there. So I’d jump on and do my raps and I started getting a bit more respect there”.
Respect is an understatement. It was only a short matter of time before he was being paid to MC the clubs. Heady stuff for a 17 year old schoolboy. But a parents worst nightmare. “I was coming home at ridiculous hours in the morning. I went shocking at school. So I had a few dramas at home. So at the end of that year of finishing school, I was 18 and just said, ‘F!$k this, I’m out’. I moved out for that whole year and I was living like a bum, working part time at a shoe store, and scrounging a living as an MC.
So that’s what actually started the career drive, to prove them wrong. Not only my parents, but also to prove that a white guy can rap, prove to the industry that I can do it, prove to hip hop heads that there is room for Figg. I used to cop a lot of flack because I was different and I wanted to prove to those people that didn’t support it, just wait, I’m gonna come thru some day. But it almost got to a point where my self belief turned into shit. I’d got myself in so deep that it would have been a wasted effort to get out of it. But I’d already proved I could do it, so it became about proving to myself that it was all worth it”.
In 2001 Figg formed a crew in Sydney called The Outfit, which later extended to include members of Brisbane’s hip hop community. They played club gigs in Sydney and Brisbane, romped on the Lilypad stage at the Big Day Out and supported international hip hop acts like Ugly Duckling. But when Figg attempted to sign his crew to a deal with his now producer, Lui, the commercial direction he wanted to take it caused internal friction and they bailed. “Some people think commercial’s a naughty word”, says Figg. “But I’m not ashamed of it. That’s what I do. I’ve got the R&B roots. Melody is part of my image”.
In 2002, Figg started work on WHAT IS FIGGKIDD, and a year into recording, record companies launched into a heated bidding war for his services. Sony prevailed, but Figg and his label, unda K-9, maintained independence and artistic control over the project. There is not an aspect of Figg’s album, from artwork through to music videos and track selection, that he did not sign off on. Which brings us to the album.
A stunning tour de force of musical and lyrical ingenuity, WHAT IS FIGGKIDD was recorded in Sydney and LA with the who’s who of contemporary hip-hop. Mixed by Richard “Segal” Huredia (whose lengthy credits include Eminem, Dr Dre, Snoop Dogg, Limp Bizkit, Ice Cube, Jay Z, to name a few), produced by Lui, Red Foo and Sefu and Silent Noise Productions and featuring performances from Tech N9ne (Tupac, Eminem), Neff-U (Dre, 50 Cent, Eminem, Bono), DJ Babu from Dilated Peoples, as well as local acts Selwyn, Jeremy Gregory, Sa’Fire, Qane, Chapel and Bishop (Deep Surface).
An album of undeniable depth – there are at least 5 killer singles on here – WHAT IS FIGGKIDD ranges from infectious uptempo club tracks (“My Oh My”, “OWW!!”) to fight songs (“Outspoken Outcast”, “Out 4 Tha Count”), social commentary (“19”, which is an interpretation of the Redgum classic), (“Insomnia” which contains a musical sample of “Skippy the Bush Kangaroo”), a raunchy ode to an LA strip club (first single, “I Gotta Know”), to the personal (“What It Is”). The album’s centrepiece, “Fairytale Master”, is a sly, twisted but irrepressibly infectious take on a children’s fairytale that reveals the shady clown that lies at the heart of Figg’s work.
But for all its considerable charms, it’s Figg’s voice that propels the album, sniping and snarling, laughing and leering, taking you on a ride that stops at the circus, the jailhouse and every stop in between. It’s exhilarating, it’s intoxicating and it’s hell of a lot of fun.
WHAT IS FIGGKIDD is not only hands down the debut album of the year, it marks the entrance of one the most exciting new talents this country has ever produced. Prepare to be enthralled.
WHAT IS FIGGKIDD is released nationally on unda K-9 through Sony Music.
