I’ve waxed on about Mango so much to those I know IRL that he’ll need no repeat introduction. You lot, however, haven’t felt the hot breath of my fandom sufficiently and I’m about to sit uncomfortably close while I monologue about him. Sorry, am I spitting? Don’t even care, Agung Mango is on that polymath tip and it’s time everyone at this party acknowledged it. Reportedly he’s a reputable basketballsman, he has his own most excellent fashion line, he’s one half of music video production team Shady Trees, but most importantly, he’s releasing these monumental records that I truly can’t suppress my excitement over. Before today’s newest issue, the most recent was ‘WOKEUPINJAPAN’, a track and video I wrote about earlier this year having not clocked it until months after its release. No such mistake this time, you’re here with me on day one for ‘Toughskin’.

I’m going to steal some of the sentiments I expressed in my review of this song over on Unearthed when I flagged this dudes capacity to move between voices like a motorbike weaving between lanes. You’ll hear that tonal fluidity in full affect around the 1:50 mark when he really Goes In and around that higher energy moment so too does the production. He’s got bars, confidence, cadence, flow, lyricism and every necessary element to announce himself as a 2019 rap luminary. Mango’s in season my friends.

Single uno from album three for this small Melbourne man who I’ve followed since his formative days under the name ‘Laurence‘. He’s historically felt like an isolated node within the sprawling Melbourne ecosystem but increasingly he’s become a central figure in that weird jazz-kid / indie world where everyone graduated VCA and now tutors at Box Hill Institute. Sure I might not know what any of the words I’m saying mean but the desired effect of them is that you’d understand that your local Cops are back on their business, making laconic retrofit pop music. It’s a co-prod with Gab Strum (Japanese Wallpaper), mixed by Simon Lam (Kllo) and has this cute as hell video to accompany it, so where he’s previously been a man of few release assets, he’s thrown the lot at California Way.

Meet a Melbourne rapper who you’ll find as a co-author of every track on Melbourne crew 3K’s recent OPENFORBUSINESS EP. The EP is a joint release of a kind with both names listed across the Spotify metadata and it was the first opportunity I had to come across the Agung’s energy. ‘WOKEUPINJAPAN’ is the mans most recent single and a song I’ve not been able to move past for nearly a week. I’ve dropped five stars on his Unearthed profile and I’d drop a further five if I could because frankly this is one of the best Australian hip-hop releases I’ve heard in a long, long time. He bleeds animated confidence and the way he delivers his verses shows a capacity to move through voices and flows like few others can. On this one he’s roped in 3k’s Beluga who delivers with the vitality and scale from which he draws his name.

And the production, please don’t even start me on the production… if I didn’t know better I’d suggest this was produced by thatboykwame due to the treatment of those jagged bass sounds but I DO know better. Melbourne studio collective PRPL got to this one and thus I found myself burrowing into their SoundCloud this week, coming across more gems like ‘French Love’. You’ll hear Agung’s bars but you’ll also discover that Agung kiiiiiinda has a bit of a singing voice on him too? Anyway, I’m not gonna go on too long here because those close to me have already told me that I need to dial it back about 20% when it comes to this act but big future, I reckon.

Alright, let’s talk about 3k, this Melbourne crew whose EP has been a mainstay of my listening life these past seven days. Sure, not a long span of time but in terms of listening percentage we’re talking upwards of 80. They’re a… four piece? five now? I’m seeing Benny Lago, Beluga, Eissa, Moey but who’s Luka? I’m having trouble reconciling these to the press shots I’ve seen. 3k, if you’re reading this, drop into my DMs for some clarity and I’ll amend this thing. The standout track from their OPEN FOR BUSINESS EP is one called ‘HOME N AWAY’ that’s blessed with playful bars, sharp beats, woozy production and chorus which might as well just read ‘we love our mams’. Extremely cute, extremely thicc. Worth a squiz at this live version of the track where they’ve flipped it into something a lil smoother too.

It’s a nice parallel to Hokeh which has far fewer hard edges, padded with chimes and warm 808 samples. All these songs have one hat-tip or another to the cultural diversity of the outfit. That’s probably part of the reason why Brockhampton seems to be a common frame of reference for these blokus’. They’ve been working that deep Melbourne hip-hop communities over these past two years and this year I’m suggesting that things have taken a turn. Their second EP is the one where they’ve escalated, taken smiley crew energy and turned it a little more sinister, a little more focused.

I can’t write this without pointing you at something a little older, this signal of intent from early 2018 called ‘Woof!’, which I cannot move past for a whole swathe of reasons. It’s got so much colour and life and the lyrics are momentous, in particular the one from Beluga where he claims to have “never been in a car that’s parked”. Worth considering this, because this effectively amounts to the idea that Beluga enters and exits automobiles in motion. That’s a huge commitment to the claim and I’m stunned. Does he own his own vehicle? Does he have a chauffeur who’s become accustomed to his dismounts? An absolutely incredible lifestyle, gotta tip my hat to this sort of behaviour.

Blast the audacity of this child for dropping this goodness on me from the slight age of sixteen. Sixteen years old and he’s navigating these sounds, songs and production choices. His name is ok2222 and I have decided that he is now my son in all ways short of legally, though once the papers go through that should also just be a formality. He’s been making songs for the past few years (so since he was fourteen I guess? Isn’t that horrifying?) and though the surrounding sounds have changed, the cores have remained the same. You can taste a 2015 morsel that’s channeling the same ephemeral energy as Cosmo’s Midnight’s Phantasm it you can go straight in on his more recent Rex / Mac-like records.

All I know is that he has more talent than he has brand at this point cause his digital footprint is about as light as an ant’s undies. There’s not much on him at this point but maybe that’s for the best, letting these songs go ahead of him like the Silver Surfer before Galactus.

Big fan of anyone who’ll call their track ‘I Was Feeling Sad So I Made A Sad Song’. He’s in Melbourne doing the Lord’s work across a swathe of genres collaborating with artists the likes of which I’d not heard of prior and I can’t wait to watch him find himself musically over the next few years. Big tings. I’m not reaaaaally sure who NVTHVN is at this point but I’m gonna quietly wonder if he’s the one making those guitar parts sound so good?