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.

Watching the slow burn of Lupa J’s musical growth has been a joy, but I can only imagine that for the artist themself at some points, it must have felt like a movement by inches. She caught a whif of the internet via soundcloud aged fifteen and was twice an Unearthed High finalist thereafter. She’s spent the years since making writing, producing and singing clever electronic pop songs and last year I thought she may have reached her zenith with ‘You’re In My Headphones’. Fortunately, i was extremely wrong. This new one ‘The Crash’ is the best record she’s ever released. Grimes-like melodies and washy BV’s but polished to the sheen of a Lupa J production. I reckon even Claire would be proud to have this one out under her name.

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?