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Wednesday, January 30, 2008

What do you reckon about Snoop Dogg not being allowed into the country?
Suffa: That was rubbish!
Pressure: Mr John Howard – he is the type we would like to have words with.
Suffa: They’re just hatin’ on Snoop.
Pressure: So what if he started a few fights at the airport. So what!
Who was the most D-list celebrity you met there?
Suffa: There was a plethora of them there. But it was probably us when we were talking to each other.
Pressure: Some fat dude that lost a lot of weight on TV.
Your new album The Hard Road: Restrung is your last album redone with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. What’s the deal there? Sounds like a mid-life crisis.
Pressure: Yeah, we couldn’t afford sports cars so we decided to remix our album with a symphony orchestra.
Suffa: Which is the next best thing.
What were the crazy old orchestra dudes like?
Suffa: We didn’t really get to meet anyone. It was like a Year 7 formal. We sat on one side of the room and they sat on the other. But they seemed nice enough.
Are you only doing it because Guy Sebastian is doing gigs with the Australian Philharmonic Orchestra?
Suffa: Shit, we didn’t know that.
Could you review the album in 50 words or less to save us some time?
Suffa: I don’t think you needed to say "Or less".
Pressure: The Hard Road remade with a large orchestra.
Suffa: There you go, eight words or less.
Too easy. Having played on the Big Day Out and Homebake and stuff like that, who do you reckon has better parties – hip-hop blokes or rock dudes?
DJ Debris: Hip-hop blokes. We drink their rider after the gig.
Pressure: Yeah, rock dudes take their bottles of whisky filled with tea on stage and skol it. Then you see them at the after party and they’re sipping water. Well, most of them.
Is it hard to do a hip-hop show when you’re drunk or hung-over?
Suffa: It’s hard to do anything when you’re hung-over. It’s hard to get drunk when you’re hung-over.
What’s the worst show you’ve ever done?
Suffa: When I lost my voice completely.
Pressure: Nah, that was just bad for you – but the rest of us found it amusing.
Suffa: It looked like the mic wasn’t on. And I didn’t realise it was gone until I got on stage as well. It was our third night in a row playing and I got up and just started going [silently mouths words, possibly, “F–k you RALPH"]
What’s the most rock star thing you’ve done since you guys got big?
Suffa: I adopted a little Ethiopian kid yesterday. I think that’s more celebrity than rock star.
Suffa: Oh, OK. In that case I give it back.
Pressure: If you got your Ethiopian kid drunk, that would have been rock star.
Suffa: I shaved Britney.
In a hip-hop band, are DJs more like a drummer or guitarist?
DJ Debris: Drummer. Everyone makes jokes about us and I carry all the gear.
How did you get into hip-hop in the first place?
Pressure: It was just pretty influential in the neighbourhood we grew up in when we were young with the older generation, the skaters and graffiti writers were into it and they just passed it down to us.
What do your old mates think of your success?
Suffa: I don’t think they think about it, really.
Pressure: I guess they’re happy for us. They come to all the shows.
What about your oldies?
Suffa: Yeah, they’re happy for us. The oldies love it.
Pressure: My grandma tries to come to as many shows as possible. When did they turn from, “Why are you wasting your time with that shit?"
Suffa: As soon as we started to do alright.
Pressure: Yeah, they were suddenly, “We always thought it was great that you pursued music..."
After all this time together, are you guys still close friends, or does business get in the way of things?
Pressure: Nah, we’re still tight as mates.
So you never fight?
Pressure: Oh yeah, we always fight!
DJ Debris: We take the piss out of each other every 10 seconds. We’re about due right now.
Does it ever come to fists?
Suffa: These two almost did in Melbourne [points to Pressure and DJ Debris].
Pressure: We had a slap-off... As a successful independent act, do you still get major labels trying to sign you?
Suffa: I don’t think they really bother anymore.
Pressure: I think they gave up on us, actually.
Do you ever get tempted to take the easy option?
Pressure: Nah, we’re happy to stay where we are.
Suffa: Because we can see [their record label] Obese standing behind you with a loaded rifle.
What if the stars hadn’t aligned and you guys never became popular. Would you still be pushing things or working in a factory?<
Suffa: We’d be doing both.
Pressure: Yeah, we’d be working in a factory but still going at it after hours.
What do you say to people that just refuse to accept Aussie hip-hop?
Pressure: F–k ’em.
Suffa: Yeah, you get ’em [laughs].
DJ Debris: Yeah, that’ll convince them.
Pressure: Well they’re the people that refuse to be converted, so why try?
Suffa: Well you can’t argue with that...
So there’s nothing you can do to turn them?
Suffa: I’d say they’re probably right.
You guys are the only Aussie act on the ARIA urban charts at the moment. Does that make you guys the heavyweight champs of the scene?
Suffa: Nah, I think that’s just accounting errors.
What would you do if you were editor of RALPH for a day?
Pressure: [Laughs. Smiles. Laughs more. And more]
Suffa: I assume your offices are full of bikini-clad women carrying jugs of beer? We’d play pinball with girls in bikinis.
Would you ever go on Sunrise?
Pressure: With Kochie? Of course we’d go on Sunrise with Kochie. Port Power’s number-one ticket holder!
I recently got ordained as a minister in the Universal Life Church? Anything that you’d like to confess
Pressure: Nothing that can be printed.
Suffa: That we’d go on Sunrise with Kochie. We’re keen for it. That’s shocking!

Hilltop Hoods
* The guys got together in 1991 at Adelaide’s Blackwood High School.
* Their mate Flak from Cross Bred Mongrels suggested the name Hilltop Hoods in a Coles car park.
* Their song "Clown Prince" contains a sample from a '70s porn film.
* The Hoods are also members of the Certified Wise Crew, a bunch of 18 MCs and four DJs including the top blokes from Funkoars.
* The Hard Road was the first local hip-hop album to debut at number-one on the ARIA charts. Even better, it was RALPH’s album of the year for 2006.
Luke Anisimoff

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