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Last week the Australian hip hop community at large was shocked by the last minute cancellation of all scheduled shows on 360’s Utopia tour, due to unexpected and unspecified illness. His management issued a statement containing a sincere apology, citing the fact that he had never cancelled a single gig before, backed up with a promise to make it up to all ticket holders as soon as possible.
In a fortunate twist of fate, Forte Mag had the chance to sit down with the in-demand artist just days before the untimely announcement. During the interview, an upbeat 360 spoke positively about the lucky few he’d personally chosen to support him on the impending tour, his chances in the highly contested triple j Hottest 100, a new project with Seth Sentry, and the moment he realised his childhood idol Eminem dug his rhymes.
“He’s the reason I started rapping, you know? It was a dream come true to open for Eminem last year,” he says smiling. “I couldn’t believe it when I was told I could choose the tracks I wanted to send to him. I was so carefully choosing that I selected a few songs and battles I’d done as well – and to know that the man himself actually listened to them and chose me out of everybody was such a good feeling. Indescribable really.”
360 knows the power that kind of exposure can have on an emerging talent and is often vindicated in his choices. Other acts he has chosen to throw his support behind include hip hop duo Diafrix, English rapper Lunar C and Melbourne’s folk-pop princess Gossling, just to name a few. “I really wanted to hand-pick a bunch of people I could hang out with on tour, but I also want to show my support for people I believe are doing something worth seeing.”
Here’s a rundown of the special guests 360 chose to join him at his future regional Victorian shows. “[Melbourne hip hop, electro artist] Leva is just starting out and I can see mad potential in his music. He’s doing something that not a lot of Australians are doing at the moment,” 360 says. “The music he’s making doesn’t sound like typical Aussie hip hop – it sounds like it belongs on the international stage. I’m really keen to help him as much as I can to get his name out there and see what he can do.
“Coin Banks, who’s from Perth, is another up-and-comer who I think is doing quite well – and for my local support I picked Mistress of Ceremony, or M.O.C. She was a big fan of mine back in the day before she even decided to rap. I hadn’t seen her in a while, then I found out she was rapping and she wasn’t half bad either!” he joked.
The light-heartedness continued as talk turned to his tracks up for nomination in triple j’s annual countdown. “I think ‘Live It Up’ [feat. Pez] will make it – I don’t know about ‘Price of Fame’ with Gossling. Triple j only played it about twice, but it’s a fairly successful song so people might still vote it in anyway, and if they do that will be amazing to me! THAT would be a big accomplishment.
“But as for ‘Impossible’ [feat. Daniel Johns], I don’t know, I’d love to see it in there. That would be incredible! But I’m not getting my hopes up.”
His picks to take out no. 1: “Peking Duk – all the music they make is sick, I really rate those dudes. And Allday will be in there for sure.”
To see how 360 fares, listen in to triple j’s ‘Hottest 100 2014’ this Australia Day, January 26. In the meantime, fortemag.com.au will have any and all updates regarding 360’s Utopia tour 2015. Get well soon, Sixty!
By Natalie Rogers