After years of “looking for the job with the least amount of responsibility”, Chris Will’s life took a dramatic turn at the age of 21 when he discovered Australian hip-hop. Now, Wilson has made the move from Shepparton to Geelong to try his hand at the rap game, where he performs under the stage name of Mr Wilson since first discovering his love for rap after some late night channel surfing.
“I was watching ‘Blokes World’ one night at about 11:30pm. I was a little bit high and I stumbled across the film clip for ‘The Sea Is Rising’ by Bliss N Eso. It was like listening to Eminem or Freddy Mercury for the first time; one of those moments where I was like ‘that song is fucking ridiculous’. That was what got me into hip-hop, I was always into writing but I could never sing so I could never join a band. I then found this avenue where you can be an artist without needing a singing voice – that’s the long story anyway. The short story is, I stared smoking weed and that’s what you do when you smoke weed, you write lyrics,” Wilson laughs.
Although Wilson creates mostly rap and hip-hop inspired music, he still doesn’t necessarily refer to himself as a rapper, not feeling constrained to the stereotype of the culture.
“I wouldn’t even really consider myself as a hip-hop artist, but at the same time I don’t quite know what I am. I’m based in rap but I don’t have the same content as a traditional rapper; I don’t really care about money or fast cars, I have a girlfriend so I’m not interested in ‘bitches’. I am more so interested in dodging the government which is definitely more based around the Aussie hip-hop culture,” he says, “I don’t have a message like a lot of other acts. I’m more so saying ‘do what the fuck you want’ because that’s how the world is, just try to be yourself and be as happy as you can with that.”
Over the past few months Wilson has been living in Geelong, he has already been incredibly productive, from setting up a home studio to organising events. Wilson is discovering what Geelong has to offer in the hip-hop scene, as well as looking at what he has to offer after a few years of letting emotional burdens hold him back from performing.
“In my own head I’ve been ready to be doing gigs for about two to three years and I just haven’t. I got a bit sick for a while but the rest of the time I was just being lazy and I figured its time to stop being lazy and show people what I can do and hope they like it,” he says, “It has taken a lot of planning. Especially to make sure the show is how I want it to be, I don’t want to just go onto a stage and rap a few songs. I want to plan a day event where people come and enjoy music all day and then leave feeling satisfied.”
When & Where: The Peninsula Hotel, Newcomb – July 2.
Tickets available at www.mrwillsun.com
Written by Alex Callan.