For years, John TeOp Riley struggled to reconcile his creative passion for hip hop with his deep, yet often-conflicting, Christian beliefs.

As lyricist and MC for Fonke Knomaads, Riley, along with John ‘DJ Soup’ Blake, blazed a pioneering trail for Aussie hip hop in the early 90s. Combining Soup’s skilfully crafted loops with Riley’s homespun street poetry, the duo helped birth the new sound of hip hop with a distinctly Australian flavour.

Yet despite their chemistry and long-time friendship, Riley soon left the group before they could record a full-length album. As a devout Christian, Riley at the time felt hip hop culture was incongruous with his faith, leading to a long hiatus from music and the industry as a whole.

This is it: the inevitable return of Sleek The Elite is upon us with the release of his second full-length album, ‘Hard For A Rapper’.,

They say it’s a long way to the top if you want to rock and roll, but if you want to rap your way to the top Sleek is proof-positive you better come ready for a fight.

Fifteen years in the making, ‘Hard For A Rapper’ comes out swinging right from opening track ‘Basslines’ with a live hard, die fighting attitude that shows the Sydney MC hasn’t lost a step.

If anything, Sleek is at the top of his game on this record, dropping hard-spun street rhymes with spitfire delivery and the accuracy of a sniper. The raw passion and heartfelt rage against ‘the machine’ that fuelled his debut album ‘Sleekism’ (2001) is back on ‘Hard For A Rapper’ like a force of nature unto itself.

After some fifteen years apart, two legends of Aussie hip hop reunite for a decade-shattering collaboration. In 2001, John Blake aka DJ Soup joined forces with Sleek The Elite to produce the rapper’s genre-defining debut record, ‘Sleekism’. Now, the pair has teamed up once more to produce Sleek’s sophomore album, signalling the return of one of Australia’s most iconic and elusive hip hop artists.

“It’s a rocky road,” Soup laughs, “but I’ve given Sleek a bunch of beats, he’s got a bunch of lyrics and it’s coming together nicely. The beats I’ve given him are a mix of dark and heavy psychedelic funk, fuzzy guitars and Arabic-influenced things as well, with Arabic percussion and different sounds. I’m looking forward to it all coming together and fingers crossed we turn it into something that’s interesting and people will dig.”

Good hip hop isn’t dead, it’s just getting harder to find. That’s the message coming loud and clear from Ollie Teeba (of The Herbaliser and Soundsci) on his debut record, ‘Short Order’.

The English DJ/producer has created a superbly crafted album which encapsulates a growing nostalgia among hip hop lovers for the definitive sound of the 90s. Using a meticulously-curated library of samples and working with an impressive stable of international collaborators, Ollie is keeping alive the dying art of sampling, a hip hop form he considers an endangered species.

John Rowe

Rockhampton born-and-bred, singer-songwriter John Rowe writes music that speaks in a uniquely Australian voice.

His songs are bred in the bulldust of Outback Queensland, combining country, rock, blues and pop styles to tell our stories in his own words