Words by Christopher Kevin Au // Images & video by Billy Zammit

Jimmy Nice has spent the past decade forging himself as one of the country’s most formidable emcees, both as a member of Spit Syndicate and One Day. Still, his introduction to hip-hop wasn’t via the microphone, but countless nights spent painting walls around Sydney’s Inner-West.

While Spit Syndicate are gearing up for another full-length in the coming months, Jimmy has somehow found time to hold his first solo exhibition titled ‘Many Hands‘ – a nod to One Day’s menacing anthem from 2014. In the show, Jimmy turns his stream-of-consciousness notebook scrawls into artworks, filled with bold fonts and contrasting colours that pay homage to his longstanding infatuation with graffiti.

With ‘Many Hands’ displaying on Wednesday October 26 at Goodspace Gallery, we caught up with Jimmy Nice – also known as Sydney’s biggest Fat Joe fan – and chopped it up about the the Inner-West and his all-encompassing approach to hip-hop. Read the banter below, and make sure you head to ‘Many Hands’ next week:

You got introduced to the One Day crew through graffiti. Tell us about your formative years of painting and how you got involved in the art form?

As a child loved to draw, I would wake up and go to sleep drawing. Throughout my later years i had a special affinity for the written word – it became like a drug to me, I had to write something on something. Graffiti was more than just an outlet or an opportunity to rebel, it gave me a sense of self and purpose. Through some older writers, I met Kid Solo after trying to crash his 14th birthday party. We kicked it briefly, exchanged home phone numbers and the rest is history.

How do you think painting influenced your later approach to rap? How do you think your rap style would have differed if you were introduced to hip-hop by another avenue?

Coming from a painting background, I place great importance on style, attention to detail and originality. These essentials are in no way mutually exclusive to either art form and nobody enters the game with a handle on all three, but with proper schooling and understanding you become a student. All good students have a drive to be great – if you’re constantly growing and learning from what you do, I believe there is no peak.

Have you tried BBoying and/or DJing yet to get fully elemental?

I’m a great kick-on/AUX cord DJ and could probably still fuck up your lino, but I stick to what I’m nicest at.

From your recent wall at The Lord Gladstone to One Day’s album ‘Mainline’, the Inner-West has featured heavily in your creative output. Can you explain how the territory came to be such a proud focal point for your art?

Unlike other genres of music, rap has historically been about representing where you’re from, that’s something that will always be attached to rap. When we started out there was no such thing as the IW. We felt a sense of pride and ownership for our pocket of the city, so we coined that. Now you have cats over in places like WA that talk about coming to the IDub, and that’s dope.

Nowadays it’s more about injecting some culture back into the area that spawned us and so many others before us. I want the younger generation to feel like they have a strong sense of place within their neighbourhood.

Can you name five essential spots in the Inner-West that everybody should visit?

– Camperdown Memorial Park is the closest thing to a grass beach on weekends.
– End of Louisa Rd in Birchgrove is a legendary smoke spot. Yurulban park.
– Frango’s Petersham charcoal chicken is always fire.
– Dawn Fraser Pool, the spot for nightswims.
– Lewisham and Annandale canals, if it was the year 2000.

‘Many Hands’ will act as your first solo exhibition. Tell us about the main themes of the show. What are your expectations and feelings heading into it?

I’m trying to bridge the gap between the spoken and the written word with these works. Even when I’m writing my verses out line by line, it’s considered, it’s always my style. I like to think there is a parallel between the two. To me the most important thing to consider when you are making art or music is the message needs to ‘connect’ in order to succeed. I’m not exactly sure what my message is per say with these works, if nothing else it’s an insight into my mind of late.

I’m interested in the process.

A lot of what we’ve seen from ‘Many Hands’ seems quite candid, conversational and personal. What inspired you to translate these moments into colourful canvas art?

People respect honesty in all forms, whether we like to admit it or not. I try to write with some sense of self-awareness because i feel that’s what connects. So without the music, I try to write things that we as regular people can relate to – from lames that lack originality to dealers who lack punctuality.

How do you plan to keep fusing music and art together in the future?

I try to start my day by reminiscing on all those years i spent working some bullshit job for bullshit pay and it encourages me to wanna work hard for me. This is all I do now which is what I’ve always wanted, and for that reason I owe it to myself to grind hard with it.

What’s on the cards for Jimmy Nice for the rest of 2016?

All I’m trying to do is paint, take more photos, write rhymes, swim in salt water and finish this new Spit Syndicate album.

Season.