Words by Christopher Kevin Au

Sydney and Newcastle connect on the upcoming ‘Get Bodied’ tour, kicking off next week.

Back in June, two of the state’s impressive emcees – ChillinIt & Talakai – presented Part 1 of their ‘Get Bodied’ trilogy in collaboration with Body Bag Media. Manically trading verses over grime production, the charismatic duo have since released Part 2 and Part 3 of the mini-series, accumulating well over 200,000 views in the process. Following the online hype, ChillinIt & Talakai have no decided to bring the ‘Get Bodied’ show on the road.

The two will be trekking down the East Coast for the rest of 2017, with the ‘Get Bodied’ tour kicking off next week on Friday, November 3 in Sydney. ChillinIt & Talakai will be joined by DJ Mac Da Villain, while Mitchos Da Menace, Kearve and Kozer of West Sydney’s Menace Gang/At Large Productions will also be performing. After tearing apart the Triple J studios in the lengthy 50/50 grime takeover, Nerve & Wombat will perform their collaborative Nightshift EP at the show. Local rapper DSeeva wraps up the roster, fresh from his ‘Bodak Yellow’ remix.

Ahead of the show, we caught up with ChillinIt & Talakai to talk through the ‘Get Bodied’ series, Australia’s underground hip-hop scene and what to expect next Friday. Read below, and grab your tickets here:

How and when did you guys meet? When did you decide that you could rap together?

Talakai: Heaps funny that’s your first question. About three years ago, Chill was supposed to headline a show in Newcastle. I was laying in bed and got a call from a local promoter in Newcastle saying Chill’s homie’s house had been raided and that he couldn’t make the show, and he asked if I wanted to headline instead. So I played the show and walked onto the stage like, ‘Yo, what up I’m ChillinIt… Not really, I’m Talakai, he can’t make it!’ I got an awkward response to start with, haha.

But the day ‘Get Bodied’ was recorded, we had never met before and barely knew of each other. Chill picked me up from Wyee station and we went and smoked a joint by a lake, rapped our verses to each other and became mates right away, more or less.

ChillinIt: I can confirm this story. Who doesn’t love a joint by the lake and a cypher though?

A lot of solo artists would find it difficult to perform in a duo. How do you think you guys compliment each others’ styles, and why has it worked?

Talakai: I’ve been a part of a duo once before, but it never worked out due to difference in effort levels and aspirations. With Chill, it’s dope – we both like word play, heavy beats and we’re both equally as focused and drive each other to do better. When we play shows we just feed off each other’s energy, it’s dope.

ChillinIt: I think the way that Tal is flow and delivery driven, and I’m punchline and metaphor driven, it really works well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLVtDUuwtiY

Take us through the day that ‘Get Bodied’ was released. Were you guys anticipating such a huge reaction, and did that put more pressure on you for Part 2 and 3?

Talakai: Chill set the connection up and said he had a homie he was working with at the moment. We hit up Body Bag Media HQ, got along straight away, and we said that we should jump on a track. Sure enough, we sorted out that we’d go back-to-back 8 bar verses. To be honest, I had no idea what to expect, but the response has been crazy.

ChillinIt: What pressure? I do what I love everyday to put food on my plate and I’ve got a loyal fanbase.
As long as I keep it natural and be myself, the fans will respond and my 420 homies stick together. Big up to all my fans out there – if you’re reading this, 2018’s our year.

Personally, which of the three ‘Get Bodied’ tracks is your favourite?

ChillinIt: Listen to all three back-to-back in a row, that’s my favourite. They all compliment each other and are unique in there own way, it’s legitimately a very dope trilogy and we’re happy with the outcome.

Talakai: Yeah, I agree with Chill. Back-to-back they make my head nod every time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBocIrN51vg

You guys teamed up with Body Bag Media for the trilogy. How did you guys choose your outlet, and how do you think it affected the tracks’ trajectory?

Talakai: Chill introduced me to Body Bag and we basically went from there. I had previously kept to myself in the scene, being so busy on putting together a dope live show with Mac Da Villian. I never really caught promo video trend until linking with Chill and Body Bag.

ChillinIt: Body Bag is my right hand man. We get along well and we are both herbal enthusiasts, he’s a legitimate great dude and we have some things planned for 2018 for the Body Bag and Chillin420 brands. I think Body Bag is putting the work in with quality video and content, he’s working with the best of the best and helped provide a platform for artists to shine. There’s a massive market through social media now, and people like Body Bag are helping people get the exposure.

You have mentioned that the “underground hip hop/grime movement has stood up from behind the scenes this year and is making waves across all platforms.” What would you attribute this latest wave of attention to?

ChillinIt: People at the top, and in places that would normally neglect our sound and genre, are showing love now and trying to get involved. I think we were going through a phase where our sound was a bit stagnant for the average listener, but now it has so many sub genres and people putting in work, the scene has diversified and brought in new fans.

The content is good, the lyrics are real, the beats are good, the production is second to none, and the fans want more. It’s a great time to be a hip-hop artist in Australia.

Talakai: Man, to me, everyone has killed it this year and its been a big year with a lot of noise. We are all looking forward to getting busy and stepping it up again going into 2018.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AA-FrX90PxE

You guys have assembled quite the lineup for your Sydney show – tell us about your selection process for the support acts?

ChillinIt: My long term goal is to have an Australian hip-hop festival. I want to try and network with all the best artists and bring us all together for something that the fans can enjoy once a year. I have no timeframe, but its something I definitely wanna achieve in my music career, so I really wanted to reach out to fellow artists who I thought were killing it to see if we can put on a dope show!

Talakai: Funny you ask that, because the majority of people I’m referring to who killed it this year, are the ones who are coming together to play our end of year shows. With ChillinIt drilling the ‘bring the scene together’ mentality, it’s hard not to show love.

A lot of rap acts in Australia can’t seem to translate YouTube/Facebook views to actual paying punters at gigs. Why do you think this is, and how can we change it?

Talakai: For me, I’ve never really had heaps of views or done too many clips. I’ve just gone out and done 20 shows in a year with my DJ, Mac Da Villain, and got a notoriety for having a hype live show. Once people know they’re getting a decent show, I guess it translates that way. More people need to support their local scene!

ChillinIt: Come to the show and find out why we’re different.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8yDSyoGoSM

Now that the ‘Get Bodied’ series has wrapped up, how will ChillinIt & Talakai be working together in the future?

Talakai: We’ve built a sort of brother bond out of this journey in the short time we’ve known each other, and there’s no doubt that this won’t be the last time we body something.

ChillinIt: Nah, fuck him.