World meet.....UNDERDOG444

 World meet……UNDERDOG444 January 2021

Thank you for taking the time to answer some questions for Music Festivals Australia, it’s a great way to kick off 2021 supporting more up and coming Australian artists and our home-grown industry.

Who is UNDERDOG444? Can you give us a bit of your back story?

I grew up in Mt Druitt, was there till I was 13. Then I found my self on the street and out of school. So about the mid 90’s say ’94 – ’96 I was in Surry Hills  I started working and been in and out of jobs ever since. Skip forward to my thirties at 36 I got my trade as a fitter and then I wanted to do music. I started rapping in 2019 and dropped my first album in 2020 off my own money.

You bring a hip-hop flow with a twist, is that twist to inspire your listeners to work hard and build themselves as opposed to the stereotypical influence which indorses crime and or violence in rap music?

Yer I think it is to inspire people, to inspire that kid that comes from nothing, has nothing, lives in a violent household that’s considering going to the gangs and crime to say hang on I can get a job and work towards a goal. You don’t have to fall into that system, that stereotype.

Your vision is to unite all the underdogs of the world, who do you think of as the underdog? What’s your definition?

I think an underdog is anyone that that’s trying to get somewhere with a goal, but they have nothing to start out with to put into that goal. If you wanna do music but you didn’t go to school, you go and teach yourself. You might not have friends, you may not have followers, when I dropped my first album, I had zero followers, zero on socials I didn’t have Instagram or Facebook so that was underdog for me. I think the underdog thing is reaching a goal with no help.

In your goal of uniting the underdogs is this to provide them with a collective support network and a voice to speak up or out? Or so the individual can grow through examples of inspiration?

Its for inspiration. I don’t believe in hand outs. I think this whole world of handing out and people handouts is bullshit. It doesn’t let you be creative and resourceful for yourself. I believe giving someone a hand up never a hand-out. Showing them if I can do it with zero schooling, I was out first year of high school, never did music, always in trouble at home and grew up in a very violent household so if I can do it with no resources, I think it makes you more creative. If people keep getting hand-outs they don’t reach their full potential

Music has always been good for the mind, body and soul and you state on your website (underdog444.com) music has helped you through life’s ups and downs, what about it helped and how?

With music I listen too I could relate to the stories they were singing about with out ever meeting them. They also had hustle growing up like we were, they went the violence and drug scene and all that kind of stuff. Relating to their stories gave me inspiration.

You have been concentrating on your music for a few years now. Why is 2020 the year you chose to release your first full album?

I’ve never been one to do anything at 50%, my surrogate mum said to me good or bad you have always done everything at 100% I started writing rhymes in 2019 and I was like ‘ I’m gonna put an album out and I’m just gonna go and do it.

There was no Covid connection?

No I planned all this in the beginning. With any business idea, with anything really you need a plan. 2 -5 year you need a plan. I planned this back in 2019 that 2020 was the year the album was going to be released. I had to build a website learn about the music industry I also had to learn about different platforms to release it. I’m not signed and I don’t have any connections in the industry either, so I had to go and do my research and I spent a year doing that and to get all the platforms to align 2020 was the year to do it

The album is self-funded was that funding hard to find?

No not really I just saved up for the album. I worked for 15 years in a foundry as a fitter and I put my cash away so at 36 I was able to start towards the album. That’s how its self-funded. finding platforms and learning all that stuff was the hard part.

Did you find that hard because of your lack of education or lack of connections do you think?

I think lack of education, but for me I think it may have been a plus. I go into things not naïve, but I go into them with no preconceived doubts about what you can or can’t do

I didn’t tell anyone I was doing this, I just wanted to so I went and did it. I think that’s the purest form, you go and do something and your happy with it you just put it out you don’t need anyone’s approval. Its not tainted by ‘Ol’ mate said you should rap about this’ whereas I’m telling stories about how I grew up and what I did in my life.

Did you do all the writing and production yourself for your album UNDERDOG444 or have you got a great team you work with?

I did it all myself. I wrote every lyric on there. What I did because I can’t read or write properly, I used You Tube and I went alright lets study the last 30 years of music and the industry. You can take someone’s life story and you break it down into what they did right and what they did wrong.

So I sat down and wrote the album, then I found a studio cause I needed someone to do the beats but I did the rest myself down to the producing in the studio. If you want to do something with quality you go to the top people and you don’t have to know them, you listen to their music or you listen to their words or you read their stories find out what they did successfully, and you take those lessons and drag them down to your level. Another thing I did was step back at times and self-analyze the songs and be able to say ‘I could do that better’, ‘this would sound better, and go alright what do I need to do to fix this

I researched studios and went with one with a few guys with decades of experience so they did the music and mixing side so I didn’t have to get those skills. I could ask them what do u need me to do? how do I achieve that result? You can take 100 years’ worth of experience in three people and break it down to your level and you just work on what you need to work on, for me that was the lyrics, learning how to put different levels in songs and then having the final say on it.

Collab’s are huge these days, is this something you would consider doing in the future? Who would the ultimate Collab partner be?

No, I’ve never really thought about doing collaborations. At the end of the day, you want to own everything so that’s why I did it by myself, without contracts or a studio. I own the lyrics. I own the music. Growing up on the streets you learn to do things on your own. It’s an element I don’t want brought into my music.

Have you found finding a fan base hard when your lyrics and ideals go against the traditional norms for your genre of music?

I’m not really sure about this as its all new to me. I’ve found it very challenging to learn about advertising and getting it out there. I have no idea about radio plays or anything like that and I kind of enjoy the challenge to be honest of getting it out there. You get people that actually like your music, people are going to follow  you . as a fan base not as a fad. I’m quite happy to build it up slow and be genuine instead of overnight success and wake up one day and go hang on what am I gonna do now.

How do you reach your fans?  Given the different environmental isolation that Covid-19 has created? How do you make and maintain that connection given the limits on live gigs, appearances, and travel in general?

I haven’t done a live gig yet, only been doing this for 2 years now just been concentrating on writing and learning to record. Given the technology and what we can do now 2020 was a blessing as it gave me time to learn off You Tube. To learn off Google advertising. Learn off different platforms.  I’m not sitting waiting on my music to be successful to collect a paycheck. There is only a small percentage of people that make the big money. If you don’t have a business plan of other avenues if one industry collapses, you lose that income. That’s not good hustle. I’ve got other things I work on, other businesses I work on.

Most artists do years of live performances and never get an album, you have an album without ever performing live?

After working so many years and getting my trade and doing so many courses, I went and learnt business before I learned music. So my plans relating to business aren’t ‘hang on I just got a million views, what’s my next plan?’ No I’ve got my plans for the next five years which started a year ago. My film clips coming up are already planned. The release for another album is already planned.

Does having that give you a focus? Keep you on track? Because you have that plan?

100 percent. Most businesses and governments don’t just decide things or to change things. They have plans that take years. Some things are 10 years in the making, but people don’t realize that. Business that try new things, can be up to five years in the making. Everybody sees things now and wants them now. They think it happens now and it doesn’t happen like that. That’s why I’m ok with how its steadily growing

Your early years in rough neighborhoods and hanging around the streets have shaped your writing and your outlook on life. Which artists or bands do you credit as an influence on your music?

I have to go very old school, which would be Cypress Hill, NWA, then Tu-Pac, stepping to Dr Dre, Eminem went he first came out. It was funny when he first came out, we were all sitting around doing silly little rhymes and then he came out and we were all like ‘well there goes that’. Old school rap is what I’ve always listened too I’d say. I like the story telling, the realness. I like that it wasn’t about bling and pink jackets, faking things to get a rep in the music scene. If you walked into my neighborhood with all that gold hanging off you and a pink jacket, your dead. No two ways about it, that’s what happens, that’s how we grew up. I give respect if your trying to escape that lifestyle its nothing to be glorified.

What's next for UNDERDOG444? What can we expect in 2021 and beyond?

 There’s one thing I have always believed in and its gonna stuff this question up and that’s you keep your plans to yourself. It doesn’t let the devil mess it up. In saying that you don’t let other people’s opinions come in and stuff your plans up and creativity as well. So 2021 through to 2025 I have some big things happening and I’m going to keep working on them.

Website: https://underdog444.com

Spotify:  https://open.spotify.com/artist/2PS4bLuoCForxuEj0SA7hw?si=1-jbaK6mTYGl58Ba1fjfIA

interview by Michelle Symes