Hip hop has gained a wide audience among mostly younger people. Hip hop music in its infancy has been described as an outlet and a “voice” for the disenfranchised youth of low-income and marginalized economic areas, as the hip hop culture reflected the social, economic and political realities of their lives.

BTS are one of the superstar groups of the phenomenon that is known as Korean pop or K-pop, and have held that place since they appeared in 2013, along with a handful of bands such as ‘BigBang‘, ‘Shinee‘, ‘B.A.P.‘, ‘EXO‘ and ‘4Minute‘. To longtime K-pop fans, BTS’ first entered the US mainstream with the hit, ‘Idol‘ featuring Nicki Minaj amidst a barrage of profile-raising publicity, which came as a surprise, as did BTS’ general American and global success. Given that BTS and K-pop had been such a deeply Korean musical and pop cultural experience until then, although popular in several other countries around the world.

This represents major change in worldwide pop music trends and a long-awaited cultural evolution K-pop bands thought it deserved, since they knew it was so good. To South Korean pop fans and those in the know elsewhere in theShot backstage before the world tour, BTS world, K-pop has been one of, if not the most vital and dynamic pop music forces in the world today, a treasure trove of colour, imagination, seemingly inexhaustible joyful exuberance, creativity and suprisingly impressive musical and songwriting talent. But to the likes of the US and Australia, K-pop has only been a strictly subcultural and underground phenomenon – until now.

Not including of course the novelty success of PSY in 2012 with ‘Gangnam Style‘ and its “horsey dance”, which was nice to have as an introduction of K-pop to the world, but not indicative of the vast bulk of K-pop, which is more musically sophisticated generally. The international rise of BTS in 2018 represented the first time a K-pop band of real quality made it big and crashed through into the English-speaking mainstream, although K-pop royalty the excellent BigBang, came very close in 2016-17.

BTS reached number 11 in the US in 2018 with ‘Idol’ and number 10 with the beautiful ‘Fake Love‘. The album from which they came, ‘Love Yourself: Answer‘, reached number 1 in the US and along with ‘Love Yourself: Her‘ and latest album ‘Map Of The Soul: Persona‘, BTS have joined only four other musical acts in US history to have three number one albums in two years, alongside such acts as the Beatles, were the number two musical act in the world sales-wise in 2018 and number 3 in America, a true first for any kind of Asian pop. And it also confirmed one other thing: BTS had arrived.

BTS started off with a fairly heavy, aggressive rap sound with the release of their first single, ‘No More Dream‘ in 2013, which is nevertheless a catchy enough song to be accessible. While they continued with several heavy hip hop songs on their subsequent albums, BTS quickly branched out into beautifully lush, epic pop songs such as ‘Run‘, ‘I Need U‘, ‘Blood, Sweat and Tears‘ and ‘DNA‘ before the appearance of current album, ‘Map Of The Soul: Persona‘, which became the first Korean album to reach number one on both the UK and Australian charts.

And sure enough, the album begins with an aggressive hip hop track, ‘Intro – Persona‘, soon moves into the sweet pop melodies of ‘Boy With Luv‘, featuring American female singer Halsey. With the appearance of interestingly Greek-titled song names, ‘Mikrokosmos‘ is a relatively unremarkable, straight-ahead pop song, whereas closer ‘Dionysus‘ is a classic BTS banger mixing electronic, dance and a little bit, but not too much of rap. Other highlights are ‘Home‘ and ‘Jamais Vu‘, complete with all the BTS highlights of epic emotion, warmth and sentimentality. Welcome to the world of BTS – as international pop stars.

Australian Hip Hop

Australian hip hop traces its origins to the early 1980s and was initially largely inspired by hip hop and other urban musical genres from the United States. As the form matured, Australian hip hop has become a commercially viable style of music that is no longer restricted to the creative underground, with artists such as ‘The Kid Laroi‘, ‘Manu Crooks‘, ‘Onefour‘, ‘Iggy Azalea‘, ‘Hilltop Hoods‘, ‘Bliss n Eso‘ and ‘Youngn Lipz‘, having achieved notable fame. Australian hip hop is still primarily released through independent record labels, which are often owned and operated by the artists themselves. Despite its genesis as an offshoot of American hip-hop, Australian hip hop has developed a distinct personality that reflects its evolution as an Australian musical style.

Hilltop Hoods

If we were to truely witness a picture come to life with such vision, it would be hard not to look at the band that cemented a new word in our lexicon, and, introduced us to a new genre of music! Adeliades’ one and only Hilltop Hoods. Regarded as pioneers of the “larrikin-like” style of Australian hip hop, with 23 songs voted into the annual countdowns since their first appearance in 2003, the band has since then risen up through the ranks to become one of Australias’ forerunners’ in Australian hip hop music.

On 22 September 2003, Hilltop Hoods released their third album, ‘The Calling‘, which became a commercial breakthrough. In an interview after the release of their fourth album, Suffa revealed that The Calling was recorded on his mother’s computer and the simplicity of their ‘studio’ is the reason why some of the music on the album is in monaural (‘mono’) sound.

The album featured two singles, “The Nosebleed Section” and “Dumb Enough“, which were listed in the Triple J Hottest 100, 2003. “The Nosebleed Section” was ranked No. 17 in the Triple J Hottest 100 of All Time in 2009. Hilltop Hoods’ chart and commercial success was a turning point in the Australian Hip Hop scene because it demonstrated widespread support for the genre that reached beyond an underground fan base.

‘Track No. 10 of the album, Drink from the Sun “1955,” a song about performing in a small town, has numerous pastose layers of muted colors that lend itself perfectly as we progress through the time continuum, from 1955 to now-a-days.

Inspiration for the song came when Matthew Lambert (Suffa) and his wife when they went to see comedian Dylan Moran. Moran opened the show by stating that he’d always wanted to come to Adelaide to see what it would’ve been like in 1955.

Lambert later commented on Moran’s performance: “That cracked me up. I love Adelaide – I’ve lived there my whole life, but yeah it is sort of like that and when you’re from a small town it is almost like you’re stuck in a different era of time – which is just fine with me while there’s bombs over Damascus. I’m grateful to live somewhere beautiful and safe.”

L-Fresh the Lion

Rapper and producer L-Fresh The Lion, hailing from Liverpool in Sydney’s South Western suburbs had been interested in hip hop music from a young age, immersed in the subculture of south west Sydney.. thus, L-FRESH The LION at the age of 20 caught the attention of his peers and the Australian music scene when he supported Nas during the hip hop icon’s first headline tour of Australia in 2009.

He released his debut album, One, in 2014, before signing a record deal with one of Australia’s leading independent record labels, Elefant Traks, in early 2015. His follow up album, Become (2016), earned him wider industry accolades including an ARIA nomination for Best Urban Album.

The acronym F.R.E.S.H. stands for Forever Rising Exceeding Sudden Hardships, while the L and LION refer to his middle name, Singh, which is given to Sikh men. He has been described as one of Australia’s most important rappers. L-FRESH The LION cites the work of Tupac Shakur as influential, both on his music and in contributing to the development of his awareness of his Sikh heritage.

Bliss n Eso

Since forming in 2000, Australian hip-hop trio Bliss n Eso, from Sydney’s Northern Beaches had being experimenting with a distinctly local brew of beats and rhymes. Preaching positivity, homour and social consciousness, Bliss n Eso was among the most popular music acts in the country a little over a decade later. With two chart-topping albums to their credit-2010’s ‘Running on Air‘ and 2013’s ‘Circus in the Sky‘, the group continued to be a major force in bringing Australian hip-hop to huge mainstream audiences through the mid-’10s.

In late 2016, Bliss n Eso announced that their new album, Off the Grid would be released on 10 March 2017. The album contained the two singles released in 2016, ‘Dopamine‘ and ‘Friend Like You‘. On 27 March the tracklist for Off the Grid was released, featuring collaborations with Dizzy Wright, Watsky, Mario, Gavin James, and Lee Fields among others. One day later, on 28 March, the single ‘Moments‘ was released, along with their tour announcement.

Baker Boy

The Australian postcode 0800 is as far-flung from the culturally diverse streets of Sydney, yet that’s where you’ll find the musical inspiration of Danzal Baker aka Baker Boy, Indigenous Australian rapper, dancer, artist and actor. The Arnhem Land rapper, Baker Boy is known for performing original hip-hop songs incorporating both English and Yolnu Matha and is one of the most prominent Aboriginal Australian rappers.

He completed Year 12 at Shalom Christian College in Townsville, Queensland, before attending the Aboriginal Centre for the Performing Arts in Brisbane. He developed his love of dancing and acting there, and was an original member of the Djuki Mala dance troupe, which toured Australia.

In 2017, Baker Boy attracted national attention as the winner of the Triple J Unearthed National Indigenous Music Awards (NIMAs) Competition. releasing the singles “Cloud 9” featuring Kian and “Marryuna” featuring Yirrmal in the same year. Both singles were featured in Triple J’s Hottest 100 of 2017.

His third single, ‘Mr. La Di Da Di‘ was released in April 2018. ‘Black Magic‘ featuring Dallas Woods, was released in July 2018. In June 2019, Baker released ‘In Control‘. On 7 July, Baker Boy appeared on the children’s television show, Play School, and performed “Hickory Dickory Dock” as part of NAIDOC Week.

As of 2020 Baker was residing in Bendigo, Victoria, with his partner Aurie Spencer-Gill and his bulldog. He has said that he wants to be an inspiration to Indigenous kids living in remote communities, and to combat “shame.”

Finnish Hip Hop / Catchy Tunes

Bomfunk MC’s is a Finnish hip hop group that was active between 1998 and 2005, before reuniting in 2018. The group’s frontman is the rapper B.O. Dubb (born Raymond Ebanks, and formerly known as B.O.W.), and the main producer is Jaakko Salovaara, known as JS16.

“Freestyler” was released in Finland on 30 October 1999 as the third single from their debut studio album, In Stereo (1999), and was released internationally in February 2000. ‘Freestyler‘ peaked at number four on the Finnish Singles Chart and topped the charts in more than 10 countries, including Australia, Germany, Italy, and New Zealand. The song also peaked within the top 10 of the charts in Denmark, Iceland, Ireland, and the United Kingdom.

Daily Record described “Freestyler” as a “cracking old-skool track”. CMJ New Music Monthly described the track as “a housed-up hip-hoppity mélange of sampled slide-guitar, rubbery synth bass and Caribbean-inflected dance instructions; a dancefloor natural.”