Illy: Hip Hop Purism Is Dying

Back in 2009, Googling “Illy” produced a page of hits related to the Italian coffee brand. The other Illy – an up-and-coming young hip hop artist from Melbourne – was only just beginning to sneak onto the radar with his debut album Long Story Short and its hit single Pictures. These days, the Illy known also as Al Murray commandeers the top few spots on Google, with the coffee brand relegated to halfway down the page. The fresh-faced young artist of 2009 is now a bona fide veteran of Australian hip hop, and he's got plenty of gas left in the tank. He's overcome a severe back injury, played hundreds of shows and is gearing up for the release of Cinematic, his fourth studio album and the first released on his own label ONETWO.

Cinematic represents a return to stylistic form for Murray, as well as renewed confidence in his work. Laden with grandeur and packed with lush, genre-skipping beats (largely courtesy of his longtime collaborator M-Phazes), it represents the evolution of Murray's songwriting and worldview. Anyone with triple j on their radar will likely already be familiar with the album's lead single On & On, which has enjoyed plenty of airplay over the last few weeks. Guests on the album range from hip hop royalty Drapht and Hilltop Hoods to Daniel Merriweather and Amity Affliction vocalist Ahren Stringer, who lends his rock sensibilities to the album's second single Youngbloods. Packed with likely hits, Murray's new record feels like the follow-up to his highly successful sophomore album, 2010's The Chase. The funny part is that Cinematic is not the follow-up at all, chronologically speaking. That would be his unexpected boom-bap record Bring It Back, which he dropped last year.

“Bring It Back was a bit of a departure,” explains Murray. “I really just needed to dip my feet and remind people that I could do that sort of thing.” Despite his origins in the Crooked Eye crew, working with the universally respected M-Phazes and being signed to Obese Records when he was barely out of his teens, Murray's career has been accompanied by a soundtrack of criticism that he doesn't make “real” hip hop – and it only got louder as his profile increased. With the success of The Chase, which included the hits It Can Wait featuring Owl Eyes and the hip hop ballad Cigarettes, Murray became the face for a new, genre-shifting style of rap that wasn't afraid to hold hands with pop, and a target for people who wanted to see hip hop remain separate from other musical styles. 

Murray admits that he made Bring It Back in an effort to quieten the haters. “I felt like I needed to do that, just to remind people that I can go on a track toe to toe with the best dudes in the country and, if not own it, at least hold my own.” The album featured some of the country's most skilled MCs, including Reason and Mantra, and there wasn't a single singer letting loose over a big hook to be found. In departing from the safer trajectory of making another more fan-friendly album, Murray knew he might alienate his most ardent supporters. “I'm very proud of [Bring It Back], but it didn't have the same impact that The Chase did, and I had a lot of people who were fans – where it left them a bit confused,” he says. “I knew that was going to happen, it's the nature of what the album was, but [with Cinematic] I wanted to bring it back – no pun intended – to what wouldn't surprise them.”

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