MORE than two decades ago the term "Aussie hip-hop" was largely met with disdain.
The commonly-held view was that hip-hop artists should be busting rhymes in American accents, à la US gangsta rappers like 2Pac, The Notorious B.I.G and Snoop Dogg.
The Australian twang was something to be embarrassed by.
However, three mates from Adelaide changed that perception. The release of The Hilltop Hoods' third album The Calling in 2003 - with its singles The Nosebleed Section and Dumb Enough pioneered a mainstream explosion of Aussie hip-hop.
Along with contemporaries such as Butterfingers, Bliss N'Eso and The Herd, The Hilltop Hoods suddenly turned the genre of Aussie hip-hop into a festival favourite.
"There were so many closed doors when we started and we started for nothing more than for a hobby," Hilltop Hoods' Daniel Smith, aka MC Pressure, says.
"It was just a moment that grew, but there was definitely a lot of cultural cringe, particularly with the accent thing. People didn't expect to hear rapping in an Australian accent.
"I'm glad it's become more accepted now because folk singers have been singing in an Australian accent years. But there was a perception when I was young that this was an American-only culture."
Today artists like The Kid Laroi and Sampa The Great have taken hip-hop in fresh directions, while even in Newcastle, Mason Dane and Theo Landish are creating waves.
"It's so much bigger and more diverse," Smith says. "There's all these sub-scenes.
"When it started hip-hop in Australia was one scene and now it's all these pocket scenes. There's massive things happening in western Sydney at the moment and stuff going on in Melbourne."
Triple J was an early supporter of Aussie hip-hop, even to the chagrin of some of its long-term listeners who believed alternative radio should be dominated by guitar music.
Even so, The Nosebleed Section (No.9) - with its iconic "I fell in love with the people in front row" sample and Dumb Enough (No.44) polled in the Triple J Hottest 100 of 2003.
That kicked off a 20-year love affair between The Hilltop Hoods and Triple J listeners.
In January their collaboration with Montaigne and Tom Thum, A Whole Day's Work, polled 54th in the Hottest 100 of 2022 and their song Show Business was No.71.
It gave Smith and his bandmates Matthew Lambert (Suffa) and Barry Francis (DJ Debris) the record for most songs in the Triple J Hottest at 23, leapfrogging rock legends Powderfinger and The Foo Fighters.
"I count my blessings that we're still going and people are still listening to our music," Smith says.
"It was quite surreal being awarded the most entries ever. Maybe we're the most determined, we won't go away.
"It's a massive badge of honour, for real, to have the most songs in the Hottest 100."
Smith says the band were even more blown away by the success of A Whole Day's Work and Show Business due to the uncertainly created by the pandemic.
The Hilltop Hoods released their last album the ARIA No.1 The Great Expanse in 2019.
"We put two songs out last year and it felt like testing the temperature of the environment after what happened with COVID," he says.
"We put music out to see what the landscape was like."
The Hilltop Hoods have been working in the studio in recent months on their ninth album which they hope to release later this year or early in 2024.
After the success of working with artists like Montaigne, Ecca Vandal and Timberwolf, collaboration is a high priority.
"I've been making music for decades now and it's nice to work with other people," Smith says. "It definitely injects freshness to what we do.
"It's nice to experiment and not make the same music over and over again, which we could do, but we don't want to."
The Hilltop Hoods headline night two of the Newcastle Supercars tonight at Foreshore Park with Thelma Plum, San Cisco and Trophy Eyes.
