In the 14 years since Def Wish Cast released their ‘Mad Hatter’ EP, the western Sydney trio has collected a lot of trophies: first full length album, first hip hop group to tour nationally, one of an initially taunted minority who spurned fake US accents and rapped the way they spoke, and it was their video for A.U.S.T. (which accompanied first album ‘Knights of the Underground Table’) that first gave Australian hip hop a face. Put simply, hip hop in this country would be very different without Die C, Sereck and Def Wish. That was 13 years ago. ‘The Legacy Continues…’ is underlined by the nostalgic power of Roland’s TR-808 drum machine (the album title’s legacy, according to Sereck) and references to Miami bass, graffiti and electro. The album immediately attracted breathless reviews from hip hop critics – primarily, I assumed, because people want to like the music these eminent heads produce – but despite obsessively old school production and MCing, and a pervading sense that Australian hip hop owes them something, this is a great record. A string of guests including Bonez, Murda1, DCE, Sing, Katch, Paul Johannesen, Jeremy Glover and Blunted Stylus rarely undermine its cohesion, a striking vision that comes into sharp relief in the contrast between two of the best songs: the knife-sharp 808 snare and lush Rhodes sampling Complete, and Street Bombin, a stripped down electro paean to the delights of graffiti. In the time that Ice T’s gone from cop killer to cop actor, and music has moved from local scenes subtly filtering global trends into one big feeding unit that cannibalises the same handful of magazines and blogs, Def Wish Cast have stuck to their guns - there’s no crunk or baile funk here, but there is plenty of hot, jagged, hardcore hip hop. By indulging their love of early hip hop culture, Def Wish Cast has crafted a gripping set of songs that are anything but retro.
Matthew Levinson
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