Australian hip-hop pioneers Hilltop Hoods return with another ebullient, incisive record – that namechecks Elon Musk, 80s German pop and dad rock. 

It’s like lifting a veil off of yourself when you hand in an album,” says Pressure, one-third of Hilltop Hoods. “Like, ‘Yeah, I’m coming back to the real world now.’”

It’s been six years since we last heard a full body of work from the Australian hip-hop heroes, comprising Pressure, Suffa and DJ Debris. But three decades in, with 10 ARIA Awards under their belts and with the release of their ninth album Fall from the Light just weeks away, there’s still a lot left for the iconic trio to say.

Central to Fall from the Light is single ‘The Gift’, which celebrates the music the trio grew up on: “The sound of guitar in the house from my father/No doubt was the start of the lesson I lived/At home, it was Eagles, Stones or the Beatles/Zeppelin and Hendrix, no-one his equal.”

In part a tribute to Suffa’s late father, who passed away in 2024, it’s the first time the trio have explicitly celebrated their families through song. “I came from a very musical family,” says Pressure. “My dad was a guitarist and a frontman singer in a cover band that played a lot of classic rock songs. I spent a lot of my childhood on weekends listening to him and his mates sitting around a guitar or being at their shows. It was an amazing gift that definitely forged a big part of who I am.”

Since forming in Adelaide in 1994, the rap trio have become famous for their larrikin brand of hip-hop, pumping out hits like ‘The Nosebleed Section’, ‘The Hard Road’, ‘I Love It (feat Sia)’ and ‘Cosby Sweater’. They’ve carved out a lane for not only themselves, but also generations of Australian rappers who followed in their footsteps.

Though unlike their last album, 2019’s The Great Expanse, which featured a range of Australian artists, Fall from the Light features just three guests: New Zealand pop-rock band Six60, former AFL player turned singer MARLON, and fellow Adelaide artist Nyassa, who’s a staple of their touring line-up.

“It’s a deliberate theory, we wanted to work with less people this time around,” says Pressure. “Have more of us, less others.” While the record took six years to write, a quarter of the tracks were written during a single trip Six60 made to Adelaide. “We had this really great natural synergy in the songwriting. There was a bit of magic in the air that weekend.”

It’s a strategy that sees Hilltop Hoods at their quintessential best on this album, with Suffa and Pressure’s bouncy flows sitting snugly on top of textured, lush production that sounds festival-ready. The booming ‘Naked’ sees the pair undress the growing divide between our URL and IRL selves, while on playful album highlight ‘The Omelette’, the pair’s signature humour shines through. Turning the mirror on themselves, both chronicle their less-than-stellar experiences having sampled various substances (“I’m scrambled, I’m cooked, I’m baked, I’m fried/But I feel fine, fine, fine”).

On ‘Don’t Happy, Be Worry’, the pair address their concerns with the state of the world: “Got trust issues, bad paparazzi/Half of the news that act fugazi/Famine, but there’s snacks at the party/Elon Musk and that pack of Nazis.” Suffa, concerned about impending war, repurposes the classic 80s track by NENA: “Ninety-nine luftballons ‘bout to pop/Why do I feel the nukes ’bout to drop?” Rather than being hopeless lamentation, their impassioned verses are energising.

Fall from the Light arrives at a time where Australia’s hip-hop scene has grown and splintered into various sub‑cultures. “It’s definitely a more diverse landscape than when I came up… It was a more close-knit community, by virtue of being smaller. It’s got a lot more listeners, and it’s grown, and it’s branched out into a lot of sub-genres,” says Pressure. “Not everyone has to be the same… It’s a tougher time than ever for Australian music, for various reasons. I like seeing locals get a win.”

Following Fall from the Light’s release, the trio are set to spend some serious time on the road, including an Australian arena tour early next year. First up, they’re heading off on the UK–Europe leg of the Never Coming Home tour, as well as a number of festival dates – and a holiday. “I’m looking forward to Ireland in particular,” Pressure says. “We’re playing a festival [Electric Picnic] we’ve never played there before, and it’s sold out super quick. I’m gonna go see Kneecap there. I haven’t seen them live yet, I reckon that’s going to be an experience.”

 

By Ben Madden @benmaddenwriter
Ben Madden is a Melbourne-based music journalist. He has a Substack where he talks about Australian music: benmadden.substack.com.

Published in ed#741

 

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