Drapht’s record Life Of Riley is filled with witty rhymes and cleaver hip hop tunes that are plain fun, catchy and enjoyable. It’s a great record to have a drink to while with friends getting ready to party. And through listening to it, you can understand why Triple J audiences have fallen in love with Drapht through the damn catchy single Rapunzel. A great love tale of chasing the girl, getting the girl and then realising she’s not what you want and end up hating the girl. He also puts to rest his famed character Jimmy Retard in the track RIP J.R in a move to separate himself from the potential of being just a one-song draws at festivals.
The thing that immediately impresses me about this album is how personal Drapht gets. He is not afraid to tell us about his life through rhyme, and this is evident in tracks like Sing It, where he talks about the power and influence of music and touches on how his father introduced him to acts like Grandmaster Flash and N.W.A. On Down he tells the tale of Drapht’s youth growing up in W.A, separation from family and friends and the struggle to keep on top despite setbacks. Air Guitar, one of the album’s better tracks, talks about how people have never taken his music seriously because he’s not in a rock band but his response being “They disregard me being an artist/They didn’t wanna see me play the air guitar”.
The album features some pretty cool collaborations with the likes of Trials, NFA, Mantra and Urthboy, which helps break up the sound of Drapht’s voice. If there is one small criticism, his nasal whined vocal gets a bit irritating over the 17 tracks on this album. Otherwise, this is a really cool record. The quality of Aussie hip hop has improved dramatically over the last few years, hopefully the scene can sustain itself and not get flooded and stale as so often happens in music trends.
