Hilltop Hoods - State of the Art

Can anybody stop the Hoods? After a brief hiatus (in which some foolishly claimed that Bliss ‘N Eso had stolen the crown as Australians’ premiere hip hop crew) Suffa and Pressure return with their fifth studio album and this time on their very own label, Golden Era.

The sounds are all very familiar continuing on with a similar formula that brought them to the forefront of the local hip hop scene with their own brand of sample heavy boom bap (dare I say golden era) hip hop. This is definitely not a bad thing as the Hoods have added extra layers of depth and growth (perhaps picking up a few tricks from the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra on their ‘Restrung album) thru the addition of live instrumentation. ‘Classic Example’ is a classic example (you like what I did there?) with is jazzy soul tinges and cut up vocal samples. ‘Chase that Feeling’ features a nice piano loop with some and some sweet strings making the track ideal for a first single.

Lyrically Pressure and Suffa keep things interesting even when covering old ground always managing to come across like they had a hell of a lot of fun putting the album together. While ‘Chris Farley’ brags about getting on it with notorious celebrity party machines like Jim Morrison, Elvis and Jimi Hendrix, it’s the realization that these celebs died at a young age due to their partying ways that adds to the irony of the track. Other interesting tracks include ‘Parade of the Dead’ an ode to the classic Zombie flicks and ‘Fifty in Five’ as Suffa gives us a history lesson breaking down the last fifty years historical events into (you guessed it) a five minute track.

While I don’t see this as quite surpassing the classic ‘The Calling’ this is yet another impressive release from the Adelaide boys who will at least not disappoint their loyal fan base and will I would hope continue to grow it.