Hilltop Hoods are Australia’s premier hip-hop crew made up of MC Suffa (Matt Lambert), MC Pressure (Daniel Smith) and DJ Debris (Barry Francis). This group is no stranger to the hip-hop scene.

2006 saw them release their fourth album The Hard Road which debuted on top of the Australian national mainstream charts and was also awarded the IRIA Awards for Best Urban and Best Independent release as well as taking the 2006 J Award for Album Of The Year.

State Of The Art is Hilltop Hoods fifth studio album. It’s dark, edgy, full of attitude, challenging and raw; it’s a piece of musical art. Interwoven with the conflicting lyrics are strings, guitars and some unidentifiable sounds which put this album a benchmark above other hip-hop albums around at the moment.

Hilltop Hoods manage to balance their sound by mixing dark tracks with lighter, happier sounding songs; giving their public a break from the heavier stuff, which if played constantly could feel quite suffocating.

Two of my favourite tracks are ‘Super Official’ and ‘Chase That Feeling’. The beat is deep and I love the melodic tune repeated throughout them, especially the piano in the latter. These are certainly tunes to hold your head to.

‘Still Standing’ and ‘Chris Farley’ are lively upbeat tracks with strings galore which give them more of a happy go lucky feel. These tracks give a break to the more dark toned tunes played out on this album.

Moving on to a more sophisticated tune is ‘Last Confession’ with the grandness of the piano riffs played alongside the strings. This is a great tune and has a hint of Eminem about it.

These guys have certainly moved forward since their last album and I love that they aren’t afraid to try new sounds. This is a definite must have for all hip-hop fans.

9

Helena Rea