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lostsolsdestinyblog · 6 years

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The Destiny Pendulum: One player’s experiences with investment and what it means to be a Destiny player.

Destiny is a pendulum. Over the course of 4 years the needle of that pendulum has swung back and forth across the level of investment necessary to fully experience the game; from vanilla D1 and forever 29 thru vanilla D2 and everything being accessible right out of the gate thru today.

Much like the game itself, the way in which I experience Destiny as a player has also gone through its own swing from solo to full fireteam and back to mostly solo. What hasn't changed over the last 4 years is that Destiny in all its forms has still had a great experience to offer. The demographics of whom it was best for has shifted over those 4 years, but regardless of where it was I have played the hell out of the game and seen where it succeeds and where it has missed the mark.

Forsaken is the best Destiny has ever been in many ways. The amount and quality of the content is incredible. The Tangled Shore is one of the best destinations Bungie have ever made and it is largely an afterthought a week or two into Forsaken, that's how good the rest of the expansion is. The story, the classes, the abilities, the supers, the sandbox balance, the Dreaming City and its evolution... all of it is fantastic, but how we experience and play the game has changed dramatically from where D2 launched and the pendulum is back where D1 began.

When I started D1, I played a Hunter and that was my class. A couple of months in I decided to try a Titan and then that was my class through TDB and into TTK. It wasn't until 7 months into TTK that I started playing a Hunter again and really started playing a Warlock too. There were quite a few reasons for this. I met a group of people that I became friends with and started raiding with them every week. Destiny also started moving away from being quite as grind intensive and made upgrading and leveling much less punishing, and then as TTK progressed we started getting into the long droughts between new content drops and so playing the game on all 3 characters kept it fresh and interesting as I would go through phases of really getting into a particular class and subclass and heavily playing it for a month or two before switching to another.

Over the course of D1 the game became very accessible and player friendly for those who weren't able to play every day or live and breathe the game, but D1 had other problems and they were issues that couldn't be fixed without starting over. By the end of year 3 the sandbox and balance were in a constant state of things moving backwards. The overall design of the original weapon systems was such that there wasn't really any ceiling to build to and any changes to one aspect of balance broke things for something else. The other major issue was delivering content.

We will never know what the original plans for the game were and how it was envisioned to play out, but we do know that the original vision wasn't what Bungie had hoped and we have seen since September 2014 that Destiny has been as much of a learning experience for the developers as to what it is and should be, as it's been for us.

There was a lot of salt on the forums for 3 years of D1 over many things, but by the end of year 3 the focus of player ire was generally weapon/class balance, connectivity and content droughts. With D2, Bungie tried very hard to fix those things.

Weapon and class balance saw static rolls, a reworked weapon system that put the focus on primary play, reworked supers to where everyone had versions of roaming supers, neutered grenades and melee, and ultimately classes that all played similarly and didn't have any real strengths over other classes in any area.

Connectivity was addressed through lowering team sizes in PvP and moving to playlists to not fracture the player base as much, as well as upgrading the infrastructure of how we connect to the game and each other.

Content droughts were addressed by changes to factions and the addition of Faction Rallies to go along with Iron Banner to give players a couple events each month to log in and play for a week between DLC releases.

Every change to D2 was a reaction to the player experience in D1 and what Bungie got from our feedback as to what mattered most to us; and people may forget that although there was backlash after the beta, the first month of D2 was widely hailed as a huge success. Then things went off the rails.

Faction Rallies, Iron Banner and the token system didn't work how Bungie had hoped and a year later are still works in progress. The things that Bungie got from feedback that players wanted most out of the PvP experience... 1:1 balance and a focus on connection turned out to not really be what players wanted, including the players who had railed on forums and in videos for those things in D1.

Then Bungie started to lose the big name content creators who play for a living and who had suddenly found that they didn't have the endless grind for new things to play on stream or a sandbox that let them stream or make montage videos of their sick individual Crucible skills. But for all the negativity and hate, there were a lot of players who never left as well as a lot who only left because the game allowed them to. It allowed players to put down Destiny for a month or two if they wanted and to play other games and do other things, while still being able to jump back in whenever they wanted without missing a beat.

Year one of D2 was never a bad game and it was never a dead game. I had more awesome weapons and armor sets that I actually loved than I ever had in 3 years of D1. I played all 3 of my characters extensively. My friends and I still ran the raids and the game still kept us interested and invested, but we did other things as well. The game wasn't perfect and there were a lot of things that needed to be better, but the developers were quick to react to our concerns and begin to address them.

4v4 was a mistake that had a huge impact on groups like ours that had been able to go from raids to other content together in D1. With the way teams were fractured off in D2, it made keeping a 6 player group together a difficult thing as players were always being left out to do anything else.

The weapon and classes while incredible balanced, led to very passive play and the rise of team-shooting.

The lack of any control over what game modes we played in PvP forced us to have to play things we didn't like to maybe get a game or two of something we did enjoy.

The story and lore weren't deep enough and lost the dark tone that had drawn in players with the d1 Grimiore, Book of Sorrows, etc.

There weren't enough new drops or deep grinds to keep the hardcore-grind players invested and the constant stream of content and things to do (Faction Rallies, IB, The Dawning, etc) didn’t pan out the way Bungie had envisioned.

There have certainly been things worthy of criticism along the way with Destiny and there will always be ways it can be better because making games is hard. Making a game with the depth and scope of PvP and PvE in a seamlessly matchmade, online, persistent experience like Destiny… that is real challenge.

So here we are in Forsaken and it is a beautiful game and it is all the things I said to open this talk, but it is also back to vanilla D1 levels of grind and investment needed to play and enjoy the game; and I understand why we are here and why it has released so far skewed to that end of the spectrum, but I think the game would benefit from dialing things down just a little bit.

I played 2147 hours and 7 minutes of D1. That is top 6%. I played 895 hours on my Titan, 532 on my Hunter and 479 on my Warlock. I had 239 hours on deleted characters.

I’ve played 1001 hours and 42 minutes in D2, 150 of which have been since Forsaken released. That is top 3%. I’ve played 241 hours on my Titan, 241 hours on my Hunter and 311 on my warlock. I have 207 hours on deleted characters.

I play and have played a lot of Destiny. I’ve played way more D2 to this point than I had D1 and for the last 3 years I’ve played each of my characters pretty damn evenly. I don’t know if that will continue.

As a player who has been this invested, who has played alone and with friends, who has raided constantly for 3 years and who plays each character regularly, I’ve found that I’ve hit a wall with Forsaken and I cannot continue to play this expansion as I have played Destiny since TTK. I took off work launch day and played the hell out of all 3 characters trying to push as much as I could for the raid that our team all took off to run on its release day. Despite the insane hours I put in those first 10 days, I (and most of the players who played that day) didn’t come close to being ready.

I spent the following couple of weeks running every single thing I could for powerful engrams on all 3 characters and, even playing every day and as much as I could when home and awake, it was a struggle to get it all done. It was still fun and I felt I was making progress each week, but a month in things have changed. Grind is great. Chase is great. A game that we don’t experience all in a week and have to be in for the long haul is great, but when I��ve logged in for the last week, I’ve felt like the Dunkin Donuts dude from the old commercials.

“Time to make the donuts”

Only It’s time to go run another 15 tier 2 Blind Wells, then time to run another 3 ascendant challenges, then time to run another 24 Dreaming City bounties, then time to run another 15 Crucible matches, then time to run another 9 gambit matches, then time to run another 9 strikes, then time to run another 9 story missions, and oh crap, what is the flashpoint? Have to run that. I also need another 36 bounties for my Ikora rewards, and I have to do the clan bounties because whatever progress I have won’t roll over and I’ll have to start back at zero next week if I don’t get to 100%, and I have these exotic bounties I should do, and isn’t the Malfaesance boss spawning now? And It would be great to get into the raid some more and I should try to do the Shattered Throne… and you get where I’m going with it. There’s a hell of a lot to do, but THERE IS A HELL OF A LOT TO DO.

And all of that is great and it is good for the game and the overall health of the franchise, but then on top of that we need to have meaningful choices for infusion and have to farm and grind materials just to use some of the things that drop for us?

I’m sitting at a high Power Level of 565 on my Titan. I’m at 150 hours a month in and I’m not wearing any gear I want to. I’m struggling to be able to use the weapons I want to. I can’t use shaders or mods because I don’t feel like constantly reapplying them to whatever the next armor piece I have to wear is. I’ve run the raid 3 times and I’ve not once gotten to play it how I want using the weapons and gear I want and I’ve come to the realization that to continue on in Forsaken I may need to go back to how I originally played D1 and pick one character and focus on that because playing all 3 is burning me out.

I’m on a pace so far in Forsaken to play 1800 hours this year and that is not sustainable for me, but maybe Destiny just isn’t a game for the type of player I have been anymore. That isn’t to say it is a bad thing because I know many like these changes and as I’ve said, overall I think most of the changes are for the betterment of the game and so again maybe it’s on me to re-evaluate how I approach the game and maybe it will all be better in the long run, but I think that very much depends on where the game goes from here.

If we get to the next DLC and we continue to play with the things we are building up to and collecting now and we reach a point where we’re all playing maxed characters and can go back and start focusing on another character because there isn’t another steep climb, maybe it will be okay. But I’ve already seen Gothalion pushing for this level of grind and investment in each of the DLCs and if that is the case, I honestly don’t know how much further I’ll make it as an everyday player.

Destiny as a hobby is awesome. Destiny as a job is not, and a month in and still looking at a ways to go before I can rally experience the game how I want, it is beginning to feel more and more like a job. We have so many things to keep us invested and to do to level and to grind for. There are all the things I wrote out 4 paragraphs above as well as a world that keeps evolving and adding new things to do and experience, and there are random rolls on weapons and armor to chase and rare exotics… and somehow all that isn’t enough and we have people who play for a living telling us and Bungie that we also need to work our asses off just to use our gear; and if we want to play Gambit or Iron Banner and not be at a huge disadvantage, we need to keep pushing our levels up because removing SBMM, lowering kill times, making everything more lethal and building in more skill gaps wasn’t enough for the elite PvP players and streamers, they need power advantages the first 2- 3 months into the expansion as well.

So where I am now is it is Wednesday and for the first time since Forsaken dropped I didn’t run anything to try to level up yesterday after reset. I ran 2 public events on my Titan and I logged out and watched Lost. Last week I did the Dreaming City (minus Shattered Throne) on all 3 characters and helped a couple friends do their Blind Wells after I’d finished mine. I did enough to get another 6-7 powerful engrams on my Warlock, but none of them were higher level than what was already in the slots they dropped for, so at this point I think I will focus my Titan this week and see where I get and maybe do some DC on the other two this weekend or Monday.

I don’t think the progression system is bad. I don’t think the long term investment approach is bad. I have been asked why I feel the journey should be over sooner and that isn’t my point of any of this feedback. I may need to adjust how I play and look at the game differently and that is something I am willing to do, but regardless of whether I go forward focusing a single character instead of playing all three or not, I believe there are some changes that would make Destiny a better game for everyone without sacrificing anything for the heavy grinders or players who play for a living.

1) Drop the “infusion should matter” approach. Infusion cost and “meaningful infusion” have zero effect on progression. The only thing they do is prevent players from using the things they want and again, what is the point of playing to get things that we can’t use? I don’t need to use weapons and gear I hate to appreciate the things I like. I’ve played 3149 hours of Destiny. I know what I like and what I don’t and I want to play the game with things that are fun and that I love, not with things I hate for a chance to maybe play how I want in the future. The only players that benefit from creating a bottleneck on gear choices is the players who can no-life the game and have more advantages over others based solely on how much they can play and not in what they have earned playing.

2) If there will not be huge leveling experiences at each successive point in Forsaken going forward, I think the overall 215 level grind and pacing is okay and I think for the most part very well done. I have friends who have limited playtime and only play one character who are at the same power level as I’ve gotten to grinding all 3. There doesn’t really seem to be the pronounced slingshot effect of leveling all 3 that existed in each previous versions of the game. That said, if each DLC is going to push our max power level significantly higher and put us back into a deep grind to level cap, I believe that the time it takes to reach the cap playing at average player’s playtimes should be significantly lowered. I’m still probably 3-4 weeks from level cap. If we’re talking November until I can really play with and use the things I want and start to get into mods and setting up gear sets with optimal perks… that is just too long for the brief time I’ll get to play how I want before going back into another deep dive. I think the sweet spot should be a month for the average player to hit cap if this grind will be repeated. To that end I would love to hear what the plans are for the future of Forsaken and our Power journey.

3) Power mattering in PvP isn’t fun and should be removed. The only thing it’s good for is one more way for the players with the most time to punish those without. It also does not jibe with the philosophy of taking our time to enjoy the journey as it is another thing that really pushes us to need to be higher levels.

4) Revamp how legendary and powerful engrams work. Currently regular legendary engrams essentially became blues once we hit 500 as far as power progression was concerned. Then once we got to about 520 or so, most powerful engrams essentially became the old regular legendaries.

Currently we have 3 consistent ways to get actual powerful drops without raiding: completing the 2 weekly Dreaming City bounties for overall weekly Petra challenge, the weekly DC bounty for completing 8 daily bounties, and Prime engrams. The rest of the powerful rewards only drop one power level above our max character power level and so are very often at or below the item already in the spot they drop in.

We have a ton of things to do to get powerful rewards, but it is so disheartening when you run 5, 6, 7 dailies or weeklies in a row and spend an entire day or two playing and not a single powerful reward is an up. If we get a slot or 2 that are anchoring our overall power progression and they won’t drop, it feels like each thing we do for a powerful reward is time wasted until the thing we need drops. To this end I think the regular legendary drops should have a chance to drop within 5 of our character power level. It doesn’t have to be a high percentage chance, but would allow us more chances to raise those anchor spots and not waste so many powerful drops when we get a bad run of RNG. I also think there should be some changes to the way powerful engrams work. I think that having them drop one power level above our character level is fine for the daily challenges, but the weeklies should be more rewarding and I wish would drop 3 above our character level. This would give more of them a chance to be an actual up for a spot without drastically decreasing our overall leveling time and it would make the weekly more worth the time investment. This would all also give us more freedom in how we approach leveling and allow us more time to play the things we want rather than what we currently have to, particularly when trying to play with friends because right now everyone is so focused on having to do all these different things and everyone are at different steps in the process. These changes would allow more freedom to help with things we may have already done or just spend time doing things like strikes or PvP with friends and still feel we’re able to get things that can potentially help if we have spots holding us back.

5) Rethink initial content release schedules, particularly for raids. If Destiny is now a journey to be experienced over time and not rushed through, it would be great if the content release schedule was in sync with that philosophy. I still don’t understand how the raid was released with almost the entire player population excluded from running it at launch and almost every secret has been discovered and the final boss 2 manned before most players have even set foot in the encounter. There was enough content at launch that the game would have kept players invested just fine a couple weeks longer and the raid could have dropped and been just as awesome while being accessible to a hell of a lot more players, and again like the current infusion setup and power mattering, it’s one more thing that just doesn’t fit with this new philosophy of not having to experience everything right now. This also would have given the Tangled Shore more time in the spotlight and we could have potentially just been getting ready to really get into the full wonder of the Dreaming City instead of sitting on our first reset there.

I’ve written a lot and some of this I’ve covered before and all of it is just one players experience and thoughts on the game, but one last thing I would like to say is that whatever decisions are made with the game going forward (and there is already a plan to address infusion in some form and we’ll see how that changes things), at the end of the day Bungie is listening to our feedback and the devs are doing everything they can to make this game the best it can be. They have and will continue to build on, refine and improve the experience and although I am hitting a wall with things right now personally, it doesn’t take away from what has been achieved with this expansion so far and if they do find it is a bit too far towards the grind end of the spectrum for a significant amount of the population, it’s something that can easily be adjusted. It’s better to have too much of a good thing than not enough and D2 Forsaken is a good thing.

#destiny 2 #destiny 2 forsaken #lost sols #Bungie

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blissful-reveries · 7 years

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MY EXPERIENCE AT EXO’RODIUM!!!

I CANT BELIEVE I GOT TO SEE MY KINGS AGAIN TT IM SO EMOTIONAL EVEN THOUGH ITS BEEN 2 DAYS SINCE THE CONCERT - EVERY TIME I THINK ABOUT IT I JUST GET ALL GIDDY AND EXCITED AGAIN :D Here is my post on my experience at exo’rdium last night (fyi I wrote this on the night when i came back at like 2am LOL) its HECKA long post.... without further ado, here is MY EXPERIENCE AT EXORDIUM ^^

EXO’RDIUM 02.11.17

TODAY WAS FKING EXO’RDIUM HK AHHHHHHHHHHHH IM SO SHOOK HOLY I CAN NOT EVEN. WHERE DO I EVEN BEGIN OMFG I- I can barely wrap my head around the fact that (YET AGAIN) EXO was in the same building as me, less than 10m away, LIVING, BREATHING IN THE FLESH EXO. LIKE THEY’RE REAL. NOT JUST PIXELS ON MY LAPTOP SCREEN- I JUST CANT. I STILL CANT. okok so to start, for this EXO concert, I wasn’t able to get standing tickets like I did for EXO’LUXION (when i was lucky enough to have FRONT ROW JEAAAASUUSS), but I was HUGELY and pleasantly surprised that our seats (Block 5, Row 6) WAS ACTUALLY SO CLOSE TO THE STAGE. LIKE I COULD SEE THE ENTIRE STAGE + EXTENDED STAGE, AND IF I USED MY CAMERA TO FILM, I COULD SEE THEIR FACES. So that was a huge plus as soon as we got into the arena. When the concert started, a VCR was shown - about how EXO was the saviours of the world (when are they not tho tbvh HAHA) from danger and etc. the screaming was seriously unreal - like when every member came up on the VCR… #impressed. Then, they started the concert with MAMA and can we just- MAJOR THROWBACK TO FETUS EXO DAYS??? LIKE THIS SONG TRIGGERS SO MANY MEMORIES IM NOT EVEN OKAY RN. also can we just - can SM please release the remix version of MAMA CUZ I WOULD GET IT IN A HEARTBEAT <3 Then without giving our poor hearts a second to rest, they jumped right into mONSTER!!!! IM WAS NOT READY FOR IT AND THEY JUST THREW IT AT ME WHAT. It was amazing as expected, the choreo and everything omfg.. it was LEGIT like copy and paste… AND CAN WE TAKE A MOMENTbc JONGDAE FREAKING BLEW THAT HIGH NOTE AWAY. wait where was that high note? BLEW AWAY BY JONGDAE’S GORGEOUS VOCALS THATS WHERE.

THEN yet another throwback, they performed wolf :’) it been so long since they performed it and omg It was beautiful. The tree added with projections, and it was a remix version which meant DANCE BREAK!!!!! Seriously it was SO SO GOOD like they added projections so that it seemed like they were entering and exiting the tree behind (LOOK IDK IF THAT MAKES SENSE BUT THATS WHAT HAPPENED OK). and it was just so perfect… perfect way to bring back the song.

THEN they finally took a break and did their first ment. can i just pause for a sec and mention how much i freaking love their black blouses? like the ones with the cuts. THEY’RE GORGEOUS AND THEY WEAR THEM SO WELL TT… Kyungsoo, suho and baek all mentioned that they’re going to comeback soon so to give them lots and lots of support (YES BC EXOLS PULL THRU). Sehun and his mandarin came through as expected HAHA and it was so cute - cuz he kept saying things like “are you enjoying yourselves?” “Did you miss us?” my hubby you go! Yixing greeted us in cantonese and it was so cute XD his voice when he speaks canto is the cUTEST THING EVER. i wanna wrap him up and bring him back home.. he started talking in canto about wanting us to support his film, but then paused to think - then after like 5 seconds, gave up and spoke in mandarin instead AHAHA XINGXING YOU CUTIE OMG. SPEAKING OF YIXING THO — Originally I didn’t know if he was going to attend this concert or not, because he’s been away for filming at guangzhou for the past couple of weeks, there’s hardly been any news of him so i wasn’t sure… BUT I WAS SO FLIPPIN HAPPY WHEN I SAW HIM COME OUT. FIRST THOUGHTS: DAMN SON YOU SLAY EVERYTHING. SECOND THOUGHT: his hair was really long HAHAHAH XD STILL SLAYING THE HANDSOME GAME THO. Suho kept mentioning that coming to HK always leaves good memories for him, and mentioned the EXO daesang win during MAMA AND THE CROWD WENT WILD ;D You know how much we support y’all.

Afterwards, they performed WHITE NOISE AND I WAS SO SURPRISED BC I HAD NO IDEA THEY WERE GONNA DO THIS SONG — i made myself not watch any prior concert vids bc i wanted this to be complete surprise and HECK YEAH I WAS SURPRISED. It was a new dance and everything it was so fresh :’))) there were some body rolls here and there, and overall it was a lot more toned down than artificial love oH GOD ARTIFICIAL LOVE JUST WAIT HOLY. Middle of white noise they went to the centre hexagon and danced, but then out of nowhere WATER START POURING FROM THE TOP DOWN LIKE WHATTTTT THEN THEY STARTED DANCING IN THE POURING WATER LIKE ALL WET AND EVERYTHING X_X i was so so so happy bc sehun was always on my side of the stage so i was able to see and film him well <3 his dancing is en pointe as usual heh #proudwifey

THEN JESUS SAVE ME THEY PERFORMED THUNDER <3 <3 <3 AND SEHUN OWNED THAT STAGE LIKE IT WAS NOBODY’S BUSINESS He was on the center extended part, and damn like the stage should have been called FIRE, CUZ IT WAS LIT. Yixing and Jongin as always slayed the game too and the VOCALS FOR THIS WAS SO GREAT OMG LIKE IT WAS LIKE PERFECT :’)) also. jongin was being a huge TEASE bc he kept smirking and smiling while dancing :((( HAHA but it was lovely and made my heart thump <3

then they did playboy. rmb when playboy used to be the most sexual dance in their concert? YEAH NO JUST WATCH ARTIFICIAL LOVE HOLY i need to cleanse my eyes…. ANYWAY BEFORE THAT— this time playboy was done a bit differently, sekai wasn’t paired tgt, as pcy and osh were tgt, and kai had his own rising stage fanncaayy B) OH AND SIDE NOTE: I LOVE their laced up pants too..its very pretty and... its very tight LMAO gives me pirate vibes lol. i loved it bc the boys were all just having a TON of fun - like they came in yesterday night, and performed today thats just amazing if i compare that to the amount of energy they had today. THEY WERE LIKE HIGH OR SMTH SO CRAZY XD AND HYPER <3 but it was like a giant party so WOO!! Suho and chen went out to the farthest extended stage which meant I could see their features and OMG PRINCE SUHO ATTACKS AGAIN BC HE NEVER FAILS TO FAZE ME AT HOW BEAUTIFUL HE IS IRL. He’s like a LEGIT god descending from heaven…. <3 Chanyeol went to the hexagonal extended stage and did a solo dance there - it was beautiful :’) and YIXING was in the center extended just having a blast body rolling, pelvis thrusting JEEEEZ i need holy water.

JESUS NO ITS HERE. I CANT. IT WAS ARTIFICIAL LOVE NOW. omg i can’t even bare to talk about it I WAS SO….AHHHHH I CANT EXPLAIN OMG. i felt strange LMAO ok so right after playboy WHICH WAS ALREADY MILDY SEXY, they grabbed the canes from the side of the stage and as soon as the music came up i was like UH OH HERE IT COMES… and KAI WAS ON THE HEXAGONAL STAGE (yes im referring to him as kAI BECAUSE BABY NINI WOULD NEVER DO THAT)- AND OH JESUS IT WAS SUCH A SHOCKING MOMENT WHEN HE… UM.. GRINDED ON THE CANE?? GOSH EVEN TYPING IT MAKES ME FEEL DIRTY LMFAO I couldn’t even bring myself to film it bc i jUST CANT???? then, when switched positions, baekhyun was now where kai was, and another chorus came along which meant another grinding session (pls save me). When I watched baekhyun’s one i was ready to keep my eyes closed bc puppy baek grinding? it would destroy my image of him forever… BUT!! he was actually very reserved HAHAH XD i think it was just yixing, and kai who like 150% WENT FOR IT. ground like there was no tomorrow LMAO. so yeah long song short, KAI’S SEX APPEAL BROKE THE ROOF, and baekhyun was still a cutie BAHAHA XDD and then it was KAIXING duet dance break during artificial love with the BLINDFOLDS OMG SO SEXY HOLYY my poor heart :((

OMG AND UNFAIR!!!! I love the stage for unfair its so cute and unique, squishy kyungsoo popped out of a tv and a chair (oh i wish that were reality), just the entire performance aspect of it was top notch and so cute. After unfair, it was a short ment where exo all sat on the steps of the stage, and yixing and pcy sat on both ends holding guitars. WHICH MEANT ACOUSTIC MEDLEY TIME!!!! Yixing gave a short introduction about the medley (it was so nice to hear his voice after such a long time not hearing it) and then demo-ed the guitar by playing a little impromptu melody — reminds me of just how much of a genius zhang yixing is *heart eyes*. Chanyeol also did a quick demo and same thing goes for him.. how do they self learn things so well :((the first song that they sang in the acoustic medley was My Lady and I FLIPPED OUT BC IT WAS KYUNGSOO AND IT WAS R&B MY TWO FAV COMBOS <3 It was so nice to just sit and listen to their live vocals - and this really goes to show how much talent there is in exo. whoever disagrees should sit in one concert and just LISTEN TO THEIR FLAWLESS VOCALS. like seriously, there was no out of pitch moments (- wAIT AHHA THIS REMINDS ME OF SOMETHING FUNNY PCY DID). OKOK SO BASICALLY near the end of the medley, (I CANT RMB WHICH ACOUSTIC IT WAS RN BUT-) it was supposed to be baekhyun’s line but kyungsoo held his mic towards Chanyeol’s mouth (he was preoccupied with guitar playing) to prompt him to sing. PCY did sing baek’s line, but his voice cracked BAHAHAHHAHAHAHAH XD AND THE FUNNIEST THING WAS: HE MADE THIS REALLY CUTE SHOCKED FACE WHEN IT HAPPENED AND TOUCHED HIS THROAT THEN SHOOK HIS HEAD. NAWWWWWWW <3 adorbs… in the acoustic, they covered so many songs - CMB (WHICH JONGIN SANG BEAUTIFULLY OMG), My turn to cry, lady luck… just some i could rmb off the top of my head rn at 2:17 am HAHA.. then at the very end, yixing sang an acoustic version of Monodrama - and the lyrics were on the screen so the entire crowd sang along-it was beautiful <3 <3 <3 - at the end, yixing looked really sheepish, and grabbed the mic saying, “i’m so sorry, i sang the demo version’s lyrics so I didn’t sing the right words heh” and then pcy BEING THE MEDIATOR HE IS, was like “eyyyyy they probably didn’t even hear the difference- did you guys hear the difference???” and obvs we screamed NO!!!! and then that made xingxing look even more sheepish SO SO CUTE X) the entire thing just sounded and felt like a warm campfire get together with exo ls and exo <3 it was heartwarming and beautiful and I’m so glad that they added this segment.

and then they did lady luck again- this time not acoustic, but the dance and song version and kyungsoo. just. his voice. like. it melted the entire arena down. his projections were all so stable it sounded like the studio recorded version :’))) they danced on rising stages and everything was just so aesthetically perfect.. If i’m being completely honest, this time around, I was putting my focus deliberately more on sehun because i remember last year during exoluxion when i was front row, i could only really focus on whoever was in front of my area of the stage, which meant i missed a lot of sehun when he performed :( so i made the decision to FEED MY EYES AND HEART fully of sehun this time as last time, i was kyungsoo came to the front a lot and i kyungsoo’s vocals and dance fed me fully hehe (ohhh good times :’)) so yeah i wanted to say that kyungsoo’s vocals blew me away here because his LIVES ARE ACTUALLY PERFECT???how. haha bc his voice is made of honey chocolate <3

they performed TENDER LOVE next and I got shook all together again because THEY ALL INTERACTED WITH THE FANS THROUGH THE LIGHTSTICK :’D THEY each grabbed a lightstick and as soon as the song started baekhyun yelled “PUT YOUR HANDS UP!” :D yixing walked to the center extended stage and the next thing i knew, the STAGE WAS RISING UP LIKE A RAMP AND MY QUOTED WORDS AT THAT TIME CAUGHT ON VIDEO WAS “WOAH LOOK AT THAT STAGE” i was so surprised IT LOOKED LIKE A COMPLETE FUN HOUSE :DD All the members were just having a ton of silly fun during the song by just jumping :D during the chorus they would direct the crowd into little movements sequences we could do with the lightsticks and it was so nice bc it was like a little dance party - and they all looked so proud haha like we were all together - WE ARE ONE!! hehe Sehun came up to the farthest extended stage and danced on the stage closer to my side which was AMAZING <3 which meant that he was directing my block in the light stick moves ^^ i just thought it was super nice that they were able to interact with all of us in that way, include us all in that way it was very heartwarming <3

then LMR came up!! a lot earlier than last year’s one actually. fun and quirky as usual, BAEK’S VOCALS YES. they all danced so energetically and so hyped up, it was so so so AMAZING TO SEE THAT <3 esp sehun bc he’s usually the type that dances to the extent that is enough to show that he’s doing the moves, but this time he added so many more little side moves of his that spiced things up a lot hehe..

During One and Only, i think someone that stood out the most for me was def jongin. his vocals during the song was just something straight from all things good in the world. it was so good :’))) I’m so impressed by how much he has improved his vocal abilities over the years and is truly developing his own distinctive voice <3 OH AND the official HK exo fan club organized an event where during performance of One and Only, representatives in the crowd would hold up letters that spelt “EXO You Are My One and Only”.

omg and possibly my favorite part of the concert….. kai x sehun x lay WATER DANCE WOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! I am not at all exagerating when i say that every millisecond of what i saw looked like something out of a painting. IT WAS GORGEOUS AND BEAUTIFUL (how many times have i said beautiful omg). they were all so in sync, and everyone gave it their all and it shows <3 THEN CAME THE MOMENT THE WATER STARTED FILLING THE GROND AND WHERE ALL 3 OF THEM JUST DROPPED TO THE GROUND (how do they not break their knees is my question) IT WAS SO SO *fight the urge to say beauti—* BEAUTIFUL <3 I’m sorry there are no other words to describe how amazingly godlike the entire performance was.. then when the water started pouring from the top OH DAMN THAT WAS THE CLIMAX. so they danced in the water with water pouring all over their heads and bodies and THE EFFECT LOOKED SO ETHEREAL like aM I EVEN ALIVE? HAVE I GONE TO HEAVEN? BC THIS IS WHAT I THINK HEAVEN WILL LOOK LIKE TBH. 3 DANCING WATER ANGELS <3 ahHAHA so yeah and when it ended, they 3 were kneeling in the water, and jongin had to be all extra and stuff and run his hand through his hair, gazing dangerously sexily into the audience.. yep THERE GOES MY OVARIES BOOM. THANK YOU OSH, KAI AND YIXING.

AND THEN IT WAS VOCAL LINE TIME TO SHINE!!! Stronger was performed, and it was all i could ask for to have all four of them, kyungsoo, baek, chen, and suho sing this song… esp during stressful times THANK YOU <3 also the vocals were just off the charts at 200% today like they even said themselves that they’re feeling great today WHICH MAKES ME SO DAMN HAPPY :’’)))) oMG THEN THEY PLAYED THE REALLY CUTE VCR OF EXO AS NOMES (??) HAHA dancing and stuff, then they came out of the back wearing the cute af pointy hats and elf shoes XDDD CUTENESS OVERLOAD!! they sang HEAVEN as they came out and it was SO CUTE and also the way that kyungsoo wears his pointy hat, OVER HIS FOREHEAD AND TOUCHING HIS EYES IS SO DAMN SQUISHY OF HIM AHHH :3 he’s so adorable CAN I TAKE HIM HOME PLS along with the rest of exo!!!!! Then they took off their costumes to sing Girl x Friend and it was honestly so great.. xingxing was dancing and pointing out to the audience to guide them in singing the song, sehun came out again to the middle to just enjoy the stage, and kyungsoo was sining happily waving a nightstick around ^^ WAIT OMG ALMOST FORGOT — SEHUN WAS WEARING SPECS DURING THIS AHAHAH HE LOOKED SO DAMN HOT I CANNOT EVEN. SEHUN IN SPECS MAKES ME REEVALUATE MY LIFE. <3 hot hubby hehe

Then 3.5.6 WAS LITTTTTTT haha everyone was dancing and as EXPECTED!!! they did the weird “ooh ooh” sounds in between the 3.6.5 chorus lines xDD HAH now it sounds weird to listen to the studio version one cuz it doesn’t have those sounds LMAO. THEN EXO BECAME A BUNCH OF MEANIES BC THEY FINISHED THE SONG AND as soon as the lights turned up, they were like, “okay, bye! Thank you for coming!” “See you tomorrow” (BISH LIKE WE HAVE MONEY TO SEE U 2 CONSECUTIVE DAYS IN A ROW ALTHOUGH ID VERY MUCH LOVE TO), and the entire crowd AWW’ed and whined like NO! you can’t leave us like this :((( they were so mean…

BUT THEN THEY CAME OUT WEARING THOSE COPPERY COLORED JACKETS and performed TRANSFORMER like in MAMA but EVEN BETTER <3 <3 <3 I really love the part where they all come together and do the roboty like thing. i think i have a new found love for transformer OOPS x) it was so cool like the choreo too!! it was so sharp and just overall. ANNND THEN THEY DID LIGHTSABER~~~ everything was lit. DANCE WAS LIT, SONG WAS LIT, RAP WAS LIT, ALLLSO there was a special dance part near the end where everyone got ‘lightsabers’ and STARTED SWINGING THE CRAP OUT OF IT HAHAHA. and as to no surprise. MORE WATER!! haha water started pouring again (honestly I’ve lost count HAHA) they’re so obsessed with water… or they just want the wet clothes to stICK TO THEIR ABS? x_X

then they took a break and did another ment - which was good cuz i needed that break HAHAHA xD sehun, pcy, yixing and minseok went backstage first to change out of their wet clothes, while baek, suho, kai, chen, kyungsoo, stayed behind to talk. They talked about how nice it was that Jongin was muscular bc he was good at exercising which made nini really embarrassed HAHA.. then joonmyeon turned to kyungsoo and was like, “what about you?” and squishy soo didn’t say anything and just bowed. NAW ITS OK PENGUIN SOO I LIKE IT BETTER WHEN YOU DONT HAVE RIPPED MUSCLES :D Then, Baekhyun said in the ment that, “During One and Only you guys held some letters up, but I couldn’t really see them as I was dancing, what did it say again? Could you raise it again so I could read?” so the representatives in the crowd did, and Baekhyun, Chanyeol read it out. THEN HAHA WHATS FUNNY IS baekhyun then said, “oh! i see now. But you know it’s not because we don’t know how to read english, we do- its because you guys held one letter upside down so we couldn’t read” UHMM SAVAGE BAEK ???!?!!? HAHAHA BUT IT WAS SUPER FUNNY XD. Then joonmyeon pitched in and said he thought that the M and Y were going to spell MYEON, which made him suspect that “oh? maybe they’re preparing something for my birthday……?” HAHAH NEXT TIME JOONMYEON NEXT TIME WE PROMISE <3 such a cutie.

AHAH ANOTHER FUNNY PART!! Baekhyun wanted us all to be quiet for a bit bc he wanted to say something but the crowd didn’t stay quiet for long, so he kept shushing us, like “sh! sh! SHHH!” and then he started saying SH in a really fast and abrupt way, IT SOUNDED LIKE HE SWORE AND SAID SH*T XD AND EVERYONE STARTED LAUGHING HAHAHAHAH don’t think he noticed but oh well baaha cute. baek went on to say how hard they’ve been preparing for their new album, so requested for us to show it lots of love when it comes out (OF COURSE!!! ITS A GIVEN1!!)

AHH ok so those 5 went backstage to change and now pcy, sehun, yixing, minseok came out to ment. During the ment, minseok said that he felt sorry because he messed up during the lightsaber perf. He said that it wasn’t because he forgot the moves, but because the water was pouring into his shirt, and it was so cold that he momentarily forgot what he was supposed to do (poor baby… please don’t get sick any of you :\\). Then PCY started going “沒關係” which is “no problem” in cantonese and got the entire crowd to repeat over and over until minseok told us to stop HAHA :3 then sehun decided to ment next, and he told a “funny” story - which really wasnt funny at all HAHA srsly no one understood what he was trying to say HAHAH or the purpose of the story he was telling - anyway at the end when he realized that no one understood what he was saying, he said, “i’m just trying to lighten up the mood from the sorry atmosphere minseok hyung set up just now..” then PCY again did the “no problem” chant and got the entire crowd in on it again x). Then to compensate, sehun asked us to all give a collective fake laugh AHHA AT HIS FAILED JOKE XD i can’t this boy is everything. then yixing went around giving a cantonese lesson for the other 3 boys, teaching them how to say thank you, hello, my name is___ except the fact that he forgot how to say the members names in canto xD

After the ment, yixing went back and pcy x sehun x minseok did a rap song that i believe is only exclusive to the concerts? its called “같이해” which means “do it together”. THIS. SONG. WAS. FREAKING. LIT. SEHUN FREAKING OWNED THAT STAGE LIKE IT WAS HIS AND NO ONE ELSES B) HE WAS IN CENTER STAGE MOST THE TIME, AND WENT ON THE RISING RAMP WHICH WAS SUUUUPER COOL. He was so full of charisma on stage i couldn’t take my eyes off him for even a second. he demanded attention in everything he did HAHAH THATS MY BOO then this lit rap transitioned into DROP THAT when all members joined them on stage, and IT WAS AS LIT AS IT WAS LAST YEAR WOO so so nice. “we say e-x, you say o! , e-x-“ “O!” so nice *sparkling eyes* OMG ALSO CHANYEOL DID AN ELECTRIC GUITAR COVER OF GROWL AND IT WAS FREAKING COOL AF

ooooohhhh then next they did the cool little Let Out the Beast remix starting with the lightstick part. It was a bit of a shame that they did not organize this concert to have the bluetooth setting so it lost a wow factor there, but STILL THE REMIX SONG WAS GREAT AND THEY DID A DANCE REMIX IT WAS SO EFFING COOL AND OLD SCHOOL I LOVE IT SO MUCH <3

Following that, they performed Lucky, where everyone LEGIT WENT CRAZY HYPER HAHA THEY DID RANDOM DANCES AND EVERYTHING speaking of random dances, CHANYEOL DABBED LIKE AT LEAST 10 TIMES HERE JEEEAASUS and did juju on the beat hAHAHA I WAS SHOOK lmao THEN they did RUN and yixing was near the part where i was at so I had a very clear view of him going CRAZYYY like actually CRAZY!! he was doing all sorts of random running moves, and just having a ton of fun :’)) this was so impactful on me because i rmb last year, they flew in to hk really early and at the same day they had to perform so lay was really really tired that day. but to see him so hyper and energetic was so refreshing and it made me really hyped up too :’) little xing bunny jumping for joy haha

GROWL MY FAV SONG came out and everything was SO PERFECT haha this time the members freely walked around first and interacted with fans. then park chanyeol. okay so um. this boy has a problem with chronic DABBING AND JUJU-ING. he DOES NOT KNOW HOW TO STOP LITERALLY DOES NOT STOP. HE DABBED LIKE AVERAGE EVERY 5 SECONDS NOT EXAGGERATING. And then baekhyun learned from him and started to dab and juju uncontrollably too ._. not you too baek AHAH but in all honesty it was so funny to watch XD pcy did so many dabs that sehun had to almost flying kick him to get him back to his regular mind haha. THEY WERE CRAZILY HYPER today and i LOVE IT SO MUCH <3 AHAH AND THEN YIXING WAS SO CUTE CUZ during the beginning of growl when everyone walked everywhere, he walked to the furthest extended stage, but during the bridge he was supposed to get back to the middle to do the dance part. He only remembered when the music turned and had to RUN FOR HIS LIFE back to the centre aND IT WAS SO CUTE CUZ I SAW THE LOOK ON HIS FACE WHEN HE REMEMBERED XD PRICELESS.

Lucky One was next, and similarly it was free-dance and walk around which was nice and chill for them ^^ but jongdae did not give up on the dance and still did it throughout ahah #dedication. near the end, suho was the only one dancing and pcy and sehun were both doing weird af gestures behind him LOL .. and then it was time for the last ment D: I’m sad just thinking about it again….

So at the start of the ment, when pcy was talking, jongin bent over and looked really tired, which is expected since he danced with so much energy during the entirety of the concert - but he suddenly ran off stage, and no one knew what was going on- i started to get really nervous because i didn’t know what happened, if he was sick or hurting and i felt really sad :( my heart hurt. But then when it got around to about fixing’s turn to ment, jongin finally came back and all the members were like, “kai-sshi where did you disappear off to just now?” and HAHA HE SAID, “i had to go to the bathroom really urgently i was very very urgent” HAHAHAHA XD NOT WHAT ANYONE OF US WERE EXPECTING LMAO IM DECEASED XDD Then the members teased him and were like, “Kai-sshi is your stomach not feeling well (aka do u have a stomach ache/diarrhoea)?” and he immediately denied it and said, “nO! I just went to the toilet to pee hahah i was so urgent.” Then he said, “You know, after coming back from the toilet, my mood is so much more relieved” BAHAHHAHAHA “RELIEVED?!?!” IM DEAD AGAIN.. then PCY started saying, “so did you go to the toilet to … number 2?” HAHAH and jongin said, “NO! I WENT TO DO A NUMBER 1” IT WAS SO FUNNY MY ABS HURT AHAHAHA THEY WERE ARGUING ABOUT THE TOILET ON STAGE I CANT WITH THESE BOYS.. XD

Channel kept dabbing and juju-ing still, which triggered baekhyun to do the same, AND I KID YOU NOT, they DID NOT STOP DOING THAT UNTIL THE ENTIRE MENT WAS OVER FOR EVERYONE XD THESE TWO PUPS.. baekhyun’s ment consisted of him teaching us how to dab LMAO he was like “i’ll teach you the easy one (the dab), bc the other one (the juju) is more complex” LOL THANKS TEACHER BAEK. so yeah long story short, he got the entire arena to dab. yup. EVERYONE. us all dabbing only exacerbated chanyeol’s chronic dabbing syndrome and he continued to do it, with baekhyun responding to him every single time. #CHANBAEK OTP FTW. throughout all the dabbing sehun was just judging and like “ai these hinges…” but then eventually he caved and also did dabs AHHAHA, yixing, chen were laughing so hard. the thing is, suho is trying to give his ment properly, and there you have chanyeol on one end, baekhyun on the other DABBING TOWARDS EACH OTHER OK LIKE THESE BOYS ARE NOT OK. WHAT DID THEY EAT BEFORE COMING OUT HERE?? Eventually suho gave up AHAH and dabbed too (…….) WHAT IS WITH ALL THIS DABBING….?!!??! also . baekhyun couldn’t help it and decided to teach us the juju too so. LMAO. AND THEN BAEK SAID, “the dab move i taught you! when we sing Angel for the last song, I want you to dab throughout the song!” THIS IS HOW OBSESSED THEY ARE OK. IM BEING HONEST, PCY AND BAEK added tgt for the entire concert prob dabbed and juju-ed like 50 times each . NOT. AN EXAGGERATION. Haha so yeah, fun times..

During Angel, fans threw stuff toys and animal hats on stage, and exo went around playing with them. Baekhyun found a pikachiu hat and chanyeol found a stuffed pokeball = chanyeol smashing the pokeball at poor baekhyun who ended up rolling on the stage xD. Sehun found a dinosaur hat and a snake that he wrapped around his neck (how exotic LOL), then he found a small stuffed white puppy that looked like Vivi. and he carried it all the way back to the stage where he said in chinese, “Vivi says, ‘see you tomorrow!’” (CAN HE GET ANY CUTER???). AND THEN omg the sweetest part was how yixing liteally went to every corner and crevice of the stage to bow and say goodbye and thankyou to the fans :’(((( IM CRYING HE’S LITERALLY THE SWEETEST BUNNY TT he was the last to return to the back part of the stage where baekhyun said they wanted to take a photo with all of us dabbing in the background (LMAO). it was so sad to see them all disappear behind the closing screens, how did time pass so quickly? it felt like we just came in to sit down..

it was an INSANE night. SO MUCH HYPE, SO LIT, SO FUN AND TRUELY showed the talents and nature of exo :’) they really had so much fun and as an EXO-L that is all I can ask for. Im so glad that they were able to get a nights rest before the concert this time unlike last year, because they were so much more awake and aware of the concert. they were all so into it and so CRAZY HYPER HAHA. Interestingly, baekhyun, suho both talked about how this Exo’rdium in HK was the VERY FIRST concert they held in the new year of 2017. WHICH WAS SUCH A HUGE THING!! they were all so energetic and excited about the concert that they asked for everyone in the crowd to dab while they took a group photo with us in the background - I AM OFFICIALLY SIGNING OFF. THEY ASKED US TO DAB FOR A PHOTO IM DONE. LMAO IM DOOONNEEE

So yeah…. that was a LONG ASS POST but it was worth staying up to 4am to write about <3 the best part was that when we looked at the time it was 10:32pm. we started at 7pm SHARP. which meant this concert went on for 3 and a half hours. 3 AND A HALF HOURS. THATS AMAZING AND GENEROUSLY LONG <3 This beautiful memory will stay with me forever and motivate me to do well in upcoming mocks and exams ^^ EXO SARANGHAJA!!!!! <3 WOOOOOO

#exordiumhk #exordium hong kong #exordium hk day 1 #exo #021117 #just rereading it and rewatching the videos makes me so emotional all over again #until next time that i see you my babies #<3

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thankguard · 7 years

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RECAP: OUR TOP 50 AUSTRALIAN HIP-HOP/R&B TRACKS OF 2016

2016 was the year that this scene was finally accepted by mainstream media outlets, played regularly on Triple J and given the opportunity to throw mad rap events at some of the countries’ best live music venues. The number of local rap: artists, releases, managers, parties, radio shows, even blogs exploded too. MANU CROOKS was put on BEATS1 rotation & posted on The FADER. SAMPA THE GREAT racked up over half a million streams on “BLUE BOSS”. BARO blurred cultural/sonic boundaries. TKAY MAIDZA dropped a huge album + landed that KILLER MIKE collab. MIDAS.GOLD, CULT SHOTTA, BIG SKEEZ, I AM D, NICO GHOST & SAVOUR THE RATIONS all dominated live-stages across the country. The GREMLNS, PLAYBACK 808, 1 HUNNID RECORDS & TREXON WAVE showed us the future. These squads are all barely out of high-school, have a strong African heritage and are blowing up against the odds. Almost all of the above was soundtracked by producers: DOPAMINE, MIRACLE, JAMES DAMIAN ANGUS, MITCH GRUANKE & HARVEY who don’t get enough credit. JUNOR launched his AUD$ radio show on SYN which is legit. The PROPHECY BOYZ launched SAUCE - a new brand that will probs do huge things in 2K17. RARE FLOW TV, provided an essential piece-to-the-puzzle, bringing this all to life in quality music videos. Australian rap music is at an all time high. But tbh, it’s going to take another miracle to push it any further. Now that there’s money to be made here, cashed-up copy-cat rappers/labels/magazines/venues with no imagination will find a way to suck the life out of your music for a quick profit. Historically, this has happened many times over, preventing Australians from truly impacting music culture on a global scale. WTF is the diff between us and: Canada, England or America? Terrible artists will succeed if you let them. Donald Trump was elected president. We’re always a stones-throw away from making the next generation of AUS rap fans (and the rest of the world) cringe at us. Question everyone. Even THANK GUARD. Oh, btw. This blog still doesn’t make money. Here’s 50 songs that inspired us to keep hustling in 2016 in between dem long-ass shifts. 50. “VIEWS UP” - NYUON (MELB)

NYUON - an essential character in the MELB rap scene - stretches out the parameters of his sound a little more with each release. “VIEWS UP” saw him lean back towards centre after the experimentally hazy, lilting vibe of his ’15 BYMYSELF tape. With the help of producer ROOKIEPRO he pooled that self-effacing, conscious rap-swagger into his most polished track do-date. 49. “SORROWS” - BLESSED (SYD)

Taking cues from CUDI, UK alternative-pop and their own minds, BLESSED managed to instantly stand out from the rest of the trap-heavy SYD scene last year. Their output in ‘16 was super consistent, and “SORROWS” (our fav) has already amassed over 127K plays on Soundcloud. Early days, but their potential for global appeal is already proven. 48. “I.D.C.A” - 18K (BRIS)

“I.D.C.A” gives you a real wow moment the second those bars come in. 18K’s on that: modern-day BONE,THUGZ & HARMONY/vaguely MIGOS ATL, super-quick flow. His beats are perfect too. Hard hitting, modern trap sounds AND a hint of like CLAMS CASINO cloud-rap as well. 47. “30 DAYS” - DENNIS (MELB)

Mysterious producer/singer DENNIS dropped this one to no reception whatsoever. The mastering isn’t professional, but the song itself and the man’s vocals are world class. You gotta pump the volume ride it to the peak for full-effect fam. Like some new BON IVER shit without the cringe, pretty sure this came out first too. 46. “PRESSURE (ft. JACE XL)” - BILLY DAVIS (MELB)

BILLY DAVIS & JACE XL (RYTHYM SECTION) are both heavily associated with THE OPERATIVES (who monopolised vibes in MELB the last decade). JACE shows off his life-changing soul crooning over some classic BILLY DAVIS instrumentation. This would be a lot higher if it were more relevant to our needs. 45. “NO MORE” - DEEVILLA (SYD)

With this track alone, SYDNEY-based DEEVILLA proved he can write the type of song this scene needs. His flow, lyrics and overall mood on “NO MORE” summed up 2016 perfectly in terms of music & vibe. FLIP TRILL’s production on this one did all the above and more. 44. “RUN UP (ft. FLYBOII & L.U.I)” - LIL SPACELY (SYD)

Got the vibe that BLACK DANNA head honcho SPACELY had a tough 2016. But, being an essential SYDNEY rap-character that he is, the dude still managed to drop some of the livest AUS rap tracks of 2016. On “RUN UP”, he took the chunky, horn-filled instrumental from FAT JOE and REMY MA’s “ALL THE WAY UP”, puffed out his chest, and along with a couple talented homies delivered a growling, arrogant battle track that signalled his readiness to take his music national. He’s already dropped several tracks in ’17. Stay woke. 43. “FIRE” - SQUIDGENINI (MELB)

SQUIDGENINI a.k.a Bella, is one of Melbourne’s better-kept secrets right now. She’s been honing her craft for some time: playing in bands, producing solo tracks and supporting huge artists. “FIRE”, one of her only releases in 2016, instantly put her on our radar. This highly ambitious track features no-bullshit lyrisicm, eccentric production and some straight up vocal-fire. 42. “NAH BRUH, THIS IS WAGE GANG!” - VEENO (SYD)

When BABY VEENO dropped this insane freestyle in October it was criminally over-looked by many (including us). Choosing YOUNG THUG’S timeless “SEE YOU” beat from that G.O.A.T RICH GANG tape proved to us that the man has taste. The ensuing bars instilled visions of VEENO becoming SYDNEY’s trap-SKEPTA in ’17. 41. “CLAP BACK” - SAVOUR THE RATIONS (SYD)

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SAVOUR THE RATIONS were one of the most influential, pro-active and entertaining AUSTRALIAN rap crews of 2016 (especially towards the end). KWAME, DOMBA, JAYJAY ASSASSIN, GYBRYLLAH SHYNE & RAJ MAHAL made their biggest moves via videos/live performances. “CLAP BACK” which was dropped on Jan 2nd, 2016 showed the boys doing their ting for their own entertainment. This year they’ll be doing it for thousands no doubt. 40. “BEST FRIEND (YOUNG THUG REMIX)” - BIG SKEEZ (SYD)

This was probably the local track we played most last year. BIG SKEEZ really stood out in ‘16 for his song-writing hustle & originality (highlighted on his S.A.T.T mixtape). Remixing such a familiar, iconic song allowed SKEEZ to let loose in the booth more than ever before, resulting in 3:14 of explosive, feverish trap-fury filled with icy-cold local references/flips. 39. “ALIVE REMIX (ft. BARO & CAZEAUX O.S.L.O)” - ESESE (MELB)

Couldn’t think of a more suitable 2016 MELBOURNE summer-rap anthem than this BARO remix if I tried. It feature local pillars: CAEZEUX O.S.L.O, SKOMES and the ESESE crew - and oozes those heavenly FITZROY day-party vibes. Hearing HENOQ and O.S.L.O both spit new-gen AUS boom-bap masterpieces in rapid succession would’ve brought a tear to the eye of every true BURN-CITY rap-fan this year. 38. “NO MORALS (ft. $KINNY DOM)” - BLACK NAPOLEON (WA)

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On “NO MORALS”, BLACK NAPOLEON brought equal parts: slow, deliberate and estatic D double E style booth raps - the kind you’d hear on some UK Pirate radio set to the table. LUCHII, another PERTH-based genius jumped into the mix sounding more like a 6K Gucci, nailing the perfect guest verse. The CAMERON PARK directed-visuals for this one featured no guns, knives or punches thrown, but it still stands as one of the most violent local vids of ’16. #HOMEBAKED. 37. “FUCK THE JUDGE (ft. REMI)” - BARO (MELB)

When BARO dropped the second taste of his soon-TBR JPYNTK tape about 6 months ago, the world was torn in half by the racial violence sweeping the US. It was literally with you everywhere you went, no matter ur skin colour. “FUCK THE JUDGE”, which was released at the very hight of this chaos featured inspired verses from REMI + BARO and was accompanied by the statement: “They're killing my people. They're killing PEOPLE.” The song itself also made another (less important statement) about BARO’s unflinching confidence as a dude/rapper. It was his first absolute crystal clear “fuck u” to industry/fan expectations - a sign that he might be giving the typical AUS rap-sound a much needed kick up-the-butt in 2017. 36. “POTENTIAL (I SEE)” - LORD LEVI (MELB)

When it comes to MELB underground anthems in 2016, LORD LEVI’s “POTENTIAL (I SEE)” is practically unrivalled. The hook, flow and production on this one truly encapsulates the rise of the BURN-CITY outer-suburb high-school trap scene in 2016. LEVI and the GREMLN squad built a dedicated following last year on the back of songs like this. Trek thru any BURN-CITY suburb and “I SEE POTENTIAL” follows u through the streets. 35. “FLEX MODE” - ERIK SANDERS (BRIS)

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Brisbane’s ERIK SANDERS blew up out of nowhere last year on the back of several highly-polished, US-influence nu-trap singles. “FLEX MODE” bursts out of the gate with a series of auto-tune inflected bars that twist-and-turn, merging multitudes of impressive melodies in quick succession. This one gets real wild at the end too. 34. “RIDE (ft. REZT)” - LUCHII (WA)

LUCHII has always struck us as an interesting character, but we still slept on the man in ’16. When he dropped “RIDE” like a month ago, we swore to stay woke on the PERTH creative forevermore. This one rides an island trap wave that reminded us of CHILDISH GAMBINO’s “CALIFORNIA” and MAC MILLERS new stuff, but it also hits on something completely new. The vocals reference ATL rhythms/tones AND something else, which MUST have been born in a cloud of green smoke on one of those pristine PERTH beaches. 33. “PULL UP (ft. CIDI, LORD BRAVO, DUT BOL & RANDOLPH)” - BONKI CHOL (ADEL)

In 2016, the TREXON WAVE squad was our guilty pleasure. We legit found ourselves rinsing their proficiently rugged trap cuts more than CHANCE or FRANK. “PULL UP” is the song that started the whole affair. I remember being high af on a Tuesday at like 2PM about 8 months ago just blasting this enchanting MIGOS-style cut on my speakers for an hour straight. Jut listen to BONKI CHOI and homies: CIDI, LORD BRAVO, DUT BOL, RANDOLPH bring the sauce one time. They all flaunt separate styles, personalities and lyrical tendencies on this one, but their skills/delivery are at 100 throughout. 32. “HOW U FEEL” - NICO GHOST (MELB)

Close your eyes and “HOW U FEEL” will take you to a dark, nondescript club setting. Smoke settles in over those eerie trap bells - the calm before the storm. That amazing harpsichord removes any sense of time/location. Your mind is finally empty. Nico spits that FB generation mantra: “I couldn’t really give a fuck how you feel”, lulling you into a false sense of security before ruining your life with intensity. NICO’s 2016 was pretty-much dominated by his wild live-show. But in between sets he found the time to gift us with this the premiere for this one. Was a huge step forward for us. The man’s legit. 31. “MONSTER TRUCK” - ALLDAY (MELB)

ALLDAY is huge - has been for years now. In 2016, he went through a bit of a sonic evolution and we fucked with it heavy. “MONSTER TRUCK” is a song that pushed Australian rap to places in the world it rarely reaches. This one features earnest lyrics, euphoric melodies and a skin-tight flow - years of work/experience all coming together. ALLDAY made some serious global waves last year as unique voice in the world of post-OVO rap music. 30. “LIONA” - NASTY MARS (MELB)

On “LIONA”, future-star NASTY MARS took warm, wavy, lo-fi production ripped straight from a SOULECTION cassette and crafted his own rap/soul-experiment around the peaks and flows of the beat. Although, hardly representative of this guy’s unreleased material, live show and overall position in the AUSTRALIAN rap/soul scene - “LIONA” still managed to take on a life of it’s own… just suss the comments. 29. “BLOOD THICKER THAN WATER” - LUTHER (BRIS)

One of BRISBANE’s most charismatic up-and-comers, LUTHER teamed up with AUS production royalty JAMES DAMIAN ANGUS early last year for a YOUNG THUG/LIL WAYNE style cut that blew us away. The production bangs. LUTHER’s wild, warbling trap-jitterings are fierce, crunchy and at times hilarious. Everything you want in a track like this. The dude is associated with the WORLDWIDE BOYS who will blow up this year. 28. “THIRSTY” - ANFA ROSE (SYD)

“THIRSTY” came last year amidst a never-ending avalanche of consistently jaw-dropping ANFA ROSE & DOPAMINE joint-efforts. Everything on this one from the samples, to ROSE’s perfectly structured verses - to those 808 snares cutting thru your entire being - to the lyrics enforced our theory that these dudes aren’t human. They are computer programs or clones or holograms or something. 27. “MARIA MARIA” - GEEK, CHARLES X & SELASIE WUSSAH (SYD)

This one - easily top 3 most iconic “THANK GUARD” anthems in our entire history. Seeing it live at one of our BONEY parties inspired some of the most emotional dabs ever dabbed. When it dropped back in Jan, it brought out some of our best writing ever too… so I’m just gonna quote myself here.  “On the most polished THANK GUARD Premiere to-date, a dynamic trio of epileptic acid-rappers exchange contrasting melodic flows - in a bid to win a Spanish bae’s heart.” If you don’t know GEEK, CHARLES X (of CULT SHOTTA) or SELASIE WUSSAH by now we don’t trust u. 26. “1 3 1 6” - E L K (ADL)

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Adelaide teen E L K bursted onto the scene with last year with “TUTEN KARMEN”, which would have easily made the top 10 if he didn’t remove it from SC. “1 3 1 6”, a different (but equally impressive) joint also blew us away. This one brings guys like MF DOOM & JAY ELECTRONICA to mind instantly, but channeled thru the purity of a fresh, young mind with the voice of a rap-god. In 2016 alone, E L K and his PLAYBACK 808 crew went from bedroom rappers, to the creators of a legit AUS rap movement that looks poised to climb mountains in 2017. 25. “FEELING GOOD FEELING GREAT” - TOYOTOMI HIDEYOSHI (WA)

2 months ago, FourAM head-honcho TOYOTOMI HIDEYOSHI teamed up with producer SNOWEE for a sun-drenched 6K anthem. Some rare RAE SCHREMMURD vibes (if they were slightly more sober). Truly peaks at the end. TOYOTOMI is another young dude whose influence on the culture went beyond rapping last year. From short films, events to supporting those around him - this kid did it all in 2016. 24. “DOPER THAN DOPE (MACHINEDRUM REMIX)” - SK SIMEON (MELB)

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One of AUSTRALIA’s best rhythmic-vocalists had a huge 2016. SK SIMEON has been a worldwide reggae force for a minute now. Born in Uganda, recorded his first song at a studio in Dandenong… But last year “DOPE THAN DOPE” - one of his best tracks to-date was remixed by MACHINEDRUM. This version (which sounds good anywhere) took SK’s insane rapid-fire singing and infectious tongue-in-cheek delivery to dance-floors around the world. 23. “NULIFE” - MAIA (BRIS)

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BRISBANE neo-neo-soul singer/producer MAÏA returned to form in 2016 with her nostalgic, intimate “LOFI” Mixtape. “NULIFE” - a definite standout will swallow you up whole in a blanket of warm, jazzy melodies and pulsating rimshots. Coming very early in the year, this track really pre-empted a lot of trends that are dominating American music culture as we speak. We predict huge things for MAIA in 2017. 22. “$AUCE” - GREMLNS (MELB)

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2016 was the year of the GREMLN in the suburbs of MELB. No other underground AUS rap squad made more of an impact than these guys in the last 12 months. This “SAUCE” video came about after months of anticipation and was defs worth the wait. It showed the GREMSQUAD more polished-than-ever, a bunch of real young talents standing at the crossroads between street-fame and industry acceptance. The video itself is like a cross between an old-school Tarantino movie and a London GRIME vid, but set in some unmistakably murky Burn-city graffiti spots. 21. “BERETTA” - MATT BLACK (SYD)

SYDNEY-based vocalist MATT BLACK exploded out of the blocks last year with a series of MIRACLE/DOPAMINE produced R&B/SOUL singles - the type big labels dream about every night. “BERETTA” is the whole package. A high-concept, slow-burning, futuristic love-song which cleverly compares a lover to a pistol. Two things that (depending on the circumstances) can save you or destroy you, make u feel like a man or a mouse. 20. “EVERYDAY” - DREAM$TEAM (ADEL)

So much love for duo’s with vastly different voices. When you listen to a DREAM$TEAM you got no time for boredom. You’ve got CHARLTON on the first verse who always goes in with this SHAKE070-style flow and A-grade emotionally-charged lyricism, then the other G comes in riding world-class auto-tune vibes that sit somewhere between YACHTY & TRAVI$ SCOTT. The production, which features ZAYTOVEN-style piano, is the opposite of corny… bounces hard & leaves plenty of room for vocals. These guys are insanely talented for their age-bracket. Anythings possible for them in 2017 19. “TENNIES” - TKAY MAIDZA (ADEL)

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TKAY MAIDZA, easily one of the most successful artists on this list had a huge 2016. She was spun on SKRILLEX’s OWSLA radio show, played a tonne of festivals in AUS & FRANCE, but most importantly dropped a huge studio album, TKAY, which featured guest verse from KILLER MIKE (Run The Jewels). “TENNIES” was our favourite track from the album, because it combined her signature worldly sugar-rap with some hella uplifting footwork vibes. How often is boundary-pushing music this much fun? 18. “LAPUTA (TAYLOR MCFERRIN REMIX ft. ANDERSON PAAK)” - HIATUS KAIYOTE (MELB)

The one and only MELB-based GRAMMY-nominated future-soul quartet that we probs should have posted by now had to have a presence on this list, at least to show you all what’s possible. Their second album “CHOOSE YOUR WEAPON” is a must listen, but was released waybach in 2015. Last year, TAYLOR MCFERRIN recruited ANDERSON PAAK to rework standout single “LAPUTA” for a remix EP. The results speak for themselves. 17. “PEACEWALKER” - GALLU$, RAIDER KING (BRIS)

GALLU$ was real cult-force down in BRISBANE last year. His influence on the scene transcended his recordings - a huge statement considering the quality of songs like “PEACEWALKER”. This one features some heavy statements screamed with a natural Aussie accent over “GLASSSS” by PYRMDPLAZA.   “THIS INDUSTRY’S FAKE & THE PEOPLE TALK BULLSHIT // THAT SOUNDS PRETTY OBVIOUS // SO WHAT THE FUCK AM I DOING? // QUESTIONING MY OWN MUSIC LIKE // EVERY LINE THAT I WRITE // CAN’T HELP BUT FEEL STUPID.” - nuff said. 16. “ALL OF MI LIFE (MACHINEDRUM REMIX)” - YAW FASO (MELB)

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2016 was a year where artists like POPCAAN & J HUS were getting love on THE FADER + DRAKE/BIEBER/SKRILLEX were jacking sounds from the Caribbean and breaking billboard records. When our own YAW FASO shared this MACHINEDRUM remix of his sun-drenched single “ALL OF MI LIFE” the timing was perfect, but as the hook declares, he wasn’t riding any trends. Reggae is one of the few genres that makes you smile, dance and forget about all your issues. This song, bursting with: FASO’s highly motivational reggae mantras, sugary buildups and super-refreshing production does all the above. 15. “IDK” - GILL BATES (BRIS)

With his LESS STRESS, MORE SUCCESS EP, GILL BATES showed a whole new side of himself to the world in 2016. Standout cut “IDK” took the catchier side of AUS rap into unknown territory: substance & self-awareness. Above all tho, it’s just a great song. That larger-than-life JAMES DAMIAN ANGUS production grabs you from 0:01… GILL’s opening line “BEEN DROWNING MY SORROWS // BOTTLE AFTER BOTTLE” takes you into his psyche… Then GILL & JAMES drag you deeper and deeper into darkness before flipping things with a bittersweet xylophone-driven hook. A world-class highlight from one of the best local releases in 2016. 14. “NEVER BEEN” - TYRØNE (SYD)

In the last 12 months, few local artists worked harder than TYRØNE. The SYDNEY rapper/producer legit dropped a full EP Trilogy, brimming with GOAT Australian rap lyricism. Song, after song the guy managed to craft a unique aesthetic for himself and his music – darkness that isn’t fake. “NEVER BEEN”, a real standout encapsulates this dedication to his craft more than any other. That skin-tight baritone flow just doesn’t stop on this one. “I SAY LIFE IS EVERYTHING YOU MAKE IT // ONE THING DAMN RIGHT I AIN’T NEVER BEEN FAKE BITCH” 13. “HIT EM” - I AM D (BRIS)

BRISBANE one-man-movement I AM D flew way under our radar until we heard this one. “HIT EM” showcased D’s near iconic nu-AUSSIE rap tone, through a stream of SKEPTA-like vocal punches that explained every move he would make in the local scene. Little did we know at the time, but he actually went on to achieve everything he rapped on this track. In a matter of months after its release: he got signed to a major label, dropped a hugely successful EP, landed a national tour and stamped his influence on the local culture. 12. “NO FATIGUE (ft. GEEK & SELASIE WUSSAH)” - CULT SHØTTA (SYD)

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The video for “NO FATIGUE” really set the tone for CULT SHØTTA season in 2016. They were always a truly unique presence in the Australian rap game, but on this track, they toned things down, unleashing line-after-line of vibrant acid-raps over a relatively sparse bass-driven trap beat. As per usual, CHARLES X, GEEK & SELASIE WUSSAH each brought their A-game, showing off vastly different styles/personas, each challenging different “AUSTRALIAN RAP” taboos in the process. It also marked the beginning of director RUFFY’s much-needed string of ambitious video-work that helped elevate many-a local rapper last year. 11. “FOR GOOD (ft. SAMPA THE GREAT)” - REMI (MELB)

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Couldn’t think of a better ’16 feel-good Aus-rap summer anthem than REMI and SAMPA’s “FOR GOOD” if I tried. When your air-con breaks on a 35 degree day, this song could actually save ur life. The production, hook and overall vibe really feels like a classic Triple J anthem, the type that soundtracked our lives. But, obviously everything has been re-worked for the next-generation, creating a crisper, more sonically diverse hit than we’re used to. 10. “EXISTENTIALITY” - OJIKAE (MELB)

“EXISTENTIALITY” is a lovesick vision that’s refreshingly different from the over-saturated BILLBOARD TOP 100-style R&B that the likes of TORY LANEZ and BRYSON TILLER put out. It was also the very first track released by 17 y.o VCE student Matt Cicero, which blew us away immediately last JULY. The guy wrote something original, produced the track himself and whipped out a spine-tingling vocal performance that singlehandedly dragged his ass all the way to the top 10 of this list. 9. “ASSUMPTIONS” - MANU CROOKS (SYD)

“ASSUMPTIONS” was premiered on ZANE LOWE’s BEATS1RADIO show… got our mag a global shoutout AND tore stages apart across the country in 2016. We heard more sides of Sydney game-changer MANU CROOKS than ever before on this one. With help from production masterminds DOPAMINE & MIRACLE, CROOKS departed from them brooding Toronto vibes to show Australia & the world that he can can TURN UP like the best of them. 8. “CALL ME” - DEVARN (MELB)

This song is what THANK GUARD is all about. Sonically, it’s right up our alley… but more importantly it came from a creative young dude who: thinks for himself and punches well-above his weight considering the resources/money some people on this list have at their disposal. It also tells a story we have witnessed for years now…  “ALL OF MY N*GGAS THEY WORK IN THE SUN // WAITING FOR LABELS TO HIT UP THEY PHONE // I WANT SOME MONEY TO GET ME A PHONE” Few rappers can get you on their side like Melbourne’s DEVARN. His vocals are earnest, intimate - when he raps, it feels like he’s letting you into his world. He doesn’t slur his words, or smother them in auto-tune either - you can hear every word the man is saying. Also, huge props for referencing some of our fav underground anthems >> SAUCE (GREMLNS) >> MOOSHAMAD // I HAD A DREAM WE GON’ MAKE IT. Damn. 7. “000000” - MIDAS.GOLD (BRIS)

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Last year, Brisbane’s MIDAS.GOLD elevated himself to the Mount Rushmore of this new-wave. Of all the wild trap releases & intimate soul-searching cuts on his huge FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH EP, “000000” had the biggest impact on the scene. It dropped all the way back in JANUARY when local rappers were all bumping FUTURE & YOUNG THUG 24/7, but still didn’t truly believe that an Aussie could incorporate these sounds into their music so convincingly. MIDAS truly made this quality JAMES DAMIAN ANGUS/MO LIASON beat his bitch from 0:01, before abruptly taking the track down a notch in its last third, flipping the beat and creating a Schoolboy Q-esque bleary-eyed, kushed-out vibe that eased the track out from its original energy. 6. “WHIP IT” - BIG SKEEZ

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We’ve been huge supporters of BIG SKEEZ for a long time. Every track he dropped in 2016 wreaked of originality in both vision and character. SKEEZ, a dude climbing his way up a ladder of: elegant email signatures, cut-throat managers and concrete industry rules, often collaborated with us thru a simple fb message - or just bumping into him in the city. This made us question the likelihood of his success to some extent, but when this video for “WHIP IT” dropped, it turned all our dreams into a reality. The WAVY BADMON, along with his SYDNEY crew absolutely owned the big screen, turning up like a pro to one of the standout tracks from his under-rated debut mixtape. Seeing this whole evolution transpire before our very eyes gave this CERNE STUDIOS production a real sentimental value for the whole THANK GUARD team. 5. “ABSURD” - ANFA ROSE (SYD)

ANFA ROSE and DOPAMINE’S magnum opus will make you cry like a Canadian watching Drake sing the national anthem. The silky smooth, “Absurd” is a beautifully executed blend of 808s, pianos and harmonies. When it comes to polish, no local track released in 2016 comes close to this one. DOPAMINE stripped back that instrumental, focusing on an ethereal and ominous beat with a chordal pattern that slides effortlessly from note to note. ROSE’s delicate melodies fuse perfectly with the instrumental and his lyrics, which are reminiscent of DRAKE’s odes to RIHANNA, or THE WEEKND’s odes to drugs. 4. “RUN IT (ft. LEVI, PHANTOM & KMALITH)” - MIKE WANG (MELB)

When low-key GREMLN MICHAEL WANG dropped this fire squad track all borders between Australia & America went up in flames. The MELBOURNE underground literally outshone the AUSTRALIAN i-Tunes charts. Nothing would make sense ever again. In terms of flow, lyricism and local impact… this was without a doubt one of the best Australian rap tracks released in 2016. WANG, LEVI, PHANTOM & KMALITH came out, guns blazing with their own jaw-dropping take on that MIGOS-style flow (and this was all before “BAD & BOUJEE” blew up). That little OVO-style hook/breakdown “I GOT BANDS…” really added a whole other dimension to the song too. Don’t even get me started on the message behind these lyrics and their relevancy to our scene, the city of MELBOURNE and the racial/cultural tensions often overlooked by most Australians. 3. “BLOWIN’ UP (ft. MIRACLE)” - MANU CROOKS (SYD)

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“BLOWIN UP” was MANU CROOKS flipping the switch and making a statement: his rise to success is about much more than bangerz. Being able to rap and record full-time is any local rapper’s dream and seeing the SYDNEY rapper get premiered on The FADER must have motivated thousands of Australian teenagers to keep hustling in 2016. Honestly, didn’t think someone from this new AUS rap-scene would make the pages of a mag like The FADER for at least another year. That stamp of approval means a lot. Manu’s tuned-up, magnetically charismatic vocals definitely stole the show on this one…Dude just seems to know exactly what to rap and when. But, none of this would have been possible without his equally talented bros: DOPAMINE & MIRACLE who both shined, bright as ever on this one.  DOPAMINE always knows just the right amount of syrupy autotune to sprinkle over his mates vocals & this beat speaks for itself. MIRACLE’S production and vocals contributions always help bring a track to the next-level. All 3 of these guys will no-doubt make even more Australian-rap history in 2017. 2. “WDUBI (ft. NASTY MARS & MARCUS)” - BARO (MELB)

When the mind of a black sheep is re-configured to entertain the mindless masses, an artist has reached their final frontier. BARO (NASTY MARS & MARCUS) did this last year with “WDUBI” - the first taste from his eagerly-awaited JPYNTK tape. On first encounter, it plays as the perfect Australian new-gen rap jam. But on further inspection, everything about it: the production, vocal stylings and somber sonic undertones expose it for the beautiful alien it really is. All three verses loosely acknowledge US 2K16 rap (CHANCE, GAMBINO etc), but overall this track really does’t follow the rules set by the American market at all - which is why we love it so much. That NIC MARTIN production plays a huge roll in this also. Something about those double-timed snares/claps and the tempo made this one feel so damn refreshing. We really played the fuck out of this one last year. THANK GUARD. Oh btw “AND IF WE HAVE A SON I THINK WE’LL NAME HIM STEVEN” - line O.T.Y 1. “BLUE BOSS” - SAMPA THE GREAT (SYD)

LMAO. In 2016, a lot of local bro’s hyped their shit like crazy. Walking around like the TUPAC reincarnate, talking smack online & sharing videos on FB 10 times a day… and SAMPA THE GREAT quietly drops a song that makes them all look foolish, raising her to instant-legend status. SAMPA is emotionally mature, intellectually elegant, socially conscious. Her words can fight wars or comfort a child. She is the type of person you’d want running for president, let alone running the local rap scene. “BLUE BOSS” is like a world-class 2K16 surprise rap-hit, but also feels timeless. Unlike kindred spirits NONAME & KAMAIYAH, SAMPA keeps her production and overall-vibe as earthy as possible, creating her own unique place in the rap-world. Considering the desperate need for more female rappers in this country, the quality of SAMPA’s vocals and her all-too-rare modest demeanour, we had to give “BLUE BOSS” the #1 spot. Posted by PAULINE HANSON

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bartarb · 7 years

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RECAP: OUR TOP 50 AUSTRALIAN HIP-HOP/R&B TRACKS OF 2016

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