Impossible Odds

Last Updated on Wednesday, 19 August 2009 09:35 Written by Paul Shields Wednesday, 08 April 2009 15:23

Anything's Possible

There aren't too many artist out there that can sight Kev Carmody, Archie Roach and the best of American hip hop as the primary influences on their career. And there definitely aren't too many people who can boast Tongan, Torres Strait

Islander and Aboriginal heritage, but then again there aren't many people 'round like Fred Rhymes aka Impossible Odds.

“Yeah I am a bitsa, like everybody else,” laughs the laidback Brisbane local on a quick break from work. “And I guess your DNA just comes out in your music, just telling your story. Who I am means that I have to break down some barriers through telling my story. But it's more a force of habit thing. I mean I just listened to all that different type of music - my Mum's Kev Carmody tapes, what my friends were listening to and it all went from there.”
If that's where Fred’s muse is coming from, where his music is going got a big shot in the arm when he decided to apply for the JB Seeds Grant, to gain skills and cash to follow his dream.
“Yeah it was actually my wife who pushed me for that. I had been doing this music thing for about ten years and she just said to me 'Just go for it, and if it doesn't work out you can move onto something else'. But just getting into a room with all those managers of different bands really got my head around the business side of things.”
Lucky for us, the listener, it did work out. When you hear the words indigenous and hip hop you know it’s going to get a bit political. That it’s going to make our ears prick up a little bit, but you certainly don't expect the product, the beats, the flow to be this solid.
“Yeah I feel like my career is just like an airplane getting ready to take off, that point where it just leaves the ground and is just going up and up. I just think that in Australia we can't help but take influences from everywhere and give it our own flavour and that's what's happening with hip hop; different beats and cultures coming together and making something new.”

Catch Impossible Odds at Uber April 17 and at the Stylin' Up Festival, CJ Greenfields Sports Complex, Inala May 30.