Delta

Last Updated on Wednesday, 19 August 2009 09:32 Written by Steph Rea Wednesday, 29 April 2009 10:09

PART TWO

Adelaide born and raised hip hop artist, Delta, represents everything that is real, raw and straight up the guts. Since the release of his 2006 debut album, ‘The Lostralian’, he has performed hundreds of shows to underground hip hop crowds, making a name for himself around the globe as one of Australia’s most formidable freestyle MCs.

In true testament to his ‘rap about what you feel is right’ approach to music, Delta has created what is possibly the first G-Rated Australian hip hop album, ‘The Second Story’.
“A lot of people are saying that the second album is a lot darker than the first one. Unfortunately, I think that the world is becoming a lot darker ... so this is really just a way for us to exorcise our demons. This is the way that we put our emotions on paper, reflect our feelings and the world around us as it is.”
The world of hip hop has come as no surprise to the Adelaide beat slammer, who devoted his heart and attention to music at a ripe young age. “I started breakdancing in 1984 when I was eight years old. My brother got me into b-boying and I started doing a bit of graffiti at the time. I soon realised that graffiti was going to take me in another direction, so decided to give em’ verbal graffiti instead. So I started MCing and mucking around, rapping to Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five.”
Whilst Delta was influenced by hard-hitting artists of the golden hip hop age, it may also have been his Grandmother’s taste in cassettes that helped put South Australia on the map of lyrical hip hop. “The people I grew up with were ferociously into hip hop, graffiti, B-Boying, just the culture itself. It was a real thing; kids were bombers, b-boys or just straight-up gangsters. In 1987, my Grandmother bought me a copy of ‘Paid in Full’ on cassette. I heard that and thought to myself, you know what? I don’t have to be a gangster, I don’t have to be this, or that, to be anyone from anywhere. I could just rap.” From listening to ‘Paid In Full’, Delta drew one of the most important lessons to be learned about life and hip hop early on in his career. “It ain't where ya from, it’s where ya at. That was the rule. It was all about telling your story over the beat. So I  thought, maybe I can do this, maybe I can even rap with an Australian accent.”
It’s no doubt that the graffiti scene has had some impact on Delta’s hip hop. “A lot of people will say that hip hop and graffiti are not the same thing. These are the people that grew up listening to AC/DC, they were rock kids. These 70’s artists that were around at the time were artists that just happened to be writing on trains. Because New York was such a funky place, a lot of people tied that in with the hip hop culture.” 
After collaborating with his childhood heroes The Dap Kings for his second album, Delta has found himself on Triple J’s high rotation in no time. “I have always been a huge fan of The Dap Kings, even when they were the The Sugarman 3. I’ve always played their songs in my club sets, so to work with them in creating tracks on the new album was a truly humbling experience.”
And with the hip hop scene gradually slipping into the realm of mainstream music, Delta lets us in on his advice for keeping it real. “I’ve got no problem with hip hop becoming mainstream, as long as we dictate the way the industry is going. The moment we start sacrificing what we believe in in order to appeal to people that are outside of our culture and quite ignorant to it, then we will be in trouble. I would rather be hated for what I am than be loved for what I am not. Everything I do, I do with my heart behind it. If my heart isn’t in it, I know I’m wasting my time.”

Delta’s ‘The Second Story’ is available now on Shogun.