My top ten for the 2000’s
Inspired by Triple J’s recent initiative to choose the Hottest 100 for the 2010’s I have decided to try to climb back into the dark recesses of my memory and come up with my top ten songs from the previous decades. My appreciation for music started in the second half of the 1980’s and then went into overdrive in the 1990’s. Anyway, here is what I’ve come up with from the 2000’s …
The 2000’s saw Aussie hip hop become the greatest influence on me from a music perspective with the emergence of many excellent Aussie hip hop artists during the decade.
The list of artists and songs for my top 10 is pretty solid as evidenced by the artists that didn’t make the cut, such as; Astronomy Class, The Cat Empire, Frenzal Rhomb, Front End Loader, Funkoars, Gerling, Henry Rollins, Paul Kelly, Muph & Plutonic, Regurgitator, Terrafirma, TZU and Urthboy.
- The Herd – Scallops, from the album ‘The Herd’ (2001)
The Herd are my favouritest ever band and they released 4 albums during the 2000’s, starting with their debut album ‘Elefant Traks’ (2001), ‘An Elefant Never Forgets’ (2002), ‘The Sun Never Sets’ (2005) and ‘Summerland’ (2008).
I could choose their whole back catalogue as my favourite tracks but some of the more notable for me include tracks such as States of Transit, Burn Down The Parliament and 77% from ‘An Elefant Never Forgets; Unpredictable, Long Lunch, We Can’t Hear You, Under Pressure, Can’t Breath and Mischief from ‘The Sun Never Sets’ or 2020, The King is dead, Time to face the Truth and Emergency from ‘Summerland’, I could also have chosen The herd’s cover of I Was Only 19.
But in the end I have chosen the first Herd song I ever heard and it’s still one of my favourites to this day, Scallops. The members of the Herd must also share my love for the potato scallop, or potato cake, depending on what part of Oz you are from. I am one of those idiots at a Herd gig yelling out for them to play this song, I’ve been lucky enough to see them play it live on several occasions.
2. Reason – True Aussie Icon, from the album ‘ One Step Ahead’ (2004)
MC Reason from Melbourne has been one of my favourite MC’s ever since I first heard his track Melwayz, which also featured Bias B, on ‘Culture of Kings – The Australian Hip Hop Compilation’ (2000).
Reason released 3 albums in the 2000’s; ‘One Step Ahead’ (2004), ‘Life’s a Lesson’ (2007) and ‘The Tides are Turning’ (2008). Some of my favourite tracks include Have You Ever?, You Never Know, Weather The Storm, A Good Sport, Out on the Patio, Reography, 100%, Cloud Surfing, No-one Walks Behind Me, Life’s a Lesson, Many Dark Reasons, Writing on the Wall and It’s All Good.
But I have chosen ‘True Aussie Icon’ as my favourite. I first heard it on Suffa’s ‘Suffering City’ (2002) album but it’s also on Reasons ‘One Step Ahead’ album.
3. John Butler Trio – Believe, from the album ‘Three’ (2001)
I have loved John Butler ever since I heard his album ‘Three’ early in the 2000’s. He released 9 albums/EPs during the 2000’s and is one of my favourite live acts despite his propensity for long guitar solos.
4. Jack Johnson – People Watching, from the album ‘Sing a-Longs and Lullabies for the film Curious George’ (2006)
Jack Johnson released 5 albums during the 2000’s and has been a regular on my play list ever since I first heard him. His music is very relaxing and very much inspired by the surf. I have yet to see Jack perform live although I do have some DVDs of his live performances.
It’s very difficult to pick favourites from Jack’s catalogue of songs, each album is so consistent with great songs, however having said that here is a sample of his goodness from the 2000’s; The 3 R’s, The Sharing Song, Times Like These, Dreams be Dreams, Good People, All at Once and Angel.
I have chosen ‘People Watching’ as it such a cool song about one of my favourite pastimes, people watching.
5. Matty B – Fridays, from the album ‘The Courageous LP’ (2002)
Matty B has released 2 albums, ‘The Courageous LP’ (2002) and ‘Simple but Effective’ (2006). Similarly to Reason, I first heard Matty B on the ‘Culture of Kings Compilation’ with his track Courageous. Some of my other favourite tracks include Aussie Weekender and I’m a Joke. But I have chosen Fridays for my top ten as it reminds me of fun times during my uni days.
6. Pegz – Back Then, from the album ‘Axis’ (2005)
Pegz is not only a great MC but he also started up Obese Records, the label that has released many of my favourite artists albums.
I have chosen ‘Back Then’ as my favourite track of Pegz as it’s inspires me to reminisce on past years but I could easily have chosen What would Happen? which is a contemplative track.
Pegz released 3 albums in the 2000’s; ‘Capricorn Cat’ (2003), ‘Axis’ (2005) and ‘Burn City’ (2007), his last album ‘Drama’, was released in 2011. Pegz also teamed up with Joe New and Dialectrix to form Gully Platoon and they released their album ‘The Great Divide’ in 2009.
7. Bias B – Now Your Gone, from the album ‘Been There Done That’ (2007)
Bias B released 4 albums during the 2000’s; ‘In Bed with Bias’ (2003), ‘Beez Wax’ (2004), ‘Been There, Done That ‘ (2007) and ‘Aerosol Era’ (2009).
‘Now your Gone’ is a sad track by Bias B detailing his relationship with, and the death of, his mum. It’s the raw honesty of tracks like these that really draws me to Aussie hip hop. Hunter has done a similar track called, Me Old Man as well as Seth Sentry with Violin (but this was released in 2015). Probably the most poignant song Bias B has done was How Did I End Up Here in 2011 which is about suicide. But don’t get me wrong, Bias B’s songs aren’t all serious and sad, he’s also released a song about farting called Gaseous Forms.
Bias B, Pegz and Reason are all MC’s from the Obese Records crew in Melbourne that I’ve listened to often since the 2000’s.
8. Hilltop Hoods – Testimonial Year, from the album ‘The Calling’ (2003)
The Hoods have been the ground breaker for Aussie hip hop with their amazing success. There are so many tracks I choose from, they released 5 albums and 2 DVDs during the decade. I decided to select ‘Testimonial Year’ as it’s a song that explains the path they’ve taken to obtain their success. But I could have easily have picked other tracks such as Fivety in Five, Stopping all Stations, Clown Prince and Nosebleed Section.
9. Hunter – Going Back To Yokine, from the album ‘Going Back To Yokine’ (2006)
If there was a reward for raw honesty then Hunter would be the winner. His lyrics pull no punches and glosses over nothing with no topic off limits. Some of his tracks include; I’m a C*nt, Me Old Man, Never Commit, Jam Roll, Yokine (Drugs & Crime) and Ink.
During the 2000’s Hunter released one album, ‘Going Back to Yokine’ (2006) but he also teamed up with Dazastah to release ‘Done DL’ (2002). He later teamed up with DJ Vame to release ‘Monster House’ (2010) and then teamed up with Mortar to release ‘Fear and Loathing’ (2011).
Unfortunately Hunter died in 2011 after a battle with cancer, his last album ‘Bring it all Back’ (2013) was released posthumously. At the time of his death he was also working on a charity album in support of Canteen. The album, ‘Australian Hip Hop Supports Canteen’ was released in December 2011. This double CD contains 32 tracks from the likes of Hilltop Hoods, the Elefant Traks Allstars (Hermitude, Solo, The Tongue, Ozi Batla & Urthboy), Bias B and Reason (and many others).
A documentary was released in 2013, ‘Hunter: For the Record’, depicting Hunters career and battle with cancer. It is one of the most moving documentaries I’ve ever watched.
10. Bliss n Eso – Happy in my Hoody, from the album ‘Flying Circus’ (2008)
This is fun track that I’ve played very often, generally on a Friday, and always while sporting a hoody! A great fun song to round out my top ten for the decade.
Bliss n Eso released 3 albums during the 2000’s; ‘Flowers in the Pavement’ (2004), ‘Day of the Dog’ (2006) and ‘Flying Circus’ (2008).
My top ten for the 2000’s
- The Herd – Scallops, from the album ‘The Herd’ (2001)
- Reason – True Aussie Icon, from the album ‘ One Step Ahead’ (2004)
- John Butler Trio – Believe, from the album ‘Three’ (2001)
- Jack Johnson – People Watching, from the album ‘Sing a-Longs and Lullabies for the film Curious George’ (2006)
- Matty B – Fridays, from the album ‘The Courageous LP’ (2002)
- Pegz – Back Then, from the album ‘Axis (2005)
- Bias B – Now Your Gone, from the album ‘Been There Done That’ (2007)
- Hilltop Hoods – Testimonial Year, from the album ‘The Calling’ (2003)
- Hunter – Going Back To Yokine, from the album ‘Going Back To Yokine’ (2006)
- Bliss n Eso – Happy in my Hoody, from the album ‘Flying Circus’ (2008)