Hilltop Hoods ~ Anthony Ryburn

Now it's time to look into one of the most notorious group artists for Australian hip hop known as the Hilltop Hoods. Hilltop Hoods have been around on the music scene for over 2 decades now, but it took some time before they gained some mainstream popularity to become the international sensation they are now. Founded in 1991 they consisted of band members Suffa (Matt Lambert) MC Pressure (Daniel Smith) and DJ Next (Ben Hare). However after deliberation with DJ Next leaving in 1999 the replacement DJ Debris (Barry Francis) managed to extend their name to fame over the years.

They're strongest rise to fame came about during 2006 when they cleaned up the Australian music Aria Awards. They were nominated for breakthrough artist and album, however ended up winning best independent release and best urban album. As a result it generated an enormous fan base into the birth of the new culture of Australian hip hop which has grown rapidly over the past 7 years and they have been the major turning point. 

The group has toured all over Australia in numerous festivals and more recently with their most recent album "Drinking From the Sun", it's seen them travel overseas to Europe, Britain and America. They're solo shows have drawn crowds of over 10,000 people as seen in the One Night Stand hosted by Triple J. In 2011 they performed alongside worldwide renowned artist Eminem.

The landmark album "The Calling" was released in 2003, which gained some minor attention, and broke into the Aria charts, with notably one of their most famous singles on it title "Nose Bleed Section". The success progressed into the next album "The Hard Road" which produced numerous hits such as "Clown prince" and "The Hard Road"; both making it onto the Triple J and Aria charts. "Drinking From The Sun" they're most recent album has also not fallen short with chart topping singles such as "I Love It".

The rise to fame has also meant they have initiated several side projects, including their own franchise of DC shoes known as the "The Hilltop Hoods Remix Shoe" being the first of any Australian artist to have their own shoe.

Overall the Hilltop Hoods can be seen as the initiation of Aussie hip hop, and the main reason for its rapid success. They have inspired almost every Australian artists battling to find mainstream in the hip hop world, and continue to do so with leaked information of a much anticipated deliberation of a new album to come out later this year.