“We’re trying to break away from that ‘skip hop’ stigma that Aussie hip hop has. RaRa is creating vibes and breaking down barriers. Part of that is jumping onstage wearing costumes, wearing dresses and not being afraid to talk about the shit we talk about,” states beat maker and rapper Parisella, even at conversation pace the words burst out of his mouth.
The group’s latest 20 song mixtape, Post-Homo, is confronting from its phallic cover art to songs like The Night I Shit My Pants and Cocaine. Parisella explains that RaRa want to get people thinking, they want to tear down everything that has come before. On this thread Parisella makes a strong distinction by saying “We’re not trying to be heavy in that Aussie hip hop thing.”
Joining the dialogue at this point of the interview is Dixon (Lovely Me). “RaRa is about having fun with hip hop and create a new vibe – a new identity.” Parisella now collaborates with his musical brother by adding, “Exactly what he said, we’re trying to break away from that ‘skip hop’ stigma that Aussie hip hop has. That’s what RaRa is trying to do, we’re trying to create vibes and we’re trying to break down barriers.” Dixon adds to this point, “We’re not trying to be on a different topic to other Aussie hip hoppers, we’re just rapping about stuff that is real and that is relevant to us because it is what we are experiencing – topics that we don’t hear anyone else rap about.”
One issue that RaRa confront on the Post-Homo is neo-macho-ism and the spectre of socially expected ‘homophobia’ and the hugely under-acknowledged the societal effect that using a term like ‘faggot’ as a derogatory term can have on young men coming to terms with their sexuality.
The outspoken Parisella gives an example how RaRa approaches an issue that no one else seems to rap about. “In Followed By Experts I try to open to Nate and tell him some stuff I have been going through and he is like ‘What are you talking about, shut the fuck up, you’re not meant to have feelings, I don’t give a fuck about your feelings’ and he calls me a ‘weak faggot’ and I know that word carries a lot of meaning, we’re not using it as derogatory, we are simply using it as the word is used. We’ve grown up with it being used, so he’s basically making a statement by saying ‘you’re trying to open up to me so you’re a weak faggot’ it’s playing up on that thing because where we were raised, you don’t talk about your feelings, you don’t talk about that shit, that’s alien!”
Growing up in Melbourne’s leafy Eastern suburbs, RaRa isn’t going to lie to us and pretend they have the same problems as the original US rappers from the ghettos of Brooklyn and South Central.
Parisella now addresses a huge problem facing generation Y that the RaRa rap about, most notably on the song Cocaine. “Let’s face it, our generation has a big problem with anxieties and mental issues that are stemming from party drugs.” Dixon now weighs in with a specific example from the aforementioned Followed By Experts. “In Followed By Experts Ll’vo says, ‘I didn’t even know that my brain was fucked, all that shit that I did, so many repercussions,’ and yeah, looking at a lot of people our age they don’t realise what they’re doing to their brains until it’s too late.”
Predictably unpredictable and not afraid to mess the norm, RaRa are putting on a huge party at Revolver as Part 1 of the Post-Homo launch. An act on the lineup is precise beat maker Willow Beats. Dixon explains how an unexpected collaboration was how the link was made with Willow Beats.
“We met him at the Inca Roads Festival in December last year. We actually camped next to him and us RaRa guys were all just free styling and then they came over and then he just ripped out his laptop and we just started freestyling over his beats and ever since we have been really tight with him.”
BY DENVER MAXX
