1988 fania
Urthboy is a hip hop artist and manager of Elefant Traks in Australia.
Beginning in the late ‘90s, his first group Explanetary folded after one EP In On The
Deal (2001).
Urthboy’s first solo album Distant Sense of Random Menace was released in 2004, but
it was 2007’s The Signal that kicked things up a notch.
The first single ‘We Get Around’ cracked the top 25 in triple j’s Hottest 100 while ‘The
Signal’ was hailed as “a classic” by Rolling Stone. It received two AIR Award
nominations; a J Award nomination (Triple J’s Album of the Year award); and it was
shortlisted in the prestigious Australian Music Prize (Best Album 2007).
Significantly, the album was licensed to Motivo Records (among a select few hip hop
records from Australia ever licensed overseas) and released late 2007.
In addition to solo material, Urthboy is one of the main songwriters in The Herd, whose
five albums The Herd (2001); An Elefant Never Forgets (2003); The Sun Never Sets
(2005/06); Summerland (2008) and Future Shade (2011) have seen them build a
huge fanbase in Australia. They’ve sold out national tours, including major metropolitan
theatres through to regional venues whilst accepting invitations to every major festival in
the country.
During this time they’ve won two AIR Awards; a top ten ARIA chart album; ARIA award
nomination (Best Urban 2008) and a J Award.
Celebrating the government’s apology to the Stolen Generations in
2008, Urthboy worked with Getup to re-imagine the song ‘From Little Things Big
Things Grow’, at Paul Kelly’s personal request.The song helped raise over $100,000
for Indigenous run health and education programs.
In 2009 Urthboy released his third solo album, Spitshine, dropped to great acclaim and
two hugely successful tours (2009 and 2010) playing to over 20,000 people. Urthboy was
shortlisted for the Australian Music Prize (one of the only artists ever nominated twice),
won Best Urban/Hip Hop album at the AIR Awards and received an ARIA nomination.
In 2010 Urthboy embarked on his first European tour, playing some of the biggest hip
hop festivals in the world (Splash, Germany and Open-Air Festival, Switzerland) as
well as clubs shows in Germany, Denmark and England. Adding to that were shows in
Papua New Guinea and Indonesia.
2011 saw Urthboy release the critically adored 'Future Shade' album with The Herd,
taking in 3 highly successful tours and several festival appearances. Later in the year
he was invited to take part in triple j's Nick Cave tribute: Straight To You. His powerful
rendition of 'Stagger Lee' brought the house down at sold-out shows across the country,
including Sydney's Enmore Theatre and Melbourne's Forum.
In 2012 Urthboy reunited with producers Hermitude and Count Bounce to begin work
on Smokey's Haunt, his fourth album. Whilst both Hermitude and Count Bounce
have been exclusive producers of all his material to date, this is the first time they’ve co-
produced an entire record. The chemistry between all parties was electric, resulting in an
invigorated sound and fresh spirit.
Urthboy signed a global publishing deal with the legendary Albert Music, the first hip hop
artist to join their ranks.
'Naive Bravado' is the bold first single from his new record, it features international soul
sensation Daniel Merriweather.
It received strong radio support across the country and was named iTunes single of
the week (June 15-22) racking in more than 30,000 downloads in under 7 days. The
accompanying tour saw Urthboy play across the nation in August/September.
His playful second single ‘Knee Length Socks’ quickly soared to most played song on
triple j and was added quickly added to Nova’s national playlist.
The highly anticipated 'Smokey's Haunt' album was released on October 12 to rave
reviews. It debuted at #14 on the ARIA Album Chart, #1 in the ARIA Urban Chart and
#8 in the ARIA Digital Chart.
It was Triple J Album of the Week, FBi Sunsets Album of the Week and was
feature review in Sydney Morning Herald, The West Australian & Drum Media. The
Australian gave it 5 stars saying it’s “Absolutely captivating, play on repeat”.
Urthboy is label manager of Elefant Traks, a music business with four employees; a
stable of ten artists; 60 releases (and counting) and numerous national and international
tours. His roles include A&R, artist management, tour co-ordinator and getting the job
done. Elefant Traks was recently awarded Best Independent Label at the Jagermeister
Independent Music Awards.
