Our April feature artists, Sydney duo Spit Syndicate (Jimmy Nice and Nick Lupi), have just unleashed their brand new LP ‘One Good Shirt Had Us All Fly’, a genre-bending fresh take on Aussie hip hop. The record sees the boys teaming up with a string of local bigwigs, from Thelma Plum, to Joyride, REMI and Solo, and has their slick wordplay on show from start to finish. We chatted to Jimmy and Nick about the story behind each cut off the record:
‘ONE GOOD SHIRT HAD US ALL FLY’
1. “Birds of a Feather”
This was the last song that we made for the album, and it’s the first song. That’s usually how it goes for us with albums. The beat is just so f**cking tough — it’s a classic Adit knockin’ beat, i wanted to make it pretty, and then just ugly, hard, nasty synth. It properly details the breadth and scope of the sounds of the album.
2. “OMW”
It could be my favourite. It’s probably the oldest song — we made it two and a half years ago and it’s stood the test of time. It’s about knowing that something may be toxic for you, or things you do to distract yourself when you know that something isn’t good for you.
3. “Know Better”
This is a feel-good party jam that came together quite effortlessly; it’s a great reflection of both the confidence we’ve felt while making this album and also our chemistry with Styalz Fuego, who produced and co-wrote this song.
4. “Houdini (feat. REMI)”
It’s got a crazy swing. That was a Styalz Fuego beat that we had a long time ago. We felt like it suited the type of energy that we have with REMI. We’ve been a big fan of his work and him as an artist. We became friends and it’s a really good representation of what it’s like when we get together with him on a record. We made it faded, so it sounds like it’s a good one to get faded to.
5. “All Eyes”
It’s about wanting to see, or loving seeing, your friends shine, doing well and killing it. When we’re out there, we’re telling their story as well as ours: “When I shine, you shine.” Just being proud of your friends for smashing it. There’s just a real ‘us’ feel. We might be the face of these songs, but it’s everyone’s story that we’re collectively telling.
6. “Inhibitions”
Your pre-party, your party, and your after-party. We always wanted to make a song that you can put on, on a Friday afternoon, to get ready to. Before the party is always doper, even when you’re lit up in the uber on the way to the party. This was just something that we found on Styalz’ computer; he was outside the studio and we were looking through. He was like, “If you’ve got something at 9am, you can have it.”
7. “Late Nights”
It’s about getting the right mix of people. It’s so important to get the balance right, whether you’re just partying and turning up — which i feel like we’re very good at, we’re very self-aware. It’s an ode to having the right balance in your night, and knowing how to do it right. Partying better.
8. “Hold On Me (feat. Joyride, Solo)”
From the moment that Adit, Jono (Graham) and Freddy (Crabs) started cooking up early form of this beat, everybody knew it was something special. It’s basically a love song about a particular feeling, rather than a person; it touches on this almost nostalgic yearning for a feeling of freedom and togetherness.
9. “Mum”
It came together so organically. Jono came back from a weekend away. He lives with me so he came upstairs, and told me he’d just had a fight with his mum over something. He made this beat, and made this song, and named it “Mum”. I’d come back from my mum’s house up the coast. I’d gone away to see her for the weekend. He said “I made it for my mum. Now I want you to write something over the top of it for yours.” It was the way that he presented it to me, having explained to me what had happened — he had made his mum cry, and was ashamed about it. If he had just sent the song without attaching the story or the emotion to it, I wouldn’t have come up with that. He made me channel something else. The next day, we recorded it downstairs in the bedroom at my house.
10. “665 (feat. Kai)”
It’s an idea that Kai came up with. It’s a darker one in the sense that it deals with feelings of paranoia and doubt, and being in two minds. My verse specifically is about when I was living in a house years ago. We were making ‘Exile’. Horrowshow had just finished ‘Inside Story’. They came over to our place and I was just like, “F**k. This is so good. What are we gonna do?” It pushed me. I feel like it made me better. It’s something that all musicians or creatives go through, but they may not tell you that.
11. “Not In My Name (feat. Radical Son)”
The last few years have dealt a fair few knocks to anyone with a social conscious, or believes that our nation should be moving forward rather than backwards. This song serves as a call to action to anyone who believes that we can and should be expecting more from our leaders, our country and ourselves.
12. “Darling St. (feat. Thelma Plum)”
It was a real special moment for us. It was real cool to work with Thelma on a song. You’d play just the beat for people, and they’d be like, “I cried on that,” which is a crazy thing. It definitely touched us. We knew what we wanted to talk about in the song. We just got together in a park down in Melbourne and threw some ideas around and, by the end of the day, we had the whole song. That moment at the end where the beat rides out is my favourite moment on the record. Songs change shape so much, and this was the only song on the album that was executed exactly how we envisioned it from the start.
13. “Last Laugh”
It’s just a beast. Crazy beat. We didn’t want to finish on a pretty song. We still wanted to let people know that this is what we do. We rap, and we can do it like no one else, and we just want to prove that. It’s a real moment, back to what we used to do — just go hard, just go crazy with the bars, and still say something. I feel like that’s a good representation of Spit Syndicate; you can have all these confident rap bars, but it’s still intelligent, and it’s still classy. It’s a good wrap-up of the album. I think that’s two of our best verses. We just want to have people wanting more from us, for next album.