Licensed to Illy: Australia's answer to Jay Z

http://www.theguardian.com/culture/australia-culture-blog/2013/dec/17/lilly-rap-arias-australia

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Al Murray knew he might never walk again.

Transverse myelitis. That’s what the doctors called it. Murray had been playing basketball when he got an almighty crack on the back of the neck from another player. The injury inflamed the spinal chord, and now the nerves in his back, arm and legs weren’t working.

Murray was 21 years old when he was injured in 2001. Known as Illy, he’d been working the Melbourne hip-hop scene, doing little shows here and there, building his name and making links with the local Crooked Eye rap crew and its frontman Phrase. At the time, he was slowly beginning to gather material together for his debut album. “It was really shit timing,” he says of the injury. “I was overwhelmed at it happening, and I just wanted to get better.”

He did. His first shaky steps out of his bed had him gripping the guardrail tight, his legs trembling. Within a month, he was walking, although it took him close to a year before he could run.

On 1 December this year, Illy walked onstage at the Star Event Centre in Sydney to pick up his first Aria award, for urban album of the year. He did not expect to win. Not for a second. On the way up to the stage, he glanced at host Nina Las Vegas, mouthing “What the fuck?” He didn’t even have a speech prepared, and stammered out thanks to his label without mentioning family or friends.

“At the time I was just trying to get through it without making too much of a dick of myself,” he says. “I’ve never felt that level of shock in my life. It was about 40 minutes of being overwhelmed. I’m just amazed that I got through the speech, to be honest.”

It was quite a moment. Illy was up against some serious Aussie hip-hopheavyweights – including Bliss n Eso, Seth Sentry, Horrorshow and Urthboy – but the album he was winning for was something he made for fun. Bring it Back was a palate-cleanser, a move away from the radio-friendly tunes he’s known for into more grounded boom-bap territory. Five days before the awards, he’d released Cinematic, his fourth album, which is leagues ahead of Bring it Back in terms of quality and polish.

The Aria win signalled Illy's dominance in the Aussie hip-hop scene. It’s hard-earned, a product of endless hours on the road and in the studio and a singleminded desire to create the best music possible. Unlike many rappers, he heavily annotates his album liner notes, explaining the process and idea behind every track. Style-wise, he’s the closest Australia has to Jay Z. While he may not rap about selling drugs or buying Picassos, his laid-back flow, easy cadences and quick-witted rhymes come straight from the Marcy Projects rapper.

Bring it Back may have won the award, but it’s Cinematic that listeners are going to remember. It’s the first album where Illy has worked almost exclusively with longtime friend M-Phazes, the Gold Coast producer who recently contributed to Eminem’s Marshall Mathers LP 2. “That’s my dude!” Illy says of his production partner. “That’s one of my best mates. He’s been more involved in my career than anyone, so to see him getting the recognition he deserves makes me really proud.”

Illy’s past records have all been released on powerhouse label Obese records. Cinematic is the debut release on his own label, OneTwo. What he can’t wait to do, he says, is take Cinematic on the road: a national tour is planned for March 2014. “We haven’t performed too many of the [album tracks] live,” he says. “I’m really looking forward to performing most of it. It’s been a while since we’ve had a new set – we’ve been relying on the old stuff for quite a while.”

A common thread running through all of his albums, from 2009’s Long Story Short to Cinematic, is a desire to never miss out on anything. Ever. There’s not a lot of bragging in his rhymes – he’s more likely to muse about how lucky he is, or how surreal his life is now, as he does on the new album’s closer More Than Gold. Given the success he’s enjoyed, it seems odd that he’s still preoccupied with assessing his place in life.

“The opportunities are getting better,” he says. “Everything has taken a step up. This is all I want to do, for as long as I can do it. I don’t want to get complacent – I love what I do.”

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