Thirteen years ago Paul "Drapht" Ridge released a song that changed his life. But was it for the better - or for the worse?
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Jimmy Recard was the first single from his third album Brothers Grimm and it catapulted him to hip-hop stardom. With it, though, came crushing expectations and pressure. Drapht "killed off" his alter ego Jimmy in follow-up album The Life of Riley.
"At the time I wrote this song I was thinking 'If I had a different name then my life would be completely different', so that's where the idea came from," he tells Weekender from his home in Western Australia.
"I kind of lost who I was after that."
It is only now, with the release of his seventh album Shadows and Shinings, that he is able to appreciate Jimmy Recard for what it is: a damn good song worthy of the accolades it received and something to be proud of.
"People overseas are still just discovering it and it's my most listened to song on Spotify," he says.
"It's just the gift that keeps on giving. I am very grateful for that song. It was a very torturous time but in the same breath I wouldn't change it for the world."
By killing off Jimmy, Drapht says he was trying to rid himself of the expectations of others.
"There were so many people within the industry who were like 'Oh that song was really massive, have you got another song to back it up that's going to have the same impact?'. I was sick of people asking me if I had another Jimmy Recard," he explains.
"I was put through the ringer and I consequently worked myself into the ground. I was miserable.
"I had to overcome that and find my passion for writing the songs that I wanted to write and not the songs that the industry expected me to write."
Drapht reckons Shadows and Shinings "slots in" after The Life of Riley "from a passion perspective". The album is typically Drapht - a contemplative journey through the human psyche, introspective and complex but full of addictive beats tied together by clever production - and always pushing the boundaries of Aussie hip-hop as we know it.
There's a lot of cathartic venting within the subject matter, but in all, it was the easiest and most enjoyable album I have made to date. I truly believe this is my best stuff.
- Drapht
"With any of my stuff, first and foremost it's been a venting outlet - very introspective and part of my therapeutic process," he explains.
"My process when it comes to writing music has never been to stick to a formula and keep writing the same song. It's literally like therapy for me. I'll write whatever's on my heart in that particular moment.
"Because I'm very insular - I'm not an extrovert by any stretch - I struggled with being in the limelight and I struggled with people constantly having expectations of me.
"[Shadows and Shinings] has been one big purge and a reset for the most part."
Drapht, who has two ARIA awards to his name, is almost clinical in the way he identifies the things poisoning his outlook on life and dissects them through hooky melodies and persistent beats.
He chooses who he works with on each album very carefully, and Shadows and Shinings is no exception: Pressure from Hilltop Hoods features on Oliver Twist; Bitter Belief and Complete on Model Plane; and Dune Rats on Keys to the City, to name a few.
"Some of the songs on the album had been following me around for eight or nine years, like Model Plane," he says.
"A lot of the time the songs are like clouds that follow you around and with some of the subjects you don't find homes for them until they find homes for themselves, you know?
"For the most part I owe finishing the album to the isolation period in 2020. I had a lot of time to reflect on the identity and the relationships that came with making music.
"I found a lot of peace in letting go, going back to what I knew worked and concentrating on the people who truly matter - I worked with a heap of killer guests and friends on this project.
"There's a lot of cathartic venting within the subject matter, but in all, it was the easiest and most enjoyable album I have made to date. I truly believe this is my best stuff."
Drapht turned 39 last week. He laughs at the prospect of making hip-hop in his 40s.
"Next year I will have been releasing music for 20 years. It's like where the f- - k did that last 20 years go? It seems like another lifetime ago.
"You know, I never wanted to pigeonhole myself solely as a hip-hop artist, I just wanted to be true to my inspirations and myself. In my opinion a lot of Aussie hip-hop is its own sub-genre. It's inspired as much by rock as it is American hip-hop. I know I am, and the Hoods and Bliss n Eso and Downsyde and the Funkoars.
"I never finish an album and want to listen to it again but I'm super proud of this body of work. For some reason, I'll go on runs and I want to put it on because it's music that I really enjoy listening to.
"I'm a Virgo and very self-torturous and will try to perfect something that doesn't need to be perfected, so it's amazing for me to finish something of this scale and then want to go back to it and listen to it and still really enjoy it and not pick it apart and not overthink it."
Drapht's album Shadows and Shinings is out now.
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