Local hip-hop goes live on stage

A VARIETY of regional rappers and hip-hop artists are gearing up to play The Eastern next weekend.

With performances kicking off at 5pm Sunday, 28 February, audiences can catch Potent 24, Kryptoss, Floc, Raro, Glasshouse and Matthew James for the first time since last year.

As both a performer and organiser, Floc, also known as Sarah Barclay, said she hopes events like this continue on a more regular basis.

“We used to book monthly hip hop nights at The Eastern but it got stopped because of COVID and this is our first one back so it’s really exciting,” she said.

“It’s Glasshouse’s first gig performing live, they’ve recorded a couple of songs so I’m excited to see them play.

“Raro and Potent 24 both put out music during lockdown as well so I think it’s going to be really cool to see a bunch of new music being performed.”

As the hip hop community in Ballarat continues to grow, Barclay said it’s important to offer these kinds of opportunities to emerging artists to foster a healthy community of musicians.

“Each time there’s an event it just feels stronger and more people are getting up at open mics and we have more artists at every event which is awesome,” she said.

“It’s important to have the genre diversity in Ballarat because it’s nice to have a different experience.

“I’ve written a lot of music during lockdown and my styles probably evolved, like I think all of us have changed in the past months and are writing music about experiences we’ve had.”