Drapht

Scoring his turbulent internal monologues with appropriately heady samples, Aussie rapper Drapht (real name Paul Reid) brings you directly into his seesawing private world. Born in Mount Hawthorn, Western Australia in 1982, Drapht joined Perth hip-hop crew Syllabolix as a teen before making his solo debut in the early aughts. His chart-topping 2011 breakthrough, The Life of Riley, came a decade later, peppering hard-bitten autobiography with tongue-twisting flourishes and relentless references. Detailing a romance gone sour, its double-platinum single “Rapunzel” memorably corralled the raw licks of an obscure ’60s garage-rock gem. That album’s “Sing It (The Life of Riley)” nailed the empowering potential of rock and hip-hop alike, name-checking Grandmaster Flash and Nirvana amongst many others. Drapht took his fondness for rock-friendly samples even further by tapping Brisbane beach-punks Dune Rats to lend gravelly gang vocals to “Keys To The City'', a highlight of 2021’s Shadows and Shinings.