Urthboy

Hip hop with a conscience comes to the Zoo.
Sean Robertson
Published on March 18, 2013

Overview

Ever since Urthboy's pioneering hip-hop crew The Herd welcomed the political demise of John Howard with"finally the king is dead we cried off with his head", it was clear this was one rapper who didn't fit hip hop's chest-beating conventions. And now the man born Tim Levinson is bringing his unique brand of Aussie hip-hop to the Zoo.

Since the chart-topping success of Macklemore's marriage equality anthem 'Same Love', hip hop with a conscience has been back in a big way. Yet while Macklemore trades in gimmickry and overt sentimentality, Urthboy offers his fans a heady mix of brains and the lefty protestor, with songs that tackle that most unsexy of topics: politics. With everything from Australia's refugee policy ('77%') to the national flag ('Empire Tags') to Rudd's infamous 'Sorry speech' (in a GetUp!-sponsored reworking of the Paul Kelly classic 'From Little Things Big Things Grow'), Urthboy has become an unintentional and unlikely voice of a generation.

He's now showing off a host of fresh new tunes from his hit album Smokey Haunts, so there has never been a better time to don your favourite Che Guevara T-shirt and jump on the Urthboy train.

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