Aussie rapper, songwriter and one third of heralded hip hop heroes Thundamentals, Tuka has just reeled his third solo album titled Life Death Time Eternal (out now via EMI) and it’s his most accomplished effort yet.

LDTE is A body of work that heralds the coming of age of a truly unique voice in Australian hip hop, a deeply personal and heavily themed record,  bold, melodic and unafraid to colour outside of the lines.

To celebrate the release of the killer LP, Tuka has given us a track by track run down of the record. Check it out below and be sure to catch the MC when he rolls into your town (tour dates below).

LDTE

The introduction to the album and its themes. I got the beat off a guy called J57 from the Brown Bag All Stars in the US via a friend of mine on Snapchat. She introduced me to him and he sent me the stems and I remixed them.

Lyrically, it looks at Life Death Time Eternal. In hip hop, the OG is the Original Gangsta but if you really want to talk about the OG, it’s the Original God. I’m not religious, I’m agnostic but I do believe in harmony and the duality of life. I have more faith in my experiences that what people tell me I should follow…

Right By You

This was the last song I wrote for the album and I was thinking the album was a little too dark and I wanted to bring some light into it. Deep down I feel like most people have an inner kindness, but you can lose sight of that as you can get older or become jaded. I wrote this one all in my head and then I worked with Alex Hope to flesh out the beat.

A lot of my songs are a similar tempo because I walk so depending on how fast I walk. I don’t have my licence otherwise my songs might be faster!

Don’t Wake Up

It’s about FOMO, the Fear Of Missing Out. It’s funny because when you’re writing a record, you really can’t go out all the time.

You need to be good, stay home and write. But sometimes you just give up and go out, only to realise it wasn’t that great anyways and you’re really not missing out much.

Tattoo

This one explores that feeling of seeing an ex everywhere – walking in front of you, driving past in a car – but it’s really just someone else. It’s like being haunted. It happened to me a year after a break-up.

This girl really gotten in my head… she’d made a permanent mark like a tattoo in my head.

Nirvana

I was listening to a lot of Kid Cudi, Tom Waits and Johnny Cash and wanted to use my voice differently to go for something more dream-like.

I’m trying to train your mind to be blissfully empty, to forgot those tattoos and make you feel better. I’d love people to put this on for their kids to fall asleep to.

My Star

This was born in the tour van with Thundamentals in the Victorian snowfields. Our tour manager had just had a child and was talking about him so beautifully and with so much respect.

I don’t have children, but that conversation inspired me to write a song to my own future child. It’s a nice way to look into the future – Life Death Time Eternal. The line ‘you are my star’ comes from the point of view that essentially we’re all made of matter that originally came from star dust.

State of Mind

The idea was to write a song where the verses are a song and the chorus is a rap, because I can’t think of one person who’s done that. It turned into a bit of a Chili Peppers rock-out at the end, but that was the idea – to do something more unconventional.

Lyrically, it goes into a darker place on the album – sometimes you blame your feelings on other people, but you’re the only one who can control how you feel.

Everything

It’s about the delusions of grandeur [in the hip hop world]. Gold chains, taking drugs, chasing women and it all means nothing. Once you have access to that, you’re not going to be any happier. It’s just feeding the ego.

The funny thing is though I still listen to all those rappers who sing about it. And I’m not going to stop either… that’s duality for you.

Yeah Right

This one’s got a bit of a Schoolboy Q and Danny Brown vibe and some dark humour too. I wanted a track with some ego in there. I guess we’ve all had people bitch about us one time or another.

When I started, other rappers around me were so dead set that they were so good at it. These days, those same guys have all gone and stopped making music and now I’m seeing this new generation of artists who are coming up and are more progressive and open-minded and less competitive.

You

I really like writing love songs as they come easy. Tthis one’s about feeling totally, happily helpless in love. You have this Darwinistic nature of going back to someone and being totally infatuated with them. It’s writing about how I fucked up but still thinking about them.

I wanted to do a song where I sing in falsetto, because I don’t think I’ve heard any Australian rapper that’s done that. It took me a while to nail, but I didn’t have to autocorrect it so that was a good sign.

Down For Whatever

This was the first song I finished. I got the beat off Poncho from Thundamentals and it originally had ‘80s guitar all over it. All my life I’d hated 80s guitar but then I watched that cheesy TV biopic on INXS and suddenly that was all I wanted. I ended up playing with it and eventually toning it down in post-production in the end.

Upcoming Show Dates

Jul 25 Splendour In The Grass, Byron Bay
Oct 23 The Gov, Adelaide
Oct 29 The Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle
Oct 30 Oxford Art Factory, Sydney
Oct 31 Transit Bar, Canberra
Nov 06 The Corner, Melbourne,
Nov 07 Woolly Mammoth, Brisbane
Nov 13 Amplifier, Perth
Nov 14 Mojos, Fremantle
For tickets and info visit www.tuka.net.au