Illy’s last album, The Chase, was a big one. It saw two tracks in Triple J’s Hottest 100, another going Gold (It Can Wait), a slew of rave reviews, and nominations for both the AIR and ARIA awards.
Bring it Back, his third, is almost a reaction against all this.
It’s Illy’s reminder to his fans that while sell-out shows and Triple J acclaim are cool and everything, he is first and foremost about rap – a message he explicitly details on the title track: “this is for the love of rap/ live our life til our lungs collapse.”
Bring it Back is closer in sound to earlier work than its popular predecessor. Stripped back (and with a distinct lack of indie-girl choruses) it is a throwback to the boom-bap style of hip hop that he fell in love with in the first place.
In trying to pay homage to his roots however, Illy has created something wholly original – a bridge between the old-school, nineties style of Aussie hip hop and the new wave that is neither here nor there, but a crowning achievement in its own right.
In his third offering, Illy’s flow is near-perfect, his accent is broad – using it to his advantage, creating a likeable style that has fed into his mass appeal. The likeability-factor is almost too much to handle on ‘Where You Been,’ as Pez joins in for an endless rota (what?) of quirky ad-libs (shit).
Album highlight ‘Heard It All’ benefits from the golden touch of production god Trials, as do ‘Back, Back, Forward’ and ‘The Real,’ but once again the majority of Illy’s rhymes are complimented by the masterful beat-making of partner-in-crime M-Phazes.
‘Coming Home’ balances the fine line between endearing arrogance and being a dick (at times teetering over it), while ‘Where Is My Mind pt. 2,’ is an enthusiastic congratulations to everyone working in Aussie hip hop right now.
The primary impression to take away from this album is that it will leave you in a good mood. Hip hop as an art form can at times be a genre defined by anger – at the government, society, your circumstances – whatever. With Bring it Back, Illy’s just happy to be alive and making music.
