“People just want to hear authenticity. In Australia, I don’t feel there’s enough of that,” Miko Mal told Rolling Stone AU/NZ in March.
He knows what he’s talking about: Mal has emerged as one of the most exciting members of this promising new wave of Australian rappers, in large part due to keeping things real.
Mal honed his lyrical skills on the streets of Melbourne, attending a Fitzroy community centre in 2017 to share his tracks with other local artists. He soon found a home for his music on 66 Records, making waves at the time for launching as Australia’s first African-owned label.
“I’m an observer, I get my inspiration from everywhere. I’m into different types of music, cultures and lifestyles,” the Australian-born Turkish/Egyptian rapper once said. It doesn’t matter whether it’s rap or fashion: carefully curating what you like, being authentic to yourself and your audience, is key.
A quick scrawl of Mal’s Instagram shows that the boy raised on Naarm’s vibrant streets has never forgotten the culture that raised him.
“A new type of Australian hip hop star,” we wrote in our interview with Mal earlier this year. It was a declaration that the artist himself lapped up, using it to caption an Instagram carousel showing him with friends and collaborators at studios, restaurants, community gardens, exhibitions. But the carousel, crucially, started with a picture of Mal at a basketball court in inner-city Melbourne, chilling on the streets he knows so well.
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Authenticity: that’s what matters. When so many up-and-coming rappers just want to go viral, chasing the big bucks, the ones – like Mal – who remember where they come from? Those are the ones who earn genuine respect in the game.
Like Nerve, too. Almost 2,000km away from Mal and Melbourne, Nerve has established himself as one of the most versatile rappers and MC in Brisbane for almost a decade.
Nerve spent years playing free shows to a handful of people, hustling his way up Meanjin’s music scene. He taught himself to produce, becoming a double musical threat.
“When I was rapping at parties and writing my own stuff I thought damn, I gotta figure out how to record,” Nerve told Red Bull in 2021. “But at the time, I was really into ’90s stuff and I was really purist about it. I loved vinyl, I was obsessed with vinyl, I bought heaps of vinyl. So I would only make beats sampled off vinyl ‘cause I was really into that ’90s steeze.”
He discovered old sounds and new favourites rummaging through records at his local Vinnies. “I sounded like an old head. I sounded jaded as, at 17,” he added. “I was like, ‘I’m only making beats sampled off vinyl.’ And I eventually got over it, ‘cause I realised fuck it, if it sounds good it sounds good. But that’s how I learned — sampling a lot of old vinyls.”
These two up-and-comers who do things their own way recognised something in each other in 2021, releasing the collab cut “Superhero” to a resounding response (over 250,000 streams on Spotify alone at the time of writing). They weren’t done there, teaming up with Badrapper (his chosen moniker, not admonishment of his artistic talent) a year later for the sizzling collab “X GAMES”.
Now, it’s time for another Nerve and Mal co-sign, but this time it’s not a musical one.
The pair helped launch Everlast XL, Everlast ANZ’s new apparel line inspired by ’90s NYC streetwear and culture.
Nerve and Mal’s style has always merged comfortability with substance, which makes Everlast XL the ideal fit for them. And befitting both rappers, Everlast ANZ’s new line is built around the energy of Australia’s hip-hop and street culture.
Everlast XL brings together heavyweight materials and clean, elevated streetwear design, whether it’s matching nylon tracksuits in black and college green or oversized mesh shorts influenced by basketball and boxing.
Everlast XL is a limited-edition, online-exclusive release, with no restocks. Check out the full line here – but be quick.
