It seems that, since the release of his sophomore album Falling & Flying, rapper 360 (aka Matt Colwell) has been doing a whole lot more flying than falling.
Taking his show to just about every Australian music festival you can name, as well as breaking his way through our prolific hip-hop scene to reach the mainstream, Colwell has been nothing but successful in the last 12 months.
The question remains, is Falling & Flying good enough to justify 360’s massive surge of attention?
Intro song “The Take Off” paints an accurate picture of what to expect – a release full of solid, dynamic tracks packaged with lyrics bursting with intimacy and passion.
Each track differs instrumentally to an enormous degree, such as the dubstep in “Hammer Head” being a complete contrast to the smooth piano in “Throw it Away”. Lyrically, there are some strong lines (Forgive me/Maybe it’s my lack of sleep/But I feel like I have to dream) and weak lines (I ain’t gonna be one of them dudes no more/I ain’t gonna be wearing them shoes no more) – both of which feature on ‘Throw it Away’ (with Josh Pyke), but the majority flow freely.
Just the fact that 360 managed to pull off changing the opinions of those who used to turn their nose up at Australian hip-hop is a feat in itself.
While some ‘traditional’ Australian hip-hop fans cite him as a pop sell-out, 360 has simply replied with “I don’t want to just make a hip-hop album – I’m showing what has influenced me”.
The versatility demonstrated within this album has proved how a range of influences can turn any old release into one that is hard to tire of.
– Tom Gaffney
