The Channel 17 Wrecking crew are one group of hard-ass muthafuckas. They are one of the most hyped new Australian hip-hop group right now and I could not believe my luck when two of their members agreed to a face to face interview at their apartment in metropolitan Melbourne. Let this interview serve as a warning to you all. The C17 are here and they ain't taking no shit from no-one.
When did you guys start busting out the rhymes???
BCool: In the womb.
BFresh: I got into rapping through breakdancing. I was actually reincarnated from a famous breakdancer in the 70's.
Who was that???
BFresh: Ummmm, I'm not actually sure of his name at the moment. I'm trying to search. I'm searching for myself trying to find the inner being.
BCool: You see, well I'm 20 years old. When rappers delight came out, my mum was jiving to that on the 8 track. It comes from within. As a group together the Wrecking Crew has been together for about 4 of 5 months. Not long, but we've achieved a lot.
What is your goal as a crew???
BFresh: Definitely our album. It should be out by the end of this year.
BCool: Maybe out the start of next year. The album actually consists of 17 tracks from 17 different rappers so it should be good but our goal is to dominate the Melbourne hip-hop scene.
BFresh: Even more so than we are at the moment. I think the reason why we're not all over the covers of the newspapers is because we're too underground at the moment.
BCool: I think we pose a threat to the hip-hop dudes in power.
BFresh: Like bias B and melways, he can watch out.
BCool: Yeah, them and Ransom. I just don't think they wanna mess with the Channel 17 sound. It's a bit too new for them at the moment.
So you're looking to shake things up a bit???
BCool: Yeah, yeah. We wanna become the kings of the Melbourne hip-hop scene. I think for too long it's been ruled by fatcats that don't have any street cred. Whilst we do.
BFresh: Exactly.
So what's the deal with the album. Who are some of the people collaborating on it???
BCool: Well there is us two. We've got The Witch Doctor. Fat Masterbator from the Lower Templestowe posse. We've also got a couple of other friends who are remaining so underground their names haven't come out yet.
BFresh: Yeah, there's also drunk monk aka MC Wanton. We may even get a little cameo from Taylor G himself. If he's up to it on the day.
So who is the infamous Taylor G???
BCool: Well as I said, we like to keep things under wraps at the moment. We don't wanna make too much of a commotion in the hip-hop scene as it is. The whereabouts and who Taylor G is will all be revealed at a later much more public date.
BFresh: I mean, just like Slipknot, wearing all those masks and making up all those names for themselves because they're afraid that after one of them killed all these dudes it's a similar situation with the Channel 17 Wrecking Crew. One thing that we can say about Taylor G is that he's a vicious animal and he doesn't take no for an answer.
So what's the story with the Commodore rap???
BFresh: Well the Commodore rap all started when I bought my first car which was a Commodore and then I wrote that off and bought another Commodore. I thought there really should be a song about the Commodore and the essence which is the Commodore and who better to put it down than the Channel 17 Wrecking Crew because we're keeping it real right here in the underground of Melbourne.
BCool: I had a VK Commodore myself. Like the freemason society, all the Commodore drivers have sort of bonded in this thing and we wanted to forge this bond together and bring all the underground Commodore sounds of the Alpine, Kenwoods and Hitz FM together in one.
BCool. You make a lot of lyrical references to Nth Balwyn. Is this the place where you grew up???
BCool: Yeah. Nth Balwyn is the place, it's the bomb. A lot of people have dissed Nth Balwyn. They think it is pretty boring. You've really got to live in Nth Balwyn to see how tough it is as a place and the only person who could say that is me, as the self-proclaimed king of Nth Balwyn that you've really gotta be in the shit to see the type of stuff that goes down. Come Saturday night your ass is wanted in Nth Balwyn. Nth Balwyn is where it's at.
There's rumours flying around that there is a bit of major label interest in signing you guys both overseas and locally. Would you sign to a major if the opportunity arose???
BFresh: Possibly, because it's all about getting our music out to the people. Because we have to unite. We have to unite with everyone else in the Australian hip-hop scene because we're all one, we're all part of the same entity and I mean, if that's what it takes to get our music out there then I suppose that's what we're gonna have to do. It's not about the money. Definitely not about the money.
BCool: Not about the money, chicks and the free drinks and the free coke.
So you are not worried about the scenesters labelling you a sell-out if you do???
BFresh: Nah, the greats have been called sell-outs. Like Ice-T, Rolf Harris, Vanilla Ice, Billy Ray Cyrus. Even Britney Spears.
BCool: Just to name a few. So we're not really too phased about all these players sayin some shit behind our backs. We're keepin it real.
Speaking of Vanilla Ice, what do you think of him making a comeback???
BFresh: I think it's absolutely awesome Rob Vanwinkle is one of the best rappers in the World today.
BCool: Sure, I mean what's going on with Florida at the moment with people not knowing who is gonna win the election. I reckon they get Vanilla Ice on side and that will be ice-cutter. The decider on who is to win the US election. But I reckon it's great that he is back. It's good to see a guy with such good credibility in the World scene come back and reign his crown once again.
BFresh: It's not entirely through his own doing. He's done collaborations with bands like Korn, and Bloodhound Gang.
BCool: It's good to see he's back on the scene and if he comes over we'll be the first on board to join the tour. But we'd be headlining of course.
Do you guys play a part in the Melbourne graf scene???
BCool: Melbourne as a whole is a bit too big on a personal basis so I just bomb Nth Balwyn because it's where I'm at, it's where the shit is happening. So me and Taylor G go out some nights might do a couple of bus stops, a couple of churches, a couple of old people community centres you know how it is.
How do you describe your music to people not involved in the hip-hop/rap scene??? For example, your grandparents.
BFresh: Well, if I was to speak to an older citizen, or a senior, I always remember that they're not old, they're just older. If I was trying to explain my hard rhymes to one of these upright citizens I would have to explain to them in terms which they can understand maybe with war references and wheelchairs.
BCool: I think the music speaks for itself. I think you really have to sit down and have a bit of quality listening to just see what's going on here. They have to hear the groundbreaking sound that we're trying to forge here in Melbourne. The C17 sound. I don't like to use labels for my music because my interests are very diverse, like I listen to gangsta rap and old skool and new skool. I don't like techno or any other stuff but I like all different types of rap. It's like from all different parts of society and we bring it all together into one. So I wouldn't really like to put a label on us coz that would instantly sell our music to some extent. If anything we are label pioneers, we're genre pioneers, just bringing it live, bringing it to the people.
Hip-hop and rap can be quite boring live but i've found your live shows to be really energetic and spontaneous. Is this important to you???
BFresh: Well we do try to get the audience involved because that's what it is all about. It's about us coming together with our crew and with our fans as well.
BCool: And jammin and rhymin. A bit of participation both ways is always good. It's not just about being hardass. It's about what you wear too. You've really gotta be seen, be down, be colourful and be seen on the streets so people can see your part of the C17 Crew.
BFresh: That's right. And maybe some FILA, or FUBU.
BCool: Or even some Dunlop or Tracks. A personal favourite of mine. Helps me write my tracks.
BFresh: Aerosports or Jets as well.
Who writes the music???
BCool: That's a trade secret man. Just like the Cornels herbs and spices. We don't want any suckas sampling our music. We like to keep the sources unique and prime.
BFresh: You keep people guessing. You might hear a competition with Barry Bissell from FOX where you call up and guess the sound. It's like that.
Do you think hip-hop and rap have a bad name in the outside community???
BFresh: I think that it's probably just like R'n'B music that has put people on edge about rap. Especially that Sean "Puffy" Combs and also Tupac and Biggie.
BCool: I think it's the American counterparts that give hip-hop a bad name. It's a unique Australian sound that we've got here. It's the accents that we're dealin with ya know. We're just keepin it real.
BFresh: It's all about the rhymes. If we were gonna break some of that seppo crap then it's not gonna rhyme.
BCool: If people think it's badass and shit, they should really get down to one of our shows and see for themselves and then make up their own mind.
Any last words???
BCool: We're here, we're loud, we're where it's at. We're dope, we're rhyme, we're da bomb.
BFresh: 100%
BCool: 110% with GST. Word and peace.