Downsyde is an

Australian hip hop Australian hip-hop traces its origins to the early 1980s and was initially largely inspired by hip-hop and other urban musical genres from the United States. As the form matured, Australian hip hop has become a commercially viable style of musi ...

group from

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

, Western Australia. The group is composed of three members,

Optamus Scott Griffiths, better known by the stage name Optamus, is one of the MCs of the Perth-based Australian hip-hop group Downsyde and member of WA's Syllabolix Crew. Optamus is also the name of Griffiths' solo project. Music career Downsyde Grif ...

, Dazastah and Dyna-Mikes. The group has performed alongside groups including

Jurassic 5 Jurassic 5 (stylized JuraSsic 5) is an American alternative hip hop group formed by rappers Charles Stewart (Chali 2na), Dante Givens (Akil), Courtenay Henderson (Soup (Jurassic 5), Soup, Zaakir), and Marc Stuart (Marc 7); and disc jockeys Mar ...

Cypress Hill Cypress Hill is an American Hip hop music, hip hop group formed in South Gate, California in 1988. One of the first Latin groups to gain mainstream recognition in hip hop, they have sold over 20 million albums worldwide, and have obtained multi ...

Grandmaster Flash Joseph Robert Saddler (born January 1, 1958), known by his stage name Grandmaster Flash, is a Barbadian-American musician and DJ. He created a DJ technique called the Quick Mix Theory. This technique serviced the break-dancer and the rapper by el ...

The Black Eyed Peas The Black Eyed Peas are an American musical group formed in Los Angeles in 1995, composed of rappers will.i.am, apl.de.ap and Taboo (rapper), Taboo. Fergie (singer), Fergie was a member during the height of their popularity in the 2000s, and ...

, and

The Roots The Roots are an American Hip-hop, hip hop band formed in 1987 by singer Black Thought, Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter and drummer Questlove, Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Roots serve as the house band on NBC's ''T ...

. They also performed with Australian acts like

Hilltop Hoods Hilltop Hoods are an Australian hip hop group that formed in 1994 in Blackwood, Adelaide, South Australia. They are regarded as pioneers of the " larrikin-like" style of Australian hip hop. The group was founded by Suffa (Matthew David Lambert) ...

Resin Dogs Resin Dogs is an Australian hip hop group, formed in Brisbane, Queensland in 1996 based around the founding trio of DJ Katch (Andrew Garvie), produceBlunted Stylus(Geoff Boardman), and drummer, Dave "Acosta" Atkins. The group is a loosely str ...

, and

Koolism ''Koolism'' is an Australian hip hop duo originating from Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. The members are lyricist Hau Latukefu (born Langomi-e-Hau Latukefu, 1976, Queanbeyan, Australia) and producer/DJ/musician Danielsan Ichiban (born ...

. The band has also performed at a number of festivals, including

Big Day Out The Big Day Out (BDO) was an annual music festival that was held in five Australian cities: Sydney, Melbourne, Gold Coast, Queensland, Gold Coast, Adelaide, and Perth, as well as Auckland, New Zealand. The festival was held during summer, typi ...

Splendour in the Grass Splendour in the Grass (commonly referred to as Splendour) is an annual Australian music festival held at the North Byron Parklands in Yelgun, New South Wales. Since its inauguration, the festival has also been held in various locations near ...

, Rock-It,

Falls Festival Falls Music & Arts Festival (commonly known as Falls) is a multi-day music festival held annually in Byron Bay (New South Wales) and Fremantle (Western Australia), Australia over the New Year's Eve and January period. The festival hosts contem ...

Homebake Homebake was an annual Australian rock festival, featuring an all-Australian lineup (with the occasional artist from New Zealand). The festival was first held on 3 January 1996 at Belongil Fields in Byron Bay, on the far north coast of New Sou ...

, Good Vibrations and the

Southbound Festival Southbound was an arts, camping and music festival. A variety of Australian and international artists performed at this event. The festival occurred annually around New Year at the Sir Stewart Bovell Park in Busselton, Western Australia. Histo ...

History

1996–2001: ''Epinonimous''

Downsyde's origin occurred when MCs

(Scott Griffiths) and Dyna-mikes (Shahbaz Rind) were in Year 11 at

Craigie Senior High School Craigie Senior High School was a public co-educational high day school, that was located in Craigie, a northern suburb of Perth, Western Australia. The school was established in 1976 and was closed in 2003; and subsequently demolished. Overvi ...

, where they took part in a school talent quest in 1996. The group said; "We sort of figured out ourselves at 16 the best way for us to identify with Australia and to write topical music about Australia was for us to use our own voices rather than adopting a New York accent." –

Hayes, Joshua ''Downsyde – Kicking Up The Dust'' X-Press Magazine 14 August 2008 (page 14) The duo released a tape demo called ''Behind the Bucket'', selling copies at two local shops, managing to sell all of the 200 copies they made within weeks. The band said "We suddenly got asked to play gigs with

Eskimo Joe Eskimo Joe are an Australian alternative rock band that was formed in 1997 by Stuart MacLeod, on lead guitar, Joel Quartermain, on drums and guitar, and Kavyen Temperley, on bass guitar and vocals, in East Fremantle, Western Australia, Aus ...

and Beaverloop at the Grosvenor and actually gig as a band. At that point we used to play the gig with our beats recorded on a

walkman is a brand of Personal stereo, portable audio players manufactured by Sony since 1979. It was originally introduced as a portable Compact Cassette, cassette player and later expanded to include a range of portable audio products. Since 2011, ...

that we'd plug through the PA." –

The group added a third MC, Dazastah (Darren Reutens), whom they met at Leederville

TAFE Technical and further education or simply TAFE () is the common name in Australia for vocational education, as a subset of tertiary education. TAFE institutions provide a wide range of predominantly vocational courses. Colloquially also known ...

, and DJ Armee (Damien Allia) on turntables, meeting him at the Hyde Park Hotel where he would DJ on Monday nights. Later, the group expanded to the current line-up with percussionist Salvatore (Salvatore Pizzata) (ex-Beaverloop) and Cheeky (Mat Cheetham) (ex-Circus Murders) on keyboards, loops & samples joining the group. Cheetham recalls "I was in Tokyo hanging out and got a call from my mate Sal, he's playing drums with these guys Downsyde and he said 'when you come back you should have a crack at sampling stuff for them.' So I came back, met the guys and the next thing I know I was in the band. My first show was at the

." – Cheeky For four years Downsyde produced beats and rhymes and played at hundreds of gigs, parties, and MC battles culminating in the September 2000 release of their debut album, ''

Epinonimous ''Epinonimous'' is the debut album released by the Australian Hip Hop group Downsyde. Although Downsyde are now quite well known throughout Australia, this album is hard to get hold of. It was released in September 2000. Track listing All songs ...

'' – recordings made by the band from 1996 to 2000.

2002–2006: ''Land of the Giants'' & ''When the Dust Settles''

Their first single, "

Gifted Life "Gifted Life" is the first single from Australian hip hop group Downsyde's second album Land of the Giants. It was released on 23 September 2002 on the independent label, Hydrofunk (established by Resin Dogs) and distributed nationally by Virgin ...

", was released in 2002 and was nominated as 'Best Single' at the 2003 Australian Dance Music Awards. In the same year, Downsyde won the ''Best Debut Artist'' at the Dance Music Awards. Their second album, ''

Land of the Giants ''Land of the Giants'' is a one-hour American science fiction television series that aired on ABC for two seasons, beginning on September 22, 1968, and ending on March 22, 1970. The show was created and produced by Irwin Allen. ''Land of the G ...

'', was released in 2003 on the Hydrofunk label. The album won 'Most Popular Local Original Album' at the 2003

Western Australian Music Industry Awards The Western Australian Music Industry Awards (commonly known as WAMis) are annual awards presented to the local contemporary music industry, put on by the Western Australian Music Industry Association Inc (WAM). History WAM was originally fo ...

. Downsyde signed with

Obese Records Obese Records was an Australian hip-hop, Australian hip hop record label based in Melbourne, Victoria. It was the largest independent hip hop label in Australia and was home to acts such as Pegz, Hilltop Hoods, Thundamentals, Reason (Australian ...

and in 2004 released a single, "

Lesfortunate "Lesfortunate" a song from the Downsyde's, released as the lead single from their third album ''When The Dust Settles'' in September 2004, prior to the album's release in December, with the various tracks also available as a download from the iTun ...

", which they followed up with a third album, ''

When the Dust Settles ''When the Dust Settles'' is the third full-length album from Australian hip hop group, Downsyde and was released in December 2004 through Obese Records. It was produced by band members Optamus, Dazastah, Cheeky and Armee. All tracks were rec ...

'', in December 2004. The album was nominated for the

J Award of 2005 J, or j, is the tenth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its usual name in English is ''jay'' (pronounced ), with a now-uncommon vari ...

. Pizzata was replaced by Catastrophe, Dazastah's brother on drums between 2005 and 2006. Catastrophe was a short-term member and filled in to do the late 2005 "When The Dust Settles" Australian Tour and performances up to mid 2006. Steve Curyer (aka Hi-Hat), Downsyde's current drummer, joined in early 2007. Downsyde was one of the Australian hip hop artists featured in the documentary ''Words from the City'', which aired on

ABC Television ABC Television most commonly refers to: *ABC Television Network of the American Broadcasting Company, United States, or *ABC Television (Australian TV network), a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Australia ABC Television or ABC ...

in late 2007. Dazastah (Reutens) is a prominent local record producer.

(Griffiths) runs his own label, Opt Shop Records. Armee (Allia) has toured with Fdel and DJ'd at many prominent clubs in Asia. Cheeky (Cheetham) is a member of dub group the Sunshine Brothers and has a solo project 'Rooster Police'.

2007–2009: ''All City''

In 2007 the band signed with Illusive Records and commenced recording their next album, once the final tracks were down on tape they then headed off to

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

to play a couple of shows for the

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

Festival. The band said "We've changed labels every album. We did ''Epinonimous'' independently, ''Land of the Giants'' on EMI/Hydrofunk, and ''When the Dust Settles'' on Obese. After ''When the Dust Settles'' was released, we needed to take time away from touring and a whole lotta other stuff to do with the industry; we felt there was a whole lotta pressure for us to release another album a year and a half later and to do all of this stuff mechanically, which creatively didn't feel right. We specifically sign one album deals, whereas a lotta artists get bullied into three album deals and get shockingly ripped off, spat out, and are not a musician two years later. We sent 'this' album out to countless labels and we got back countless deals back. It just happened that Illusive came back with a very interesting way of marketing Downsyde, plus we have the common goal of elevating us as a band and not Australian hip hop per se." – Optamus The group's fourth album, '' All City'' was released on 4 October 2008, and features collaborations with Howling John Stone and

Guru Guru ( ; International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, IAST: ''guru'') is a Sanskrit term for a "mentor, guide, expert, or master" of certain knowledge or field. In pan-Indian religions, Indian traditions, a guru is more than a teacher: tr ...

. The album became their first album to enter the ARIA top 100, peaking at number 76. The first single from the album "Fortune and Fame" was released on 1 September, together with the accompanying video produced by West Australian production company The Penguin Empire has received significant airplay. In October 2008 to promote the release of the new album, Downsyde embarked on its first national tour since 2005. Of the tour, the band said "We're pumped man – it has been a long time since we did a string of dates around the country, and it's good fun." -

2010–2015: hiatus

released his debut solo album ''Forever & a Day'' in June 2010, with keyboardist Chris 'Imposter' Foster and multi-instrumentalist Moondog. Dazastah is embarking on a talent project called "Natural Dazastahs" in which he will be uploading beats online for the public to rhyme over, with the best entries being compiled for release. Although members are working on these various solo projects the group is still working on a fifth album.

2015–present: reformation and ''Classic ILL''

Downsyde has been on a five-year hiatus. however in 2015, they have been recording their sixth studio album, ''Classic ILL''. The first single, "Only Got Now" from the album was released in September 2017. The music video to the single was directed by Aaron McCann.

Discography

Albums

Singles

Awards and nominations

Australian Dance Music Awards

Downsyde won one award from five nominations in 2003.2003 DMA Nominations
/ref> , - , rowspan="5", 2003 , rowspan="3", Downsyde , Best Hip-Hop Act , , - , Best Australian Hip-Hop Act , , - , Best Debut Artist , , - , ''Land of the Giants'' , Best Album , , - , "Gifted Life" , Best Single , , -

J Award

The

J Awards The J Awards are an annual series of Australian music awards, established by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's youth-focused radio station Triple J, and which also extend to sister stations, Triple J Unearthed and Double J. The awar ...

is an annual series of Australian music awards that were established by the

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is Australia’s principal public service broadcaster. It is funded primarily by grants from the federal government and is administered by a government-appointed board of directors. The ABC is ...

's youth-focused radio station

Triple J Triple J is an Australian government-funded national radio station founded in 1975 as a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). It aims to appeal to young listeners of alternative music, and plays far more Australian conten ...

. They commenced in 2005. , - ,

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

, ''When the Dust Settles'' , Australian Album of the Year ,

West Australian Music Industry Awards

The

(commonly known as WAMis) are annual awards presented to the local contemporary music industry, put on by the Western Australian Music Industry Association Inc (WAM). Downsyde won 10 awards.2003 West Australian Music Industry Award Winners

(wins only) , - , 2001 , Downsyde , Most Popular Original Electronic Act , , - , rowspan="3", 2003 , Downsyde , Most Popular Local Original Urban Music Act , , - , ''Land of the Giants'' , Most Popular Local Original Local Album , , - , "El Questro" , Most Popular Local Original Music Video , , - , rowspan="2", 2005 , rowspan="2", Downsyde , Best Live Electronic Act , , - , Best Urban Music Act , , - , 2006 , Downsyde , Best Urban Music Act , , - , 2007 , Downsyde , Best Urban Music / Hip Hop Act , , - , 2008 , Downsyde , Best Urban Music / Hip Hop Act , , - , 2009 , "Fortune and Fame" by Downsyde , Most Popular Music Video , , -

References

External links

* {{Authority control Australian hip-hop groups Western Australian musical groups Obese Records artists