Spit Syndicate are an ARIA Award-nominated

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 ...

duo, consisting of Nick Lupi and Jimmy Nice based in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, Australia. The duo have opened for international acts such as

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 ...

Xzibit Alvin Nathaniel Joiner (born September 18, 1974), better known by his stage name Xzibit (pronounced "''exhibit''), is an American rapper, actor, television presenter, radio personality, and record executive. He began his musical career in 1992, ...

Ice Cube O'Shea Jackson Sr. (born June 15, 1969), known professionally as Ice Cube, is an American rapper, songwriter, actor, and film producer. His lyrics on N.W.A's 1989 album '' Straight Outta Compton'' contributed to gangsta rap's widespread popu ...

Lupe Fiasco Wasalu Muhammad Jaco (born February 16, 1982), better known by his stage name Lupe Fiasco ( ), is an American rapper, record producer and Music education, music educator. Born and raised in Chicago, he gained mainstream recognition for his gue ...

Atmosphere An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosph ...

Brother Ali Ali Douglas Newman (born Jason Douglas Newman, July 30, 1977), better known by his stage name Brother Ali, is an American rapper, community activist, and member of the Rhymesayers Entertainment hip hop collective. He has released nine albums, ...

People Under The Stairs The term "the people" refers to the public or common mass of people of a polity. As such it is a concept of human rights law, international law as well as constitutional law, particularly used for claims of popular sovereignty. In contrast, a ...

, Diverse and Savage +

Mareko Mark Sagapolutele (born 15 June 1981), best known by his stage name Mareko, is a New Zealand hip hop recording artist from South Auckland. Career Mareko's career began as a member of the Deceptikonz, a South Auckland rap crew. The group won ...

. The duo are also part of music collective One Day.

Biography

The group was founded in Sydney's

Inner West The Inner West of Sydney is an area directly west of the Sydney central business district, New South Wales, Australia. The suburbs that make up the Inner West are predominantly located along the southern shore of Port Jackson (Parramatta River) ...

by rappers Nick Lupi and Jimmy Nice. Nick Lupi attended

Fort Street High School Fort Street High School (FSHS) is a Education in Australia#Government schools, New South Wales government run, Mixed-sex school, co-educational, Selective school (New South Wales), academically selective, secondary school, secondary day school, ...

whilst Jimmy Nice attended Leichhardt High School. In 2006, Spit Syndicate released their debut mixtape ''The Future's Bright'', which was followed by an appearance on

MTV Australia MTV was a 24-hour general entertainment channel specialising in music and youth culture programming which serves Australia and New Zealand. Paramount Networks UK & Australia headquartered in London with a local office at Network 10's headquarte ...

's ''The Lair'' in July 2007, alongside other musical acts such as

Sparta Sparta was a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (), while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement in the Evrotas Valley, valley of Evrotas (river), Evrotas rive ...

and The Hot Lies. In February 2008 the duo 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 ...

, when Nice was 21 years of age and Lupi 19, and released their debut album ''Towards the Light'' in July 2008. In a November 2008 interview, Nick Lupi said "We actually signed on the dotted line in February of this year, but we started talking to them in about November of last year. We were both overseas during the summer and we had this album ready and we were gonna put it out when we got back, it was just a matter of who we did it with." In 2013, Nice reflected on their experience of releasing a debut album: "We were so young when we started, we were just little sponges ... We just wanted to know what it was all about, we wanted to be around it, we wanted to be at every gig, we wanted to record at every chance that we got". The album was nominated for

ARIA Award for Best Urban Album The ARIA Music Award for Best Urban Album, was an award presented at the annual ARIA Music Awards, which recognises "the many achievements of Aussie artists across all music genres", since 1987. It was handed out by the Australian Recording In ...

at the

ARIA Music Awards of 2008 The 22nd annual Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (generally known as ARIA Music Awards or simply The ARIAs) took place on 19 October 2008. The nominees for all categories were announced on 10 September, while the winners of ...

. In May 2010, they released their second studio album, ''Exile''. In the official press release, the duo said the album was "inspired by the clarity of mind borne out of travel, the feeling of suffocation by one's everyday surroundings and the displacement sometimes required to get right". ''Exiles lead single was called "Starry-Eyed" and received prominent airplay on Australia's

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 ...

radio station. ''Exile'' debut at number 81 on the

ARIA Charts The ARIA Charts are the main Australian record chart, music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA beca ...

510 sales. In 2010, the duo appeared on the song "Long Winding Road" for M-Phazes' debut album, '' Good Gracious''. In 2011, Spit Syndicate released ''Best Intentions: Part One'', the first of a free online mixtape series and attracted over 10,000 downloads. In October 2012, the duo released "Beauty in the Bricks", the first single from the third studio album ''Sunday Gentlemen''. The second single, "Folly", was released in January 2013, followed by the release of the album on 22 February 2013. Contributing artists included Drapht, Illy and Solo, and production is accredited to Adit, M-Phazes, J-Skub and Styalz Fuego. In March 2013, Nice explained the duo's different approach for the recording of the album "The first album that we put out, I don't think it was ever really intended for an audience, a wide audience ... We made that album when we were just out of school and it was just something that we could play at parties ... this time we had a greater sense and an understanding of what we wanted out of the record, so we paid a lot more attention to detail, and had a greater creative control and a bigger say in how the product ended up." Written over two years, the band called the album their "strongest work to date" in 2013. Nice also explained that the duo's creative process had matured over time, while Adit's production work was more experimental. Spit Syndicate completed a national Australian tour in support of the album, from March until May 2013, with support from Sydney artists Jackie Onassis. ''Sunday Gentlemen'' debuted at number 15 on the ARIA Charts. In April 2017, the duo released their fourth studio album, ''One Good Shirt Had Us All Fly'' which debuted at number 19 on the ARIA Charts. In May 2018, the duo released their fifth studio album, ''Orbit'', which debuted at number 61 on the ARIA Charts.

Discography

Studio albums

Mixtapes

Singles

* "Starry Eyed" – Obese (OBR 072 55) (April 2010) * "Beauty in the Bricks" – Obese (5 October 2012) * "Folly" – Obese (25 January 2013) * "Amazing" – Obese (20 June 2013) * "Know Better (June 2016) * "Inhibitions" (November 2016) * "Emperor's New Flows" (May 2017) * "Errands" (February 2018) * "F**k It" (March 2018) * "Contraband & Conversation" (featuring Imbi the Girl and Kai) (April 2018)

Awards and nominations

AIR Awards

The Australian Independent Record Awards (commonly known informally as

AIR Awards The Australian Independent Record Awards (commonly known as AIR Awards) is an annual awards night to recognise, promote and celebrate the success of Australia's Independent Music sector. History The inaugural 2006 awards were held at Blacket Hot ...

) is an annual awards night to recognise, promote and celebrate the success of Australia's Independent Music sector. ! , - ,

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

, ''Sunday Gentlemen'' , Best Independent Hip Hop/Urban Album , , , -

ARIA Music Awards

The

ARIA Music Awards The Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (commonly known informally as ARIA Music Awards, ARIA Awards, or simply the ARIAs) is an annual series of awards nights celebrating the Australian music industry, put on by the Austr ...

is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of

Australian music The music of Australia has an extensive history made of music societies. Indigenous Australian music forms a significant part of the unique heritage of a 40,000- to 60,000-year history which produced the iconic didgeridoo. Contemporary fusions o ...

. ! , - ,

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

, ''Towards the Light'' , Best Urban Release , , , -

References

External links

Official website

at

{{Authority control Australian hip-hop groups Musical groups established in 2005 Musical groups from Sydney Obese Records artists Hip-hop duos