All artists need a space to practise their craft and The Zoo’s Hip Hop night created just that for aspiring Brisbane artists; DJ-ON-REPEAT, RealA, Sammy Mak, Donny Casper, ZEALOT (NO.ONE NETWORK) and with headliner and independent indigenous musician GMO$ (Jack Geronimos).
There is a real sense of friendship and community in the underground Hip Hop scene in Brisbane, coming together and practising what they love on stage in front of an audience. With every ticket sold on the night, the organisers of the event gave back $1 of every ticket sold to FairGo Australia.
Supporting and collaborating with each other and reminding us to do what we passionate about to not let anyone tell us otherwise.
The opening acts DJ-ON-REPEAT and RealA worked well together on stage. There was a cool chemistry between DJ-ON-REPEAT’S talented beat mixing and RealA‘s quick raps and smooth vocals.
I also enjoyed the comical and theatrical rap-styles of SAMMY MAK and ZEALOT who both had their crews support them on-stage, not uncommon for rappers, and it brought a real energy to the room. Both acts garnered a nice mosh pit to the front of the stage and ZEALOT even dressed up in a hospital robe in reference to a recent music video.
Making his dream a reality Brisbane independent artist GMO$ (Jack Geronimos) enters the stage and straight away brings a real energy to the room with the crowd gathering close with his mixtape “Moment of Change” CDs in hand ready to rap along.
As GMO$ starts his set it is evident that he has picked up the audience’s excitement with his contagious smile and thanking everyone for turning up on a Thursday night.
Making use of the stage, moving to the rhythm and constantly coming in close to the crowd, GMO$ engages with us all telling of his self-discovery with honest lyricism. The honesty of his words letting us into his life and how he has come to this point now, learning to write and rap almost entirely on his own and overcome his own demons.
You can hear GMO$‘90’s gangsta rap influences coming through but also showing he is a well-rounded artist when he rapes at a quick pace exploding with emotion and the crowd loves it!
He definitely has his fans, miming the words moving to every beat, even changing from song to song GMO$ doesn’t lose anyone’s attention telling us about his real-life experience, sometimes still quite raw for him telling of his own faults and encourages us all to shed our feelings to the one we love.
Standing in the crowd it’s impossible not to feel how his lyrics resonate with people and how his music has led him on a self-discovery and now understanding why he is starting to get noticed in the Brisbane Hip Hop scene.
