Best Year Of My Life

It was a headline performance at One Night Stand this year which saw Melbourne rapper Illy close out the night in front of a huge crowd of more than an estimated 16,000 fans. The MC says despite being nervous about playing a show of that scale, it was one of the highlights of what he’s calling the best year of his life. “I was shitting myself, you know, because it’s being broadcast so there’s cameras flying all around you; it was quite nerve-racking,” he says. “I didn’t get comfortable until probably two-thirds into the set but then I enjoyed the last 20 minutes or so, but it was unreal.”

It’s just one part of a huge year for Illy that’s been filled with sold-out tours across the country and abroad, bolstered by the success of his fourth album Cinematic and hit singles like Tightrope and On & On. “I put so much of myself into my music and this year it really feels like it’s gone up a few levels and it’s just been non-stop from the start of the year. There have been festivals and writing overseas, touring Europe with the Hilltop Hoods and the regional tours and it’s just been awesome being able to do exactly what I’ve wanted to do for more than half my life now. Everything that could go right has gone right this year.”

His One For The Cities tour is hitting up capital cities throughout November and December, featuring the biggest headline shows of his career and coinciding with the release of Cinematic Uncut, a repackage of his latest album featuring six new tracks. Illy says while there was more material on Cinematic to choose from, there’s still a tonne of material and collaborations that haven’t seen the light of day. “There were a quite a few tracks with Phrase that never came out and a lot of the collaboration stuff was with more underground dudes but it’s mainly just tracks of my own that haven’t come out yet.”

So far tickets for the tour have been selling like hotcakes, with his Perth show at Astor Theatre sold out. “This whole tour is looking like most of it should come pretty close to selling out but I’ve always had really good support in Perth and WA in general actually. It’s nice to slap that sold out sign over one of the dates and hopefully get a few more up there.”

After the dates, Illy says he’ll focus on a range of projects, but for now his focus is on putting on the best shows possible to cap off the year. “Next year will be spent pretty much working on the new album and I’ll also be going into the States to write for some non-hip hop people and trying to get my feet wet with that, so there’s some pretty exciting things on the horizon. My focus right now is just getting through these shows, making this tour a really great end to probably the best year of my life.”