Codeine, Headfucks And 'Pootie-Tang': Inside Allday's Debut Album

Adelaide rapper Allday will finally unveil his debut album Startup Cult tomorrow and we've been lucky enough to get the track-by-track breakdown on the release from the rising hip hop star himself.

Got It

Got It is one of my favourite tracks from the album. As soon as I heard the beat I knew it was a first track; it just has that emotional, night time feeling to it. As soon as I got it I literally sat down and started writing, hence the first line, “I'm writing this whole thing tonight.” We actually had this long ending where I was singing but we changed it up at the last minute in favour of the part where I say, “Fucking my old girls like it's going to make you me, but it's more than that.” I'm so glad we made that change because that's one of my favourite lines on the album.

Fuckin'

Fuckin' was the first track I made for the album. We did it and then kind of went, “Wow, this is what the album should sound like.” When Jord Levus (who produced the song) sent me through the original loop, it had the moaning sound effects in it of somebody having sex, so I decided to make the whole song about sex, but mainly in a metaphorical way. Although the song was finished ages ago, as I got better at rapping I realised I could do better takes. So verse one was recorded about a year earlier than verses two and three.

Right Now

Right Now is a track I started with this awesome piano player called Chris Litten and my engineer/friend/producer Chuck Daly. We went to Chuck's house and just jammed for ages. The chords are very simple but when Chris started playing them I immediately started humming the melody of the chorus and it went from there. Right Now wasn't going to be the first single because it was not even half-done, but at the last minute the label called a meeting and asked me if I could finish the track off and put it out in a week. We took it to Cam Bluff and spent every day on it for a week then turned it in just in time. For the single art I got a fan (shout-out to Mufaro) to tattoo the letters RN on his inner lip. I also got the same tattoo on my chest.

You Always Know The DJ

This is probably my favourite song on the album at the moment but it was a total headfuck to record. Sometimes when I can't get a song right I just leave it for ages and go back to it eventually. That's what I did with this song for like six months. Eventually we got it to a place where I was cool with it and it's coming out as the next single. I actually directed the video clip for it as well, which I guess means I've ascended to a new level of control freak wanker-ness.

Wolves

This song was produced by M-Phazes and I've always wanted to work with him. We had a studio session but I didn't really find anything I loved so he started sending me random ideas. The song now actually came from a tiny intro on a different beat. I said, “I don't like the beat, but can you loop the intro?” When I started writing it I was in Adelaide staying with my mum and I was really sick. I couldn't keep any food down and I think it was the stress of the album doing that to me. I spoke to my friend Peezo on the phone and he gave me some inspiring words, he was like, “Bro, you've come this far, don't give up because it's your turn to blow up.” I was like, “Gotta go,” because I was so inspired I had to start writing straight away. When we recorded it I struggled getting the takes right and it's still kind of a messy song, but I really liked the message so I left it on the album.

Anything But Sober

I wrote this around New Year's when I was on a houseboat with my friends. We sometimes go on what are essentially drug and alcohol binge trips up the Murray River but this one fell in the middle of my album so I felt like I had to get some work done. My friend came into my room when I was working on songs and asked to hear some. Then he basically told me he didn't really like my new music and he preferred when I was more 'raw'. That was the reason for the line, “My friend told me he didn't like my songs, blame it on the drugs, let me right my wrongs.” I wrote the whole thing while I was really drunk and recorded a demo. When I woke up the next day I liked the song because it captured another side of me from usual, so we kept it.

Another Night At Windy Point

Windy Point is a look-out in Adelaide that you go to when you first get your Ps and you have nothing to do. We spent so many nights at Carrick Hill and Windy Point so I felt I had to make a little ode to that era of my life. The bong sound effects were completely necessary and I stand by them 1000 percent.

Hometown Pride

This is a song about Adelaide and my upbringing. I namedropped lots of things that only Adelaide people know as well just because I felt like it. I've done lots of music about being an outcast and feeling alienated in the past, so I wanted to do a happier song about being young. The song was produced by HAMLEY and basically stayed the same all the way through except the drums changed a little. I wrote the last verse when I was driving around in Adelaide, I think that's why the subject matter is kind of different to the other two verses. This is probably more 'boom bap' than the rest of the album but it's just so catchy I had to leave it on there.

Clouds

Clouds is the type of Auto-Tune heavy, braggadocios rap song I would make all the time if I had lots of money and cars but I don't so I can only make them occasionally. I like this type of song because rap is the only genre where you can say ridiculously obnoxious things and get away with it. I say, “I'm at the mall thinking of rhymes, talking to yours, thinking she's mine.” That's a really rude thing to say, but I think it has its place because it makes me feel confident to listen to it.

Taking Hold

Taking Hold takes it right back in the opposite direction to clouds. It's actually not about a girl, it's about codeine. I really ate too many Panadeine tablets for a while and this song is kind of a weird heartbroken love story to opioids. That sounds kind of fucked up so you can just apply it to a girl or boy if you want. This is actually one of my favourite songs because a lot of people told me it was a bit slow for the album, so it became like the runt of the litter. There's some of my favourite lines on this one too: “You always come back like a boomerang, bittersweet pootie-tang still running through my brain.” I actually can't believe I said pootie-tang on an album, I'm disgusting.

Milligrams

I actually wrote this for myself to sing, but then I realised I wanted a girl to sing it. My friend recommended Stax Osset and when I heard her I knew she was perfect for it. It's only like an interlude song but it was really fun to do because Stax is such an awesomely talented person and I'm used to spending ages recording vocals because I suck so hard. But she was very fast.

God Starve The Queen

I thought of this track name and I knew I had to name a track this. It's way more electro than anything else on the album but again, I just liked it so I kept it anyway. I think a rock band need to cover this, because this song should have been a punk song, not some weird rap singing thing. This was actually going to be the first single off the album but I think we all got a bit scared that people would think I'd gone crazy and forgot about rap music so we went with Right Now instead. I just realised recently that “God starve the Queen, run around” sounds like I'm forcing a girl to go on a diet. But it was intended to be a starvation of power, not food. Keep the junk in yo' trunk, gurl.

Wasting Time

I know I keep saying every song is my favourite, but this is my favourite. This was produced by Woodz who is my friend from Sweden. He produced some earlier songs of mine like Girl In The Sun and Eyes On The Road. During my album process he had some really hard stuff happening in his life so I wasn't able to work with him very much, this is actually the only song he worked on with me. The vibe was so amazing in the studio and I recorded all the verses so quickly. That can happen sometimes when I'm really into what I'm saying and it's charismatic so it doesn't have to be as neat or perfect.

Cult

I say some of my most technical lines on this but I don't think they make sense to many people, I might have hidden them too much. My favourite part is the “When I'm alone you're my Stockton.” Because “I'm alone” sounds like “I'm Malone” (Karl Malone, who played for the Utah Jazz in the NBA and had a great partnership with John Stockton in the '80s and '90s.) I would explain the rest but it gets more complicated and as I'm writing this I realise I probably made it too complex because I can't even explain it. Anyway, this is kind of the title track of the album I guess.

Find Me

This is the last track (obviously) and I wanted to just kind of tell a story to conclude everything. If for no other reason but for me to listen back to it in the future when the details of these things have become more hazy. The thing I mention about riding the Gawler line train to a rap battle is all true. I remember being ridiculously confident like nobody could beat me that night even though I had no idea who I was up against (the wonders of teenage self-delusion). Luckily for me nobody did beat me that night and that was kind of the beginning of it all so I thought it would be a cool story to tell on the song.