360 Announces New Mixtape, Defends 'Q&A' Appearance

Melbourne-based rapper 360, real name Matt Colwell, has defended his position on racist appropriation of the Australian flag as expressed on Monday night's Q&A in an interview with triple j host Lewi McKirdy, as well as dropping some details regarding his next upcoming release.

Following substantial support for and backlash towards 360 once his statement that he identifies the Australian flag with racism went viral, the rapper used his on-air opportunity to clarify his position and defend himself against critics who may have missed the point.

"A lot of the backlash, people are saying, like, … the diggers who fought for this country, saying that I'm disrespecting them and stuff like that, but it has nothing to — I didn't bring up them; I wasn't disrespecting the diggers whatsoever," 360 said.

"They didn't fight for a flag, they fought for the country, for the democracy, and … what I'm saying is just it's a shame that now that when I do see an Australian flag, like if I see someone parading an Australian flag, I'm cautious of that person; I automatically think in my head, 'this person could be racist'. They might not be, as well — I'm not saying everyone is, you know; people need to just settle down and stop getting offended.

"I'm not talking about every single Australian in the country, or everyone who's proud to be Australian; I'm just saying that it's a shame for me that that's how it goes."

Following some more back-and-forth on the topic, including a recounting of the event to which 360 alluded on Q&A, when he witnessed such misguidedly nationalistic behaviour being perpetrated against a taxi driver, and an acknowledgement that his recent sense of activism may have cost him some fans, 360 summed up his feelings on the topic succinctly: "Whether it's your sexuality or the colour of your skin or anything like that, all of us deserve to be treated the exact same," he said.

Moving beyond the political spectrum, 360 is, of course, still a musician, and so also had news to share on the creative front, telling McKirdy that he's been working on a mixtape — "it's like an album, but for free," he explained — with stalwart peers Styalz Fuego and Nick Martin.

"What we're doing is, we're using big songs that have been big in the past and we're flipping them as samples," 360 said. "We've got a Moby sample so far, and we've turned it into hip-hop and shit; it's gonna be crazy, man.

"And we've got this Alt-J song, Fitzpleasure; we use that big drop and turn that into a hip-hop song."

360's collaborative mixtape is tentatively scheduled for release before Christmas. For his original comment and four other things 360 taught us on Q&A, see yesterday's story.

Listen to the full chat below.