'We'd Disagree Often & We'd Disagree Loudly': Hilltop Hoods Are Tighter Than Ever For Their New Album

Adelaide's Hilltop Hoods, the OGs of Australian hip hop, are back with their first album in five years. The Great Expanse is about life, family and reflection. But it's also a celebration of homegrown music with buzz cameos, including soulful Sydney schoolboy Ruel.

The Hoods – rappers Suffa (aka Matt Lambert) and Pressure (Daniel Smith) plus DJ Debris (Barry Francis) – know their avid fanbase. They considered previewing The Great Expanse over summer at the Falls Festival. But, Lambert explains, they scotched that plan, worried that tracks would be uploaded online. "When we were putting the set together as well, we were still going through sample clearance with a couple of them. So I didn't wanna go perform something that wasn't cleared and then have to have it pulled off the record and then everyone go, 'What happened to that song?'"

Lambert started Hilltop Hoods with Smith, a school pal, in the '90s. They signed to Obese Records, busting out in 2003 with their third album, The Calling. The follow-up, The Hard Road, became the first of consecutive ARIA #1s. Hilltop Hoods even made inroads internationally, playing Glastonbury. They last issued Walking Under Stars, with the (now infamous) Cosby Sweater, in 2014. The Hoods liaised with orchestras, presenting two "restrung" remix albums and staging family-oriented spectaculars. Expectations are high for The Great Expanse. 

"Everyone had so much change in the last three years that it's hard to just put your finger on one thing and say this is how we felt."

In 2018, Hilltop Hoods rocked Splendour In The Grass and toured Europe, hitting the Reading and Leeds Festivals. They dropped a comeback single, Clark Griswold, spotlighting Adelaide's Adrian Eagle, the rootsy vocalist giving them props on his own 17 Again. Multiple ARIA winners, Hilltop Hoods scored Best Urban Release for Clark Griswold.

For album eight, Hilltop Hoods chronicled major changes in their personal lives – changes that necessitated they sacrifice their Golden Era Records after nearly a decade. 

"Pressure and I are very much in dad mode," Lambert laughs. "Over the last three years I had two daughters and he had one and that obviously informed a lot of what we wrote about and a lot of how we spend our time. Over that period as well, I was building a new studio, 'cause I got the boot from my old one so there could be a nursery. So, for me personally, I was sort of building this album with the studio… Everyone had so much change in the last three years that it's hard to just put your finger on one thing and say this is how we felt. Debris got married!" Lambert's fave song, Here Without You, is about their kids. 

The Great Expanse is classic Hoods in its sonic spirit – cue the anthemic Leave Me Lonely, based on Richard Berry's doo-wop-era Have Love, Will Travel. Notably, it neither succumbs to dad-rap throwback nor opportunistic trap reinvention. 

"It's a funny old line to walk," Lambert admits. "Hopefully we get to capture our own sound, but 'now', because we do listen to a lot more current hip hop and that does inform how you make music. You are what you eat sorta thing." Press the MC on what he's vibing to and he cites Anderson .Paak's Oxnard ("That's ridiculous!"). "I've been listening to a lot of podcasts, if I'm being honest!" Lambert adds bashfully.

Hilltop Hoods have previously worked with "bucket list" international guests such as The Roots' Black Thought, Pharoahe Monch and Brother Ali. However, they enjoyed a mega-hit with 2011's I Love It, featuring fellow Adelaidean Sia, circa Titanium. "We met when we were much younger. Then she had this massive career and, luckily for us, [she] just emailed out of the blue saying, 'Do you wanna do a song together?' We were like, 'Hell yeah!'"

The curation of The Great Expanse also favours Australian artists – among them Illy, indie type Timberwolf and future punk Ecca Vandal. Hilltop Hoods may entice a new generation of listeners with the Cam Bluff-produced Fire & Grace, led by Ruel. "I think, because he's had so much life experience in a short amount of time, that he's pretty switched on for a 16-year-old kid and got a good head on his shoulders."

At the point where many bands rupture, the Hoods are tight. "We got better!" Lambert chortles. "When we used to disagree on something, we'd just fight! Especially me and Pressure, because we'd disagree often and we'd disagree loudly. But your friendship's gotta come first. You've gotta work out ways of dealing with various conflicts. So we've got better; we've got way better. I think the three of us are closer than we've ever been because we've just done so much together. I've seen the world with the other two and I've made eight albums with them. I think we're the most grateful we've ever been for the position we've been able to be in and we're the closest we've been as friends."