Targeting Female Club Audiences And Appealing To The "Mainstream"

Colin Darcy, who raps under the pseudonym Caper, works closely with the indigenous community as a mentor for children: "We're try to get them back into the mainstream. They're disconnected, we're helping them with their numeracy and literacy skills."  

"[I] didn't have an issue [growing up] with being disengaged, but having a lot of problems at home I should have." His single mother passed away when he was 15 at age 35 from heart disease and his brother died seven years later from the same condition. It's overcoming these hardships that motivates many of the stories he writes in his "poetry". "To this day I still haven't met [my father]… I guess deep down I'm a little bit spiteful still, I still don't think I've gotten over it." 

"I think many people are a bit taken aback by, I dunno, they mightn't get the image or they mightn't get the message." 

A number of Darcy's songs focus on the indigenous experience from a personal point of view, in particular How Would You Like To Be Me, which created a media stir back in 2011 when Facebook banned the clip after complaints were raised concerning the offensive nature of racial language used in the clip. The ban was later lifted after backlash from fans. But although writing "music to make you think" is his goal, Darcy "doesn't just focus on that". Despite previously voicing his dislike of "hearing the old 'shake they ass' - type of watered down hip hop... now it's only cool to talk about having girls, money and partying" during an interview with Green Left Weekly, the track Opportunity from his latest EP One Day focuses on just that — "In order to be successful you have to make that sacrifice… that was a strategic move to have more of a mainstream appeal."  

He has endeavoured to "make it clubby, to appeal to girls in clubs so they can dance... to get a female audience, how can I say it... purposefully with the beat I designed it to be clubby, and I hope this doesn't come off as a sexist thing, but I know a lot of women pay more attention to the beat than the words... I don't think people will find them drawing themselves to the lyrics, I think they might have a bit of a chuckle, the story I tell in the song is a true story." He raps: "she look at me like 'ah get away you bore me'... next minute she goes to walk and she slips... if you drink another then you'll throw up." The women who feature in the clip — wearing underwear — are also a way to "make it more commercially appealing, more sex," he says. 

Darcy feels strongly about "numerous knock-backs" from record labels. He explains that he received some constructive feedback suggesting that "[his] sound was too American and it wouldn't cater to the Australian audience" "[But] I think my music can cater to a more international audience," Darcy adds. 

"I feel like I'm exactly the same in terms of talent-wise as any other rapper that has a record deal or that's signed… I know in myself that I have the talent, that I could be the greatest to ever do it, I have that much belief in my own talent… But I think many people are a bit taken aback by, I dunno, they mightn't get the image or they mightn't get the message."