Playing It Down

Doritos sponsored the SXSW #BoldStage rap battle that put three MCs up against each other for the chance to win a support slot on LL Cool J's forthcoming Authentic tour. Sentry let loose with new single Dear Science, despite feeling strange on the whole performance, and won. He also found himself taking the same record to a live appearance on ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live, rocking his rap out in a flanny. A memory he can take straight to the pool room.

“I guess they saw me as an oddity, as an Australian rapper,” he says. “I felt like a bearded woman. So they picked me, this dude Devin Miles from Philadelphia, this chick [Snow Tha Product] from Texas, and they had us do one song each. I did Dear Science. One thing I must say, it was really confusing. At one stage there is footage of me standing at the back of stage and I'm seeing this guy waving, 'Come on, come up and have a go'. It was shocking.” Even when compared to performing live on Jimmy Kimmel, he says, “[#BoldStage] was definitely nerve-racking! Way more than my appearance on Jimmy Kimmel. The competition was way more full on.”

Sentry started getting dues when singles Simple Game and the breakfast romance of The Waitress Song found a regular home at triple j over 2008-'09 and soon after dropping The Waiter Minute EP, Australia warmed to his cheeky folklore raps. In 2009 he toured nationally with Pez and the next year with Horrorshow. Sentry's live career has already landed him in front of the deepest of festival numbers across the country, so rather than hear of him feeling the nerves before performing at the competition, one could assume that he's going to own that shit.

“This is my first time in America as well,” he says. “And you gotta know, my first show was the competition itself. So, everything came to me at once in a big ball of nerves. And this is way different than playing a live show. I know how to play on stage, I get that part, but I don't know how to win competitions – it's not what I do – and I'm competitive as well.”

Throughout his rhyme book, the Melbourne MC has told a story about the nuisances and nuances of the small nothings we battle daily to sometimes illustrate issues of a larger scale while using pop culture to exact his point. So, while nationally Sentry can hold a crowd to finish off his bars and get his metaphors, he is very aware than an American audience might not understand what's behind his gripe with hoverboards. “I'm talking about science promising a cure for cancer – 90% of our science budget being spent on military applications – all that shit. But it's easier when you say it's about hoverboards,” he says, decoding his most recent record, Dear Science. “I like to make it accessible, you know?”

More so than letting them vibe off his music, Sentry says it's important for his audience to understand his lyrics. “The words were a big part of it, and I knew that was going to be the case, so I kind of tried to enunciate my words a lot and make sure they [are] heard [in] the lyrics. It's like, when people who don't really listen to lyrics tune in and say 'Oh, he's just rapping about hoverboards' instead of other people who will hear the lyrics and get a deeper understanding. That's how I like my music to be. I grew up listening to lyricists, so I always thought the lyrics were important and something I really tried to focus on. I really don't want to sell people short when it comes to the lyrics.”

Sentry has gone from being the first Australian hip hop act to perform on a US chat show that carries an audience several-million deep, returning home in business-class from LAX, to getting stuck into a festival show at Dubbo the following week. The reception was not one he was expecting. “That was the biggest crowd I have ever played to!” he exclaims, when asked whether or not he felt a comedown from performing on Jimmy to playing Dubbo. “There really was none. As soon as we came home we went right into another huge moment for me. The crowd at One Night Stand was fucking ridiculous. That place goes crazy! They get in 20,000 people. I mean, yeah we played to more people at Jimmy Kimmel, but we didn't see them. And my whole philosophy on that kind of life is, just play to the crowd that is in front of you. If you try and ham up to the cameras and shit, that's wack as fuck! I hate seeing dudes do that. Like, I hate when I see singers singing to the camera,” he laughs. “But you know when dude's start making love to the camera and shit, so yeah, I was really only playing for 100 people [on Jimmy Kimmel Live]. This gig in Dubbo was off the wall! Crazy! People were driving up from Adelaide! Some people were making 12-hour pilgrimages, you know? It all added to give so much energy to the show.”

Before Seth Sentry heads back over Stateside, his Dear Science national tour is at the forefront of his mind. Last September his new album, This Was Tomorrow, debuted sixth on the Australian Album Chart and stood in the chart for five weeks. Sentry is anxious to serve this one up live around the country. So when asked on whether he will prepare differently for opening up LL shows than his own, he takes a moment with his reply. “That's a pretty good question, I must say. Let me just think about it,” he says. “I haven't really put much thought into the LL shows. I've had my head stuck on the Dear Science stuff. I guess I'm going to have a shorter amount of time. I guess I just do my thing, that's the kinda guy I am. I'm definitely not about to go and 'fair dinkum' and 'strewth' my way through a show. So I'm just gonna do me and just hope that, again, they hear my lyrics.

“Here, I can ease back on that because I know there are going to be people in the audience that will know some of my lyrics, but not over there. So to make sure they hear the lines and get my songs, I like to pick key people out in the audience and I think to myself, if I can make this one dude laugh then I'm connecting. So maybe I might do something like that again.”