The 046 are one of 2025's greatest success stories in Australian music. The hip-hop trio from Claymore in South West Eora/Sydney – brothers Kymza and Ronza plus "best mate" Jizza – have toured with ONEFOUR and released a blockbuster album, Legacy In Motion, ensuring their status as streaming sensations. And, in the ultimate triumph, it's happened during what industry pundits have declared a downturn in hip-hop.

It's a Monday afternoon, and The 046 are Zooming separately, fresh from their second headline tour of Aotearoa/New Zealand – wrapping up in Te Whanganui-a-Tara/Wellington on Saturday night. "The tour was pretty good, aye," Ronza flexes. He alludes to logistical challenges on the local side, but remains upbeat. "We had to run it ourselves... This year it was really good and we learnt a lot of things for next year when we come back. It'll be even better, you know. But it was really good."

Kymza, normally the most talkative member with a resonant near-baritone voice, is crook and so switches off his camera, but quickly shakes off any fatigue, recognising that he accidentally muted himself. "I kept talking and I thought you could hear me," he chuckles. "Sorry!" The quietest, Jizza, is mysterious in shades.

The 046 – a handle referencing Claymore's vintage dialling code – have a come-up tale that would make a compelling pitch for a biopic like that of their gangsta rap idols NWA with F Gary Gray's Straight Outta Compton. Ronza recalls how in 2019, The 046 accidentally had a viral hit with the old-school G-funk banger Run Run, produced by Sefru – the Samoan crew then a four-piece with his cousin ET.

"It was like a muck around song, the first one, and we did a video. It ended up popping off on YouTube. Plus, the news came down too, Channel 7 and that – like it was a big thing with the cops. We got into some trouble, as well. So, I don't know how to explain it, but it happened really fast.

"When we seen the views on it, we're like, 'We can't stop now – we've gotta just keep pumpin' them.' But we didn't know how much views it was gonna get. We thought it was just gonna be small. It ended up being big!"

The natural storyteller has just outlined the perfect opening sequence for Straight Outta Claymore, about how some kids didn't realise that they required a permit to shoot a video in a public place and were accused of causing a riot.

The 046 have been associated with drill, which, similarly to the word "gang," the mainstream media often uses as a racially-loaded descriptor for disenfranchised and over-policed young males creating music. But their nostalgic sound, which they've branded "Aus Funk", is influenced by classic West Coast American hip hop acts such as NWA, Warren G, Snoop Dogg and Tha Dogg Pound, not to mention Tupac Shakur.

G-funk is historically popular in First Nations and Pasifika communities, yet few homegrown rappers have drawn on it – aside from J-Wess, the expat American producer who crossed over with 2003's Bang This. "We grew up on it," Jizza says. Ronza interjects, "That music still goes hard to this day."

The 046 likewise dig their R&B, an element largely absent from Aussie boom-bap, barbecue hip-hop and gutter rap. Significantly, they give G-funk a twist. "Obviously, we started the Aus Funk – 'pioneers' is what we call ourselves; the Aus Funk pioneers," Kymza elucidates. "But we honestly wanna evolve, evolve the sound, and go into different genres as well – 'cause we love to sing. We love R&B. We love all types of genres… But the 'Aus Funk' means the most to us 'cause it made us who we are today and everyone knows us for Aus Funk."

The underground fold signed to the local label BHQ for their second single, Just G's, only to promptly extricate themselves, preferring to stay independent by launching 046 Records. "It's really important to us to keep in control of our own music," Kymza maintains. "We can drop whenever we want. We can make music whenever we want. We're pretty free."

In 2021, The 046 presented their debut, The Proctor 2021, following with 2023's Rhythm & Gutta – its title a homage to Snoop Dogg's R&G (Rhythm & Gangsta): The Masterpiece. Along the way, ET was remanded in custody.

The 046 officially performed for the first time in 2021 as Kerser's warm-up at Newtown's Enmore Theatre. The legendary Campbelltown underdog has inspired them. It's why the trio won't ink a major label deal. "If it wasn't for him, I would have signed," Kymza admits. "I would have signed some major deal for a stupid contract. Yeah, shout out to Kerser!

"Most of these [major label] artists, like they've got big streams, but most of these artists have signed contracts that they haven't read through properly, and there's no point – because they're not even getting the money from their streams, which is sad, especially for the Oz scene. They just get jewellery. That's all."

Authenticity as much as mythmaking is crucial to hip-hop culture – and Claymore, on Dharawal Country, is key to The 046 chronicle, the suburb developed specifically for public housing in the '70s. Claymore was originally meant to be named 'Badgally', but authorities worried that it had 'bad' in it. Alas, the estate went on to have among the country's most socio-economic disadvantaged population, youth struggling to break out of poverty.

Currently, Claymore is undergoing a process of urban renewal, with houses demolished and land sold off to private owners. But, like NWA before them, The 046 reject any stigma attached to their old neighbourhood, fostering pride in a localised identity and its community. This ethos underlies Legacy In Motion.

"Yeah, the album, it really plays a big role [for] us," Jizza says of Claymore. "I just never forget where it's come from, to be honest. All the trials and tribulations that we've gone through, we've all done it together."

Ronza adds, "That was our safe place, too. It's almost gone, but there's all new houses there now. There's only probably like ten houses left. It's about to be gone soon. They've turned it into a whole new area. So it's a good thing and a bad thing as well, but it's [mostly] a good thing."

Is he concerned that residents will be displaced by the inevitable gentrification as the landscape alters? "We're not gonna see it again – that's the bad thing. But it's good for the kids, bro, the next generation – 'cause they don't really need to see that. But it's good in a way, and then it's bad because I wanna miss it."

Of greater weight is The 046's diasporic Samoan heritage. "100 per cent," Ronza asserts. "We wear that on our sleeve as well, just how we hold Claymore up. But we hold our culture even more, you know?"

The 046 generated buzz over winter when they joined trailblazing Western Eora/Sydney drillers ONEFOUR on a sold-out tour – Spencer "Spenny" Magalogo initially reaching out to them. Mount Druitt's finest polished their showmanship prior to supporting The Kid LAROI in late 2024 and rolling out Look At Me Now, in turn motivating The 046. The groups express mutual respect.

"It was just a blessing to be a part of that," Kymza enthuses. "I'm still shocked today that we did that with ONEFOUR 'cause they're like top, top-tier in Australia and, even before we started music, they were pioneering the music. They got all the eyes for the Oz scene – to begin with anyways.

"But, yeah, we had to level up. Our stage presence now is so different, especially coming into the NZ tour, from 30-minute sets to one-hour sets – which is crazy, 'cause we never really do those long sets. But we've come a long way."

In October, following a pop-up gig at BIGSOUND, The 046 unleashed their blockbuster third album, Legacy In Motion, revealing a new maturity and determination – the lead single Young Free & Reckless out last year. Again, it's primarily produced by Sefru, who, since Run Run, has enjoyed a Grammy nomination for his work on Chris Brown's Breezy (Deluxe). The latest single, Mary Jane, has The 046 singing.

"This trilogy means a lot, because we're gonna start dropping albums again, hopefully every year," Kymza says. "But we'll see how it goes. But I just feel like, if you wanna be an artist, you've gotta do albums. You have to drop albums. You can't just do singles…

"But, as soon as the album's all done, mixed and mastered, and we go through the tracklist and do all that – yeah, it's still unbelievable. It's still unbelievable to us."

Legacy In Motion boasts thrilling features, particularly Malyangapa, Barkindji woman BARKAA on the reflective Nothing's Free – "a gun rapper," Kymza proclaims. For the slick Flawless, The 046 bring in US MC D-Boy 223, the son of Boo-Yaa TRIBE's Donald "Kobra" Devoux. An American-Samoan group, Boo-Yaa TRIBE burst out of Carson, California in the '80s and have long been favourites in Australia.

JKING, known for 2023's reggae&B hit Cinderella, graces That's My. The in-demand Say True God?, who elevated Test Us off Rhythm & Gutta, returns for a remix of All In, as does Goodna's Lisi on Bring It. Then another fam member, Nyxladd, from The Greenline, blazes several cuts. Ronza notes that The 046's curation is about "picking the right tracks for those artists."

Conspicuously missing from Legacy In Motion is ET. The DRILLINGAU subreddit is rife with theories about why he split, but The 046 stresses that there's no bad blood. "He just wanted to go do his own thing," Kymza explains. "All the best to him for whatever he's doing. We wish him nothing but the best for his career and his solo [projects]. And he's still family. He's still family to us. He's our cousin. And, yeah, nothing but love for him."

ET's departure hasn't necessarily impacted the dynamic, either, he continues. "It hasn't really changed anything, because we rounded up with just three of us anyways. So ET's been locked up for most of The 046 career to begin with. So it was mainly just us three anyways, running the ball up while he was locked up. So it was pretty easy to transition."

As a self-contained act, The 046 rely on exposure through streaming and initiatives like Spotify's Turn Up Aus. "It means everything to us, because we don't really get anything [from the industry]," Kymza says. "So, for that, we're just grateful."

With Spotify Wrapped around the corner, The 046 recap their personal listening. And the three prove they really are R&B bros – Kymza raving about Olivia Dean's Man I Need. "She's made some banger tracks this year, aye. I love listening to my R&B. She's probably my top artist this year." Jizza is a Kehlani fan, citing the slinky hit Folded. In contrast, Ronza rates Māori musician Te Wehi's reggae Unaware from 2024.

The 046 are surprised by their own global stats. "There's a lotta countries that I would never expect our music to be played in," Kymza ponders, listing Germany. "It's still crazy to me – 'cause we don't feel any different. We still feel like the same boys from the 'hood, and we're just like everyone else. But we always get reminded by our fans when we're walking around and stuff, when they ask for photos and seeing the smiles on their faces." Mind, The 046's most outlandish fan has to be WWE star Dominik Mysterio.

There has been commentary in music circles about whether hip-hop is experiencing a decline – earlier this month, the Billboard Top 40 had no hip-hop for the first time since February 1990 – with genres like EDM now resurgent. It's puzzling when the escalating feud between Drake and Kendrick Lamar had such cultural momentum, and Lamar is dominating the Grammy nominations anew alongside Clipse, Tyler, The Creator and Doechii.

But, intuiting that culture is cyclic, The 046 aren't fazed. "There's always room for both, honestly," Kymza reasons. "And, if you look at it, it's not just hip-hop. There's like EDM, there's heaps of genres, and it's bigger. Even rock music – it's massive! I didn't realise that until I started seeing all the different types of music. Even though rock and that is not my thing – like it's massive… [But] hip-hop will always be big."

The 046 are planning ahead. They've just announced their Legacy In Motion Australian Tour 2026, beginning in February in Canberra and taking in regional hubs. And The 046 are keen to travel further. "Honestly, I wanna go to the islands, go to Fiji, go to Tonga, maybe go to Samoa," Kymza muses. "We haven't been back to Samoa – and that's where we're from. But, yeah, I'd like to tour the islands."

The 046 are still actively promoting Legacy In Motion. Yet they're also contemplating album four, Ronza emphasising their motto of "consistency." "We're just rolling out the album tracks right now, doing some music videos for the Legacy In Motion album," Kymza offers. "But, yeah, maybe when we're done with that, then we'll start rolling out some new music." Ronza finishes, "We just keep it coming."

Ronza envisages an even more ambitious album. "We wanna do another album, but we want it to be all international artists… That'd be big as well." For Kymza, it'd raise The 046's profile in the US, letting them "put our foot in the door." The 046 hope to convince Warren G to jump on a track, the G-funk pioneer iconic for 1994's cruisy smash Regulate with Nate Dogg. What about Snoop Dogg? "Yeah, that'd be cracka!," Ronza exclaims. He registers that "we've gotta spend some money" for those "big features," rationalising that "it'd be good."

Recently, Snoop Dogg provided pre-match entertainment at the AFL Grand Final in Naarm/Melbourne with guests Jessica Mauboy, Baker Boy and Tash Sultana. The 046 have a singular take on the Nuthin' But A "G" Thang rapper's widely discussed appearance.

"I reckon it was really good, aye," Ronza says. "It's only 'cause it was in the daytime – that's why it looked low-budget a little bit, you know? But it was good; it was really good. If it was at nighttime, it probably would have been even better 'cause they would have had fireworks, fire, you know… But he did a gun performance. He ripped it up."

The 046's core philosophy is self-belief. In 2025, they are eschewing drama, manifesting entrepreneurial and creative success and celebrating their achievements.

Kymza is happy to share advice with yunguns. "Just keep consistent, keep consistent," he repeats. "If it's something that you're good at and you love to do, you'll make it. You'll make it. If we made it, anyone can make it. Chase your dreams." Ronza concludes, "It doesn't have to be music. It could be anything. You've just gotta put everything into it."

This feature has been published in partnership with Spotify's Turn Up Aus - the next-generation evolution of Spotify Australia’s music DNA, as they continue their 13-year commitment to championing local music.