Tuka’s evolution has been intriguing to watch.
It was more than a decade ago that he wandered down from the Blue Mountains and eased into the Sydney scene. While the artists around him were obsessed with sounding As Australian As Possible, Tuka just tried to sound good. His contemporaries embraced a brutally straightforward style. Tuka focused on his melody patterns and his flow. He honed his freestyle skills. He dabbled with a live band. He came to rule the world as a Thundamental. This process allowed him to emerge as a solo artist more or less fully formed.
His 2010 debut opened with the woozy late night swoon of Ill Tronic. “Take an idea and build on it,” he urged us. 2015’s Life Death Time Eternal does just that. Tuka’s suspicion of people in power no longer gives way to paranoia. Self-awareness no longer gives way to self-obsession. This is the album of an artist approaching his peak, one who knows his past and knows how he wants to shape his future. Like Ill Tronic, Right By You is also a swoon, but the knowing smirk of five years ago is replaced with a genuine smile. Everything is gripping. My Star is a neat reflective piece.
Tuka’s Instagram makes for a neat metaphor. He posts about two things: art, and himself. It’s as if he is consciously working out where he wants his legacy to fit amongst other rappers, sculptors, painters, whatever. After all, life is a gift, death a certainty. Time; eternal.
