Drapht made his triumphant return to music a couple of months back with the release of Seven Mirrors, but according to the Australian hip-hop favourite, he never really intended to make a return to music.
No, instead Drapht, real name Paul Reid, was adamant he would spend the next 10 years of his life focusing on his new cafe venture, Solomon’s, which catered to those with food allergies so they no longer feel like ‘problem customers’, as he once told Fairfax.
“I always assumed that I wasn’t going to write another record after The Life of Riley, just because I wasn’t enjoying the process,” Reid recently told Yahoo News.
“The cafe was going to be my next 10-year life cycle. I was going to put everything into that restaurant and it was something that I was wholeheartedly passionate about.”
“Music would always be there but not on the platform of releasing it to the masses. That was never the case. The first six months in that restaurant I was writing more than I’ve been writing in the last 10 years.”
Reid isn’t the first Australian musician to dip his toe into the cafe market. A number of Aussie musos have set up base camps at eateries and cafes, including The Grates, who’ve since expanded their hospitality ventures with their own pub.
Ironically enough, with Reid’s focus off music, the process became easier and more enjoyable and before he knew it, just three years into the business, the rapper cum restauranteur put Solomon’s on the market.
“It sold super quickly. Then I went on tour,” he told Yahoo News. “I actually really enjoyed the hospitality industry and met some amazing people,” Reid recently told Music Insight.
“I had some advice from a friend of mine who was in the hospitality industry and he said after three years it’s a good idea to think about selling,” Reid added. After renovation plans proved “a bit of a black hole”, Reid decided for sure he wanted to sell.
“It sort of aligned when I was going to release the record, and I couldn’t just do both things simultaneously,” he said. But according to Reid, the album, which features a collab with Dune Rats, is informed by his experience as a restauranteur.
“It’s introspective, about the restaurant, my staff, my ex-girlfriend, my girlfriend, my friends and my family,” he told Music Insight.
