Australian emcee Kerser is a divisive figure in the local hip-hop scene. It’s a classic case of ‘you either love him or hate him’, with his fans so obsessed they’ve been known to turn up at his house.
But the Campbelltown native has enemies in some high places. We’ve previously covered the adversarial relationship music mega-retailer JB Hi Fi shares with the rapper’s fans, a group that doesn’t include Aussie radio.
In addition to being what he calls “blacklisted” on commercial radio, Kerser has previously hit out at national youth broadcaster triple j for ignoring him despite his popularity amongst young music fans.
His last album featured a snippet of the ABC news theme on one of the new record’s tracks, reportedly intended as a middle finger aimed at triple j. “That sample has been cut up so I can’t get into any trouble for that,” he told News Corp.
“I feel like I have been ignored by that station and the industry and they are meant to be playing music which appeals to youth. But they just won’t play it and I can’t put my finger on why.”
“If they checked out my shows or social media, they would realise that a lot of youth are into Kerser. I personally don’t think I need them when I have got to where I am and they have ignored me for this long. I can put a clip on YouTube and get 300,000 views.”
Indeed, Kerser is the self-described “YouTube King” of the Australian hip-hop community, commanding more subscribers and more views than any other artist and it’s allowed him to build a considerable fan base.
“The people that were controlling the radio stations… didn’t want that side of hip-hop or Australia to be shown or have a voice.”Back in November, the cult favourite used that incendiary, social media-savvy approach to the music industry to hit the top five of the ARIA Albums Chart and the top of the ARIA Australian Artist Albums Chart.
But this week Kerser, whose real name is Scott Clarke Barrow, managed to hit another milestone, one he never thought possible. Barrow had one of his tracks played on a commercial radio station, even speaking to the hosts of the Hit Network’s YouTube Hits.
Barrow didn’t pull any punches during the interview, taking the opportunity to once again hit out at triple j, reiterating his stance on the youth broadcaster, which continues to blacklist the rapper.
“Yeah, from the very start of my rap career it was something different and fresh that Aussie hip-hop hadn’t seen and I think the people that were controlling the radio stations and Aussie hip-hop didn’t really want that side of hip-hop or Australia to be shown or didn’t want it to have a voice,” he said.
“And plus I’ve always spoken my mind,” Barrow continued, “but I’m just lucky I have that following on YouTube where I can make the music I want to make.” The emcee even took a second to take a stab at fellow rapper 360.
[include_post id=”464313″]
Barrow and Sixty have a long-standing feud and the hosts prodded Barrow about Sixty’s recent virality after he uploaded a video to Facebook in which he rapped about his addiction to codeine.
“I didn’t like the way the press covered the views that he captured,” Barrow said, “because he actually uploaded the video to Facebook and if you upload to Facebook anyone scrolling past counts as a view.”
“So I think that if you put it on YouTube you’d really see who the YouTube king is who’s getting the views.” Check out the interview with Kerser via the Hit Network here.
