Getting To Know One.nine Narcissist
Hailing from Melbourne, rapper/producer One.nine Narcissist has been consistently releasing music with a difference. We sit down with the artist to get to know him a little bit more.
Could you tell us how you came up with your rap name?
I used to work under a different name but I hadn’t released anything in about 6 years. One day my mate came round and was like ‘you’re gonna die unknown if you don’t start putting out your shit. It’s good enough already, it’s done’. That really hit me and I knew this was my last chance to make something happen as an artist. We started picking words that sounded good together and the character of One.Nine Narcissist just grew from there. I’ll be honest I didn’t even really have the sound until the name came into it. It’s come to mean a lot more to me over the past year or so.
You just released Mando could you tell us about it?
When the bushfires were ravaging Aus earlier this year there was this super heavy atmosphere over the city. We were live streaming updates 24/7 at my place and it was just so fucked up seeing peoples homes being destroyed and then watching how the government handled it before, during, and after. I couldn’t get it out of my head and all that tension just found it’s way into this song about masks. Everyone was wearing masks and I was thinking ‘what’s the difference between external and internal masks?’. We all wear these masks all the time to deal with things outside of our control whether it’s the smoke in the air or the judgement of others. The COVID-19 pandemic has only reinforced it for me. Masks are necessary but if you’re overly reliant on them it’s never a good thing.
You're also going to drop a new album this year, could you tell us about it?
Hahaha this is nerdy af but it’s interesting to me so whatever. This album is the last in my trilogy of trickster god albums. Each record has been named after a trickster god from mythology. ‘Loki’ from Norse mythology, ‘Anansi’ from West African mythology, and now ‘Hermes’ from Greek mythology. I feel like trickster gods and rappers are one and the same because trickster gods tend to blend humour and sincerity, light and dark, in a way that usually mixes things up and creates change. The best rappers of all time do the same thing. How many rappers have you seen that are funny as fuck one minute then dead serious the next? Rappers are chaotic and performative in the same way the trickster archetype tends to be. I like to explore the line between image and reality, truth and lies, in a lot of my music and I feel like the trickster god thing is a perfect reference point for all that. Also stop lying on instagram, you don’t live like that!
Who are your favourite rappers at the moment?
Right now I’m loving Stormzy. That dude has all the best flows and razor sharp lyrics. I’m also really into Dyl Thomas from out of Melbourne. Him and Saint Surly just dropped one of the best hip hop albums of the year (¥100) for real. My biggest influences are MF Doom and 1998 - 2005 Eminem. I try to listen to them weekly.
You rap about honest and diversity, which line/moment in your music have you been the most vulnerable?
There’s a track ‘Home’ off of the last album which is my most vulnerable. It’s kind of an open letter to my mother and the change that comes from that relationship when you recognise each other as adults. I sampled all of these voicemails she’d left me over the years and it’s hard to listen to because it’s such a pure stream of unconditional love and support. On the new album I have a track about growing up without a father and that’s pretty vulnerable too. I know that if my eyes are watering while I’m recording then it’s gonna come across.
What stimulates your soul?
So that really eats at me. One necessary example’s now I noticeably enjoy new artists recording concise interesting studio sessions. It stimulates the crispy under crust nourishing the soul.