Ear To The Streets - Volume 1: SC Sonichu

History shows that the genres of rap and hip-hop are ever-evolving. Every few years, new artists emerge on the scene with sounds and songs that are considered new or experimental for their time. To speak more recently, movements within the ‘cloud-rap,’ experimental, trap and rage genres have seemingly gathered a significant amount of steam in the eyes of mainstream audiences. 

 

Major pioneers of these genres such as Lil B, Jpegmafia, Gucci Mane and Playboi Carti have paved the way for the explosions of experimentation that are currently happening within these sub-cultures. With newer artists like Nettspend, Bladee, 2hollis and Destroy Lonely gaining mainstream traction for their unique blends of these genres, it makes one wonder how far these influences go at a local, more underground level. 

 

Enter SC Sonichu. 

 

SC (Steel City) Sonichu is an experimental hip-hop artist hailing from the emerging underground rap scene in Newcastle, NSW (Australia). Ever since dropping his first single, ‘Jungle Juice,’ on the second of April this year, SC Sonichu has dropped two albums, May’s ‘Go Sonichu, Slap To The Extreme!!! (Hosted by DJ CWC & The Man In The Pickle Suit),’ and August’s ‘Freakshow.’

 

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               Both album covers created by Adam Dieleman - AKA SC Sonichu (@sc_sonichu), used with express permission by artist​

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These releases quickly placed SC Sonichu on the map for Newcastle’s underground scene, with both featuring an intense diversity in sounds, influenced heavily by some of the names mentioned just above.

 

Describing his sound, SC Sonichu stated: 

 

“Man, it’s like, hard to describe really. I feel like underground rap in 2025 is its own genre and its got like its own culture around it. If I had to describe it, maybe like, 50/50 of the past 20 years of hip-hop and the new wave of rap.” 

 

SC Sonichu went further, speaking more to the humorous conceptual side of his albums:

 

“The whole concept for the first tape was what if Chris Chan was from Newcastle and made underground rap. I love internet culture so much and I think that shows, like I got COD (Call of Duty) Zombies bars in there you know. Imagine what you’d do if you saw a niche internet figure at your local pub.”

 

So often, artists within these experimental spaces walk a line between sincerity and irony in their music, expertly traversing between a wide variety of emotional themes. SC Sonichu is no different, with tracks like ‘POKIN LEAD,’ mixing bravado with humorous lyricism such as:

 

“I Just Bought a Race Car, Fuck a Racist,”

 

Or tracks like ‘WIRED,’ featuring themes of detachment and digital melancholia.

 

However, SC Sonichu manages to walk this line, while also featuring a number of lines that relate to his locality of Newcastle. Examples of these can be seen through his numerous references to popular Newcastle venues, the Hamilton Station Hotel, or local Newcastle kebab restaurant, ‘Cappadocia.’

 

Speaking on his creative process, SC Sonichu stated:

 

“I just sort of take what I’ve seen in the day and what I’ve heard and say shit. You know how Lil Wayne has that 20 minute song where he says all the bars he’s ever written down and then never wrote again after that. I feel that.”

 

Speaking more towards that point of sincerity and irony:

 

“I’ll say some stuff, cause’ it’s funny. Like at the end of the day, if I like it, that’s what matters. For me the most important thing for a song is how it all sounds together. The vocals need to sound like an instrument in a way. It’s another synth on the track. It’s that whole combination that makes it.”

 

While discussing how he specifically produces tracks, SC Sonichu started to discuss the impact that the wider Newcastle underground rap scene has had on his music, stating:

 

“I’ll hop on YouTube beats sometimes if I just need something to record on. Maybe do some mumbling for a flow and then write the lyrics from that, or I’ll just punch in bar-after-bar.”

 

“[Newcastle rap collective] Myrapscene really helped me to put tracks out, like it was inspiring seeing these local guys doing it. Without them, all the songs would still be on my hard drive.”

 

Fresh off his debut live set in late September, SC Sonichu used this point to go even further in discussing how big an impact the rest of the local scene has had on him as an artist.

 

“I’ve done one show so far and the turn out was so good, like I wasn’t expecting that many people to be there. It’s still mostly like your typical bands performing, but I do think that’s changing.”

 

As an emerging artist just getting started within any scene, there can often be some pressure to live up to the same standard of quality held by peers. However, when speaking about the nature of Newcastle’s emerging underground scene, SC Sonichu had nothing but positive things to say about his role within this scene. 

 

“It’s good to have everybody really be in this together and lifting each other up. Being in a room with like five people to record tracks together feels so good. We did a session with like ten people crammed into a small room and we did like four songs total.”

 

“It’s actually, like too much fun.”

 

“There’s a growing community for rap in Newy and it’s not slowing down. I reckon that the Aus[tralia] underground in general is going to take over next, like what the UK (United Kingdom) underground is doing right now and I’m trying to push that.”

 

Having carved up his own slice of land within the current Newcastle underground rap scene, SC Sonichu is showing no signs of slowing down any time soon. With an emerging scene behind him ready to blow up to the next level, there’s no telling how far SC Sonichu can go.

 

As someone who is self-admittedly “always” working on new music, it doesn’t sound like we’ll have to wait long until SC Sonichu’s next move. 

 

Until then, we need to:

 

“Keep our ears peeled, more shit on the way.”