BUKKCITY

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Born in Canberra, Australia. Raised in Irvington, New Jersey, USA. Permanently residing in Melbourne, Australia.
While hip-hop so often obsesses over representing your hometown, Bukkcity would rather hold it down for all three. While other emcees do their best to fit the moulds set by those that went before them, Bukkcity would rather carve his own niche by relating unique experiences that have – quite literally – brought him half way around the world and back again.

Born in Australia’s national capital to an African American father and a South African mother, Bukk’s family uprooted to New Jersey, as a baby where he faced a childhood far less sheltered than the one that had been promised to him in Canberra. After his father departed and the family moved several more times, a story not so unfamiliar, like most kids he struggled being the only young male in the household with his single parent mother and two sisters, a responsibility that was thrust upon him well before he could call himself a man. In a place of ubiquitous violence, drugs and more violence, Bukkcity found himself a teenager with a talent for two things – finding trouble and making music.

After twenty-one years, Bukk found saving grace when he moved back to Australia. While he didn’t quite know it at the time, the move allowed him to move on from a troubled past and to focus on his life and music. Boasting a newfound perspective, Bukk recounts some of his experiences from a view that only a change of environment and a good dose of reflection could bring. Bukk recalls that when he arrived in Melbourne five years ago, he quickly discovered that the local hip-hop scene in Australia was very different both lyrically and in content from his cultural hip-hop upbringing in America. Bukkcity admits that on moving back he felt an instant segregation in the local hip-hop scene, he noticed immediately the dominance of white rappers compared to the small presence of indigenous and black rappers. Bukk says, “It wasn’t the black-white issue that bothered me, it was more about the lack of lyrical acceptance and respect people had back then for different cultural backgrounds, each other’s life story and opinions. It was like they didn’t want to acknowledge my lyrical contribution to the scene, you had to either conform to the Oz Hip-Hop Style or your individual story or opinion was lost, especially mine, I’m a black Afro-American who grew up in the US and naturally spoke with an American accent. It was a real issue for the local hip-hop scene and still is to a degree, it was a weird feeling being ostracized for ’being me’ in hip-hop. I do think things have changed a little over the last couple of years, everyone seems to be more relaxed and receptive and more willing to hear your story and give you a go, so the attitude is changing and becoming more to what I grew up with for hip hop. The great thing is that at the time, I slowly became accepted by a lot of listeners from other musical genres, which is why this release has different musical influences in the production”

With his debut Mini-Album around the corner, Bukkcity has already begun winning over Australian audiences with an infectious 0nstage presence and a unique lyrical storytelling style to match it with the best of them. His first mixtape release, The 1st & 15th, put him on the local radar with its combination of brazen, sometimes-venomous battle raps and moments of quiet introspection. His second release, Underbelly: The Mixtape, a cleverly amusing download, which generated ill-informed controversy for its presumed glorification of gangland activities, was widely lauded by critics and listeners both inside and outside the hip-hop scene.

And now, ‘Same Place’ Bukkcity’s official 2009 debut release which sonically fuses and experiments with a few new musical influences in the sound and vocal production. Bukk’s debut Single “Nobody Wanted This” is the perfect introduction to the release; the artist begins by challenging his view on victims of war. The debut single enables any listener, especially a non hip-hop listener to cross over and appreciate the genuine perspective and sincerity of the message. The Bukkcity Mini-Album is not a hard-core hip-hop release, its not an oz hip-hop release, its hip-hop and not about an American rapper who has come here to show-up the local scene with his American culture, it’s about an artist called Bukkcity whose real name is Andre Knight, and he has recorded some of his life experiences, opinions and some social topics on seven well sorted instrumentals, that’s all, it’s just music... great music... enjoy!