FIGGKIDD

Whilst it’s been only 18 months since the release of “This Is …”, Sydney rapper Figgkidd (Lee Monro) has gone through some serious personal changes. After spending the better part of 2006 writing and recording his upcoming self-entitled second album ‘FIGGKIDD’, it was also during this time Lee (Figgkidd) Monro also endured the ultimate of unpredictable predicaments. Confronting writer’s block, suffering depression, becoming unemployed for the first time in years and just for good measure, becoming a new father. This combination of events made for the perfect reality check and it is through this life experience 25-year-old Lee (Figgkidd) Monro has managed to stay focused during public criticism and personal turmoils, to turn his life around to become a stronger, more dedicated artist.

One listen to Figgkidd’s new album and the maturity is obvious. “I’ve come to accept who I am as an artist”, confesses Figg “I’ve always been criticised for always having a commercial edge to my lyrics and music, but its quite frankly who I am and what I listen to along with other styles and genres, it’s the musical trademark I’ve come to accept and right now I feel really good about it, it’s what makes me different from the other rappers who spit the underground style”.

Whilst Figgkidd was scouting for beats for the new album back in early 2006, a young producer, who handed him a CD full of beats after an event he had been hosting in Burwood, approached him. Little did Figgkidd realise that the young talented producer called Ace Wonder was only 16 at the time and was producing while still goin to school. Always looking for unsigned talent to work with Figgkidd was so impressed with the young producer, he trusted him to produce a majority of the new album under the Executive Producer guidance of Lui (unda K9).

Although not usually fazed by industry heavy-weights Figg’s previous bio reads like a hip hop who’s who, his previous associations with big industry players such as Grammy award winning mixing engineer Richard ‘Segal’ Hurredia (Dr Dre, Eminem, D12, Xzibit, Snoop, Swollen Members), Proof (D12), Tech N9Ne, DJ Babu (Dilated Peoples), Peter Coppes (The Church), Brian ‘Big Bass’ Gardner at Grundman’s (Dr Dre, Snoop, Eminem), RedFoo aka Stefan Gordy, Steve Balbi (Noiseworks & Universe), Tim Dog, Static, Nomb (Goodfellas-Universal), Redzone (Britney Spears, Madonna), Neff-U Feemstar (Dr Dre, Ne-Yo) and having toured and performed along side such artists as Cypress Hill, Nelly, Kool Keith & Kutmasta Kurt & Digital Underground (Park Jam 2005) and Ugly Duckling was what Figgkidd called “A very humbling experience, especially for a guy out of Bankstown Australia”.

Listeners won’t be disappointed in the guest appearances on the new album, nor the topics, this new album addresses, issues ranging from a comeback track called ‘FEEL GOOD’ Figgkidd’s first single from the album featuring the recent vocals of the legendary of Mr James Brown before his passing, re-mixed to feel ‘sampled’. “This track is a killer,” says Figgkidd, “I still can’t believe Mr. James Brown not only approved it, but then gave us his vocals to use on it. We have been blessed with an extraordinary experience in an extraordinary circumstance”.

On a powerful track like ‘RENT’ which features Dilated Peoples and Static and Nat Ill (Denmark), “It’s an omission track about the fact that hip hop does not pay my rent” says Figg, a circumstance too close to home for many in the music industry. “This track is my reality check, it’s a track I know a lot of people will relate to, anywhere in the world, coz it’s such a universal struggle” confesses Figg “ When you are trying to make it as an artist, the rent is always “That Beast” that either makes you stronger or weaker, because it has that ability to make you homeless” “when you are not earning that much money and trying to support a family and trying to make it as an artist, it’s very, hard to keep your head above water, ironically, rent is one of those things that can haunt you or shape you for the rest of your life”

‘FOR YOU’ is a track dedicated to Lee’s daughter Phoebe Leone. “When Phoebe came into our lives in 06, my whole perspective changed, suddenly this little person was the most important person in the whole world to me”, “She actually changed the way I look at women and at myself, Phoebe gave my album a new holistic direction, I could have written a whole album for her, about her, having her was the most amazing experience in my life, I owe it to her for forcing me to find my new found maturity’

Not afraid to show a personal side Figgkidd expresses his feelings of self acceptance on tracks like ‘I AM WHO I AM’ a New York style hype track in which Figg features with underground New York rapper Braille and ‘PUSH’ a track which vents Figg’s observation about the music industry. “Yeah, I just want to let people know, that this is it, what you see is what you get with me, I used to listen