Artist Information

Forming in the early 1990s, MC Suffa and MC Pressure became acquainted at South Australia's Blackwood High School. At first the two were an incompatible match, but they soon reconciled their differences with a mutual love for hip hop and began using their spare time to rhyme. Fellow MC Cali-C and DJ Next became part of the Hoods' crew, and they soon began to regularly compete in local DMC tournaments. MC Cali-C exited the group in 1995, and Next stayed with the band recording mix-tapes and demos up until 2000, leaving room for a mutual friend DJ Debris to step up to the decks.

The group began work on their first effort Back Once Again in 1995, which was released as an EP in 1997, their debut album A Matter of Time was released in 1999 followed by the LP Left Foot, Right Foot in 2001.

The Hoods' 2003 breakthrough LP, The Calling, reached platinum sales and featured two singles, Nosebleed Section and Dumb Enough, both of which featured in Triple J's Hottest 100 for that year.

After the achievement, the Hilltop Hoods began to receive more recognition and respect as Australian hip-hop artists, winning the APRA award for "Best Up and Coming Artist" and emerging from the once overlooked genre as popular musicians. In 2006 the group broke into the mainstream with the single Clown Prince entering the ARIA singles chart.

The group's fourth album The Hard Road was released in April 2006 and reached the top of the Australian Independent Charts and saw the band undertake their second national tour.