Reviewed by: HW Bones

Published:  26 October 2011

ep: believe

Caper is a South Australian hip hop performer originally from Whyalla. Unfortunately losing members of his family to heart disease in his early years, Caper (Colin Darcy) found solace and connection when discovering the hip hop of artists such as Tupac Shakur and NWA. Feeling a connection to this form of story-telling, Caper eventually went on to start writing his own poems and songs about his experiences.

Popping the EP ‘Believe’ into the cosmic destruction player I was greeted with the quite poppy track ‘Here I Am’, a theme musically that comes across throughout this release. It’s an interesting backing to some quite personal and hard hitting lyrics that Caper offers. The benefit of this is that it makes it much more accessible to a wider range of people. This includes me, as hip hop is not something I’d ordinarily listen to, but ‘Believe’ was an easy listen and gives a greater awareness of Caper's overall message.

Tony Minnicon, Isabelle Linde and Darren Mullan supply some good guest vocals across various tracks on this release which again adds to the very slick production. With few exceptions this album provides hooks galore and it’s not hard to imagine this getting a decent amount of play around the place on the appropriate hip hop radio shows.

I can’t help but pick an element of ‘Eminem’ influence in Caper's vocal style, and this certainly lends itself well to the often politically charged songs. Stamping out racism is a subject near and dear to me so it’s very interesting to hear first-hand the experiences that Caper has had to deal with in one of the standout tracks ‘How Would You Like To Be Me.' It’s a saddening song in a way - to hear about the casual, almost flippant, way racism is still dealt with in this country; but the way in which Caper talks about his own experiences should stand up as a reminder to everyone about these issues.

The other standout track for me is ‘Time Machine.' This song touches on some similar issues and some regrets on behalf of the songwriter. This is a really catchy track and sounds radio-friendly to my ear.

If I could offer one small observation I’d like to hear more of Caper's Aussie accent coming across in his work - you can hear touches of it here and there, but more often than not there is a distinct American twang to some lines. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing and by no means sounds bad; it’s just that I can’t help but feel the subject matter would be even harder hitting with more focus on this.

‘Believe’ is a really solid hip hop release and for fans of the genre it’d be well worth grabbing yourself a copy, going out catching one of Caper's shows or checking out his videos on YouTube. He’s an artist that I hope will develop even further.