ROCK&ROLL
“There was
violence in our
household. My
mother and older
brotherborethe
brunt of it.”Urthboy Goes
Deep On New LP
PROFILE
T
osaythebirthwascompli-
catedisanunderstatement.Tim
Levinson,themanbehindthehip-
hop moniker Urthboy, looks into his
drinkatacafénearhishomeinSyd-
ney’sinnerwestandtriestofigureoutwhereto
startthestoryofhisfifthalbum,The Past Beats
InsideMeLikeaSecondHeartbeat.
“Well,theinitialplanwasthatitwasgoingto
be spontaneous and not overthought,” he says.
“ThenIdecidedtorecordfiveEPscoveringfive
decadesofAustralianhistoryfromthe1950sto
the 1990s, using music synonymous with each
of those decades on each EP.”
Um,aren’tthosetwoideasprettymuchindi-
rectoppositiontoeachother?
“Exactly,”hesays,laughing.“There’snoth-
ing spontaneous about a concept record. About
ninemonthsintoit,myshipran
aground.”
So serious was he about the origi-
nalideathatheandmusicalcollab-
orator Pip Norman (who has also
worked with Troye Sivan and Jar-
rydJames)weregivenaone-week
residency at the National Film and
Sound Archive in Canberra to do re-
search. “We were given the property next door,
whichwastheoriginaladministrator’sresi-
dency and one of the most haunted houses in
Australia. There are stories of cleaners coming
in late at night and seeing figures moving ar-
chives around.”
Levinsonsawnoghosts,buthediduncover
other things. He discovered the history of the
Heideartscommunityofthe1930sand1940s,
whichwouldendupbeingusedonthesong
“Rushing Through Me”, featuring vocals from
Bertie Blackman, whose father Charles was
part of that group.
It’salsowherehereaduponthegreenbans
of the 1970s, when union leader Jack Mundey
andtheBuildersLabourersFederationfought
to save the destruction of many of Sydney’s
heritage buildings. He incorporated that story
intothesong“WolvesAtBay”.Alongwith“Hey
Juanita”,abouttheKingsCrossjournalistand
activistJuanitaNielsen,whodisappearedin
1975,presumedmurdered,theyendeduponSydney MC adapted stories from
both his own and Australia’s past
forhisdiicultfifthalbum
By Barry Divolathe album. But something wasn’t quite right
with his concept.
“Iwasonthiscollisioncoursewithanaca-
demic outcome. Things came sharply into focus
whenIrealisedIhadtoletthesongsbefreeand
I had to relax all this supplementary stuf I was
building around them. I still had this line I was
going towards with the historical context, but I
had to free things up.”
Hediditbyalsowritingabouthisownfamily,
bothpastandpresent.Levinson’sbackgroundis
atestamenttowhoheistoday.Hegrewupinthe
Blue Mountains in a Christian family, a boy ob-
sessed with sport and skateboarding. The bomb
that exploded his childhood was his parents’
separation when he was about 10.
“There was violence in our household,” he
says. “My mother and my older brother bore the
brunt of it. My mum stepped in before things
gotreallybadforus.Idon’thaveanytolerance
whatsoeverfordomesticviolencenow.Itmakes
me remember feeling terrified at home. When
your mum and dad are fighting and you know
whohasthepowerandyou’repowerlesstodo
anything, it’s a terrible thing.”
Levinson went through his own
troubled teenage years, putting him-
self in danger when doing illegal
grati or trashing houses when he
andhisfriendswouldcrashparties.
He was saved by hip-hop, becoming
obsessed with the Beastie Boys and
A Tribe Called Quest as a teenager.
As a member of the politically charged col-
lective the Herd and solo as Urthboy, he has be-
comeoneofAustralia’smostliterateMCsanda
passionate spokesman on social and political is-
sues.He’salsothemanagingdirectorofElefant
Traks, the thriving hip-hop label that is home to
Hermitude, the Herd and Horrorshow.
He met his wife, a doctor, 16 years ago, “when
shewasacooltomboyskateboarder”.“LittleGirl’s
Dad”isasongonthenewLPfortheirtwo-and-a-
half year old daughter Jetta, telling her that her
father made mistakes and she will too, but he’ll
dohisbesttomakesureshegrowsupastrong
womaninasocietydominatedbymen.What
kindofworlddoeshethinkJettawillinherit?
“A world where Barack Obama can be leader of
thefreeworldoneminuteandDonaldTrumpcan
be the next. Look, I’m a really optimistic, positive
person, but there are moments like that where
you just think, ‘OK, we’re unforgivably fucked.’
Allyoucandoisdoyourbit,beagoodperson
and try to make things a little bit better.”22 | Rolling Stone | RollingStoneAus.com May, 2016