Drapht

Early life

Drapht grew up in North Perth, Western Australia, a suburb of Perth. His father, Gary Ridge, a jazz drummer introduced Drapht to music from a very young age—he first experienced hip hop at the age of eight. The name "Drapht" is based on a Western Australian Swan Brewery beer, Swan Draught; the company's logo was written on a watch that his father brought home when Drapht was 13 or 14.

Drapht attended Perth Modern School in Subiaco but was not involved in the school's music program. At school he became friends with Damien Allia (aka DJ Armee) who introduced him to hip hop via gigs at the Hyde Park Hotel.

Drapht became a vital part of Perth's hip hop crew, "Syllabolix", at the age of 17.

"I was extremely fortunate. Right place, right time. I was right in the middle of it all, I had access to one of the best producers at the time Dazastah, freestyle sessions at Hunter's and constant schooling from the rest of the MC's within the crew. So I was very blessed with it all." - Drapht

This involvement resulted in his first contributions being recorded and included on Hunter and Dazastah's 2000 debut album, Done DL, only months after he had started seriously writing.

Drapht's first track, "Misunderstood", was released as part of the Culture of Kings - Volume 3 release in 2003.

It was a song I wrote in a span of a day or so, and it was just lying around. So I had the opportunity to put it on Culture of Kings. And then it ended up being the opening track for the release, which was awesome. That definitely helped in the early days of my career."

Pale Rider

His debut album, Pale Rider, was released in October 2003, with all production handled by Dazastah (Downsyde), Fdel and Drapht. Special appearances on the album include: Fdel (Invada Records), Downsyde, MC Layla, Hunter, Selekt, Carlsani and Porsah Lane.

"With my first album, around the surrounding time I was fortunate to be hanging out with the Downsyde boys and the rest of SBX who were hugely influential. Essentially I got into music because It really amazed me how Daz [Dazastah] tackled his writing style with his witty punch-lines. Aggression was one thing I wanted to rid myself of though, at that time in my life it was my venting process. An angry teen mad a society, and myself. But we live to grow through that."

Who Am I

The follow-up, 2005's Who Am I, was co-produced by Dazastah (Downsyde) and Fdel, and co-mixed by Drapht with Dazastah. The songs touch on topics including politics, sex, and addiction to drunken antics. Guest appearances on the album include Pressure (Hilltop Hoods), Downsyde, Layla, Pegz (Obese Records), Clandestien, MJ (Funkola) and Hunter. It was released by Obese Records in both in a CD and a limited 2 LP vinyl format. Two tracks from the album, "Drink Drank Drunk" and "The Music", received airplay on Triple J, mostly on the Super Request program. Who Am I is more an introspective album.

"I tried to focus more on my flow and the structure of the tracks but at the end I wasn't really happy with the subject matter of the songs."

The song, "The Music", was selected by Triple J as a featured track for "AusMusic Month" in 2005. Drapht also released a music video for "The Music", which was shown on Rage. He also performed a guest verse on the track, "The Blue Blooded", which was included on the Hilltop Hoods' 2006 album, The Hard Road.

Drapht has opened for acts such as; Hilltop Hoods, Dilated Peoples, Downsyde, Koolism, Apathy, Rodney P & Skitz, Mystro, Killa Kela, and Resin Dogs.

Brothers Grimm

Drapht's third album, Brothers Grimm, was released 10 May 2008, with the first song from the album, "Jimmy Recard", receiving significant airplay on Triple J, where it became the second most played song on the station in 2008

"With Brothers Grimm I focused on my song writing and concepts more than any previous album, also working on my pronunciation and delivery. I set out for it to be more of a personal and truthful account with what I stand for moralistically"

The album debuted at No. 64 on the ARIA Album charts, reached No. 9 on the V Energy AIR (Association of Independent Record Labels) Charts and No. 10 on the ARIA (Australian Recording Industry Association) Top 40 Urban Album charts.

The Life of Riley

In an interview with The Vine in November 2010 Drapht advised that he had not renewed his contract with Obese Records and that he will be releasing his forthcoming album The Life of Riley independently. The first song released from the album is "Rapunzel", for which he describes

The love hate relationship that is Rapunzel- a subject that I had that was extremely close to my heart, so naturally the song itself was one of the easiest to write, but one of the hardest to nail in the recording process. Has to be one of my favourites to date, has made me fall in love with her all over again!

The Life of Riley was released 1 April 2011 and was the first release on Drapht’s own label The Ayems, which is distributed through Sony Music. The album debuted at #1 on the ARIA Album Chart and was the first Australian artist to do so in 2011. The second track to be taken from the album was "Sing It (The Life of Riley)".

Awards and accolades

Drapht was nominated in the Best Urban/Hip Hop Act category at the 2007 West Australian Music Industry Awards. At the age of twenty five Drapht decided to pursue music full-time, leaving his other career as a roof carpenter.

Drapht appeared for the first time in a Triple J Hottest 100 with two entries in the 2008 countdown; "Jimmy Recard" at number 10 and "Falling" at number 77.

In October Drapht was nominated for the "Best New Australian Independent Artist" award at the 2008 AIR Awards.

"Jimmy Recard" was nominated for 'Most Popular Single/EP' at the 2009 West Australian Music Industry Awards and Drapht as 'Best Urban/Hip Hop Act', which he subsequently won.

"Rapunzel" reached number 12 on Triple J's Hottest 100 for 2010, #2 on the AIR charts and peaked at #16 on the ARIA singles chart in February 2011, the highest charting single for Drapht to date. The single was also accredited an ARIA platinum certification.

Drapht received two nominations in the 2011 Jägermeister Independent Music Awards, 'Best Independent Album' and 'Best Independent Hip Hop/Urban Album', winning the award for the latter. At the 2011 ARIA Music Awards Drapht received seven nominations, 'Single of the Year' ("Rapunzel"); 'Best Male Artist'; 'Breakthrough Artist - Album' (Life of Riley); 'Breakthrough Artist - Single' ("Rapunzel"); 'Best Urban Album'; 'Most Popular Australian Artist' and 'Engineer of the Year', eventually winning 'Best Urban Album'. The Life of Riley was also nominated for the 2011 J Awards.

Touring

In March 2009 Drapht undertook a national tour of Australia with fellow Western Australians, Downsyde with a number of the eastern states performances being supported by Pez. Drapht also made appearances at Homebake, Pyramid Rock Festival, Southbound, Open Arms and MS Fest.

Drapht appeared at the 2011 Groovin' the Moo festival and undertook a national tour to promote the album, with support from Mantra and The Tongue.

Compilation appearances

Other appearances

Alongside many other Australian hip hop artists, Drapht appears in the music video for the Hilltop Hoods song, "Rattling the Keys to the Kingdom" (2012).

APRA Awards

The APRA Awards are presented annually from 1982 by the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA), "honouring composers and songwriters". Drapht has been nominated for four awards.

ARIA Awards

The ARIA Music Awards are presented annually from 1987 by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). In 2011 Drapht won one award from seven nominations.