Four Tone Artists

Urthboy is an award-winning hip hop artist from Sydney, Australia.

With a career spanning over 20 years as a songwriter, recording artist, live performer and collaborator, Urthboy has 10+ albums across his projects with The Herd & Urthboy.

His second album The Signal, released in 2007, was not only a breakthrough album for his solo career but it was a seminal and widely-lauded album for local hip hop and independent music.

The Signal cemented Urthboy’s solo career amongst peers, industry and fans alike. Rolling Stone hailed the album ‘a classic’ and upon its release and it was feature album on triple j, PBS and Groove FM. Produced by Pip Norman (TZU) and Elgusto (Hermitude) the album featured singles ‘Over Before It Began’ (feat. Mia Dyson), ‘The Signal’ and ‘We Get Around’, the latter of which came in at Number 25 on triple j’s Hottest 100 in 2007.

The album picked up many accolades; nominations across various industry awards including 2 x Air Awards, a J Award and it was also shortlisted for the prestigious Australian Music Prize.

Significantly, it was also licensed to Italy’s Motivo Records, joining a select few Australian hip hop records that have been licensed overseas.

The Signal announced Urthboy’s songwriting skills and revealed a new kind of storyteller in Australian music, expanding his profile and further consolidating the importance of hip hop as a cultural force in Australia. Urthboy would go onto sell out shows nationally, appear on every major festival in Australia, tour with Paul Kelly, receive rave 5 star reviews, appear on Q&A, 2 more AMP Award Shortlist nominations and clock up thousands of album sales and millions of streams.

A decade on and the album is still celebrated as one of the most important local hip hop albums and to have helped pave the way for the local scene which is now a powerhouse amongst mainstream music in Australia.