Snob defying hip-hop label

Alex de Vos
Imagine listening to the cries of a lost child with an attention-deficit disorder wandering around trying to navigate their way through space.
This is the sound of Snob Scrilla’s debut album, Day One, according to the MC behind the quirky Sydney outfit.
Music critics have labelled the release “a fine piece of hip-hop” but scrilla’s Sean Ray prefers a more-eclectic category.
“I don’t really think it’s hip-hop,” Ray told the Independent.
“It’s really all over the place – a mix of sounds and styles.
“People want to call it hip-hop because I rap on most of the vocal deliveries but when you listen to it you’ll hear ambient instrumental tracks and wailing backing vocals – that’s not hip-hop.”
Despite the album’s lack of definition, Australian audiences have embraced the work of the Californian-born singer/songwriter.
Ray, also an accomplished music producer who divides his time between recording and performing, said the band was formed as an outlet to express his creativity.
“I wanted to do a side project that didn’t have any goals for the market,” he explained.
“I just wanted to express whatever I was thinking and I guess that’s why the album is so varied – one day I was watching Pink Floyd and the other day I was listening to Kanye West.
“There are no rules.”
But what Ray wasn’t expecting when he conceived Snob Scrilla, which he said was slang for a “money snob”, was to set the charts alight almost overnight.
Before the official release of his latest single ……. (the song with no title), the track debuted at 45 on the ARIA chart, later reaching 14 on iTunes’s list.
“It’s been going well, the reviews have been really good,” Ray said.
“I really didn’t know what to expect.”
Ray considered his rise to stardom a “natural progression”.
“I grew up with music and went from being band geek to performing in plays,” he explained.
“When that wasn’t cool any more I started freestyling with my friends.”
After graduating from high school, Ray moved to Australia armed with a string of Californian-influenced rap beats.
“There was no real catalyst for the move – I just needed a change,” he confessed.
“Where I lived the constant thing was getting high and I really didn’t fit in.
“I feel at home in Australia.”
Snob Scrilla plays Geelong’s Barwon Club on Saturday.