Rates

Hailing from Sydney’s south western suburbs, Campbelltown native MC Rates is by no means a stranger to the Australian hip-hop scene. Having started playing music as a guitarist in bands throughout Sydney, he then made the transition to writing rhymes at age 17, influenced by the likes of 2Pac, DR. Dre, Big Pun and Wu tang Clan, as well as drawing inspiration from life experiences and his local surroundings. Rates established himself in the Australian battle scene, competing at multiple battle events across the country before going on to tour the nation 4 times over with his brother and long-time collaborator Kerser. Having played sold out shows and festivals among the likes of Sprung, Breath of Life and Heatwave, Rates began to amass a solid fan base driven by the consistent release of promotional tracks and videos, the most successful of which has been his ‘Nightmare’ series. June 2013 saw the release of Rates’s much anticipated debut album ’Destroy and Rebuild’ which spent a week on top of the Australian iTunes charts. ‘Destroy and Rebuild’ chronicles the various struggles faced by today’s youth, with Rates giving fans a personal account of his experiences with drug abuse, crime and street culture.