Spin To Win #42: Seeking Penance For Our Sins With Sidney Phillips

A chat with the Mayor of Morayfield about her new album, 'Penance'.

This one’s a little bit delayed — but I’m hoping it was worth the wait. I spoke with rising rap star Sidney Phillips about her new album, Penance, the pressure of being a role model, and much, much more. I’ve published the full transcript for paid subscribers again at the bottom of the newsletter — it was a 50-minute chat, so there is a lot that didn’t make the feature. Onto the piece!

You know the deal: subscribe for 20% off before Christmas and get quality independent music journalism for just $4/month. I’m trying to think of something that’s better value, but coming up blank.

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Photo by James Caswell.

The only time a cold DM on Instagram has worked on me was when I received one from Morayfield rapper Sidney Phillips. I’d just published an article for VICE AU about Soundcloud, featuring some particularly excellent quotes from Ninajirachi. Sensing an opportunity to get attention, Sidney called on her fans to spam “stealthyn00b” in the comments of VICE AU’s post, trying to get them to cover the emerging Internet-based collective in a future piece.

While VICE AU never covered stealthyn00b, the stunt worked on me — I was intrigued. The timing was perfect too, as this interaction came shortly before the release of her much-beloved project I’m So Tired Of Being Staunchly. Staunchly is a whirlwind introduction to Sidney’s sound, smashing together prime Kerser-esque bars with production that will sound familiar to Drain Gang/Sad Boys fans. The result is a concoction that feels both hyperactive and slurred, like sprinting through sludge.

On ‘Get Rich Or Die Tryin', the final single from Sidney’s new album, Penance, the haze has evaporated. It’s the clearest she’s ever sounded and offers a marked switch up in lyrical approach. She declares, “Tryna change what I’m rapping bout, cause I know my influence/And I don't want my fans to be using and abusing/And I been down that path why you think I don't want you to do it?”. Speaking about the track, Sidney says it’s an acknowledgment that she’s got more eyes on her than ever.

“There have been times where people have come up to me, like one of the first shows after I dropped Staunchly, some guy came up to me. He's like, 'Bro, like, I'm such a big fan, this and that.' And he was like, 'Oh, I've got a Xan for you, if you want one, bro.' I'm like, 'Nah, I don't want to be promoting that.' And then a few months later, I'm sure it wasn't just because of me, but there was this kid in our Discord, and he sent a photo, he bought a bottle of Rikodeine from the pharmacy.

“I was like, 'Bro, don't do that. Like, I hope you didn't hear about that from my music and thought that was a cool thing to try out.' And that's definitely not the lesson I want to give people from my music. Like, 'Yeah, drugs are fun, and you should get really fucked up and party really hard.' That's not what it's all about. I try to be really transparent with it and talk about both sides of it.”

Penance is both a victory lap, and a confession. Features from underground star Ricky Chix of Shed Theory, and production credits from self-described “enigmatic internet dweller” Cocainejesus, Feardorian, and Friendzone’s CHLORINE MIST, underline Sidney’s growing stature. For those expecting to hear more vocal appearances from the rest of stealthyn00b, the absence of group mainstays like Lil Ket and luvlockdown may take long-term fans by surprise, though Skratcha appears on ‘Knight’, and twinlite’s production is scattered across the record. Sidney explains, “I think if any one of us got approached by Ricky Chix about doing a song, I think any of us would jump on it.

“We're all big Shed Theory fans, and we're all just big fans of music. So I think this is the first time where I've had the opportunity to work with any of these cool names that I knew about before I started making music, so that was really exciting for me, and it's only really happened because of the last album, but it wasn't a super intentional thing.”

‘Get Rich Or Die Tryin’ is the cross in the album’s opening 1-2 punch, with opening track ‘Lead A Horse 2 Water’ capturing Sidney’s attempts to help a friend break their addiction. Cocainejesus’ video game-esque production sits under Sidney’s pained vocals, as she reaches out a hand to a friend. Taking inspiration from the directness and honesty of fellow Australian rapper Flowz Dillione (“If you're an avid Flowz fan, you could probably spot bits here and there,” she says), her pain is palpable, as she laments, “And you know you can call if you need me/Cunt I love you, don't you leave me/You don't gotta hide shit or deceive me/I just wanna know that you're still breathing”. She says addiction has “almost always been a big theme in my music, because it's a big theme in my life, really”.

“I wanted to write this album because the last album was sort of what it was like when I was going through [addiction]. And I wrote a lot of that album during the worst period of me and my friends' addiction. And I like to write about real life. I like to write about stuff that's important to me, emotional to me, stuff that I think about. Before this album, I've never really written about what it's like to have friends that do hard drugs. Rap music, a lot of times, is about struggle. It's nice to be able to write down my thoughts and feelings.

“The first song was specifically inspired by one of my mates that's really fallen off into it. That's just real struggle, man, because you can have such real love for somebody, and it can be really frustrating when you have so much love for somebody, and they have a bad drug addiction. Drug addictions are really frustrating for both the addict and for the people around the addict. I like talking about my experiences, my friends ‘experiences, how I can sort of see it from an outsider's view and be like, 'Bro, you need help. And bro, it's so frustrating, because I really care about you, and I really want you to get off these drugs, but you just won't.'”

The album also features numerous references to religious imagery, with Sidney revealing that the project could have been called Sidney Of Arc. On ‘Standard’, she calls on listeners to “say 10 thank you stealthyn00bs for your penance,” while ‘Crucify Me In My Tommy And Lacoste’ is vivid. Religion’s played a key role in Sidney’s life, she tells me, having been raised Christian. She explains, “Around 10, 11, 12 is when you decide whether or not you actually believe in it. And I started doing some reading and watching some YouTube and just thinking 'Man, I don't know if I actually believe in that.'

“So, I probably went for two years where I was like, 'I don't believe in God'. And then I was 13, I just started feeling it. I just started getting into it again. It's really like a feeling. It's just such a strong feeling. And since then, being what, 13, I've done a lot of my own reading, research, and this and that about it. So, I've come to my own conclusions about it, and this is where I stand now. I've been Christian most of my life.”

Going to a stealthyn00b show feels like attending a hyper-underground church. People come to worship at the altar of Sidney Phillips (who’s often accompanied by fellow prophet Lil Ket), though it’s easy to miss their rise. Australian rap has shapeshifted a few times over the last decade, from trap dominance, to the rise of drill, and now Afrobeats is starting to take hold.

Running parallel to this in Australia is the internet-fuelled scene, spearheaded by artists like Sidney Phillips. The stealthyn00b Discord is hundreds-strong, and while she’s personally indebted to artists like Kerser and other gutter rap gurus, her fans are more likely to feel at home online at Rate Your Music. Building an audience that doesn’t sit 1:1 with other Australian rap fanbases wasn’t a fluke. She explains, “We knew how we wanted to market ourselves, I guess. People aren't tapped into that. People aren't tapped into the die-hard internet fandom stuff.

“I've been there, you know, like I've been on the drain gang subreddit and all this and that and been hard on the last.fm and stuff like that, you know. So, I get it, and I'm there, and I know how to appeal to that just a little bit. Not like I'm some sort of marketing mastermind, and it's all been super intentional. We've been pretty lucky. Honestly, nobody could have ever joined the Discord. It's been a lot of pushing it and being lucky. Having some good ideas and a lot of luck.”

While she’s being typically modest, putting her rise down to luck downplays her impact on the Australian rap landscape. As a self-described trans adlay, one look at Sidney’s Instagram comments is enough to realise that she’s inspired countless fans to live their true selves. It’s something she holds close. She explains,” I've had a few people message me being like, 'You helped me be comfortable enough to come out as non-binary', or 'Hey Sidney, I’m friends with adlays and stuff like that. And I feel a real pressure to act hard, and I love the music, and I love the clothes and that, but you make me feel like it's okay to also be trans'.

“That means a lot to me. I hope that I can be a sort of role model for that, because that's really important to me, the sort of toxic masculinity stuff. Oh, my fucking god, I love, I love my Oz Rap so much. I love TNs so much. But not everybody that's into that sort of stuff is cool with trans people, or cool with acting feminine at all, or anything like that. I think it's important and cool that there are artists like me and now there are artists like Yorohaerte from Brisbane who's trans as well, Sleepr, who's trans as well, making Aus rap, and being an assigned male at birth person not afraid, not afraid to rap and be trans. Just do it. Just be yourself.”

Penance, as much as anything else, is a chronicle about doing your best, even when it’s not easy. When asked what she hopes people learn about her when listening to Penance, Sidney pauses, before saying, “I hope they learn that I'm trying really hard. That's what a lot of the album is about, trying really hard. And also, if you're going through some hard times, I hope maybe people who are going through a sort of similar thing to what I'm talking about can find a bit of solace in it.

“It's not always easy for me, but I'm trying really hard, and I'm working really hard on the music.”

Sidney Phillips’ new album Penance is out now.

Music Recommendation

Listen to Penance.

Article Recommendation

Read the feature above.

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Interview Transcript