OneFour: Sydney rap group feels love from Perth crowd after turbulent past prevents headline tour

In the Metropolis Nightclub mosh pit moments before Australia’s most controversial rap group took the stage, I’m warned that we are surrounded by undercover police.

“I don’t know what you are doing, but I’ve counted three ‘undies’, a paranoid OneFour fan yells. He insists police are watching our every move from three positions inside the club.

“Warn others,” he says just as the Aussie drill-music pioneers get moving on their first solo tour appearance in Perth.

Basically banned across their home State of New South Wales, OneFour’s lyrics speak to the fringes of society.

In 2019, the group had to cancel their national tour after the NSW Police’s Raptor Squad — which targets serious and organised crime among outlaw motorcycle gangs — raised safety concerns for concert-goers.

Police accused the Mount Druitt-based group of inciting Sydney’s “postcode wars”.

Police say their lyrics incite gang violence.

It has meant they have found it very hard to get a gig in NSW.

That, and the fact that some of their members have been charged with violent crimes and have seen the inside of a jail cell.

In fact, Friday night’s gig in Fremantle saw the group dedicate a portion of the show to an absent member Dahcell “Celly” Ramos.

As the band told fans: he was “unable to stay out of trouble”.

That trouble was with the law.

Mr Ramos was arrested on April 8 over an incident in March where he allegedly threatened someone with a knife at a house party near Penrith.

The NSW Supreme Court was reportedly told the drill rapper was on parole at the time after serving almost six years for attacking a man with a hammer inside a Rooty Hill pub in 2018.

Both Salec “Lekks” Su’a and, now former member, Pio “YP” Misa, were also jailed over the incident in 2018, but have since been released.

Lekks has returned to OneFour and Pio Misa has been ordained as a Christian priest.

It was left to Spencer “Spenny” Magalogo, Jerome “J Emz” Misa and Su’a to perform in Fremantle last Friday — and fans were in awe that the trio made the trip west.

The sounds of gunshots, police sirens and horns blared through speakers while the crowd full of rattails and mullets raged on through the night.

Constant references to crime come months after NSW Police claimed they had disrupted a murder plot against the group.

The men were beaming as they stomped their way around the nightclub, given their problems finding a stage to host them back home.

OneFour’s lyrics, which talk about violent crime, gang wars and police, would understandably shock many Australians.

“We violent men, they talk too much, we silence them. Quiet Them. And plus, this blade will take his life and minus them (Ride on them),” they sang in the song ‘Spot The Difference’.

Their song ‘Home and Away’ — which is riddled with references to living in a lower-socio-economic area, and not Summer Bay as in the hit TV show — was a hit in WA.

The crowd lapped up the references to Australia’s gang culture during the set, with the left side of the crowd urged to scream ‘f... the right side’ before everyone shouted ‘f... the ‘opps’ — a slang term for opposition.

There were plenty of middle fingers, but everyone was having a good time.

Some of their slower songs with an R’n’B flavour gave everyone a chance to breathe.

But the beats were mostly energetic and best indulged loud and live.

There were cups of ice being thrown from balconies and security dragged a number of people outside for misbehaving. This included one man who thought he’d storm the stage once OneFour left.

“This city is pretty lit, I ain’t gonna lie,” OneFour told the crowd.

Once the Fremantle show concluded, a small brawl erupted outside the venue, not unusual for a Friday night on the Fremantle strip.

WA Police — who declined to comment on whether they deployed more resources to the concert — quickly de-escalated the situation.

Attendees told The West that the group’s upbringing in Western Sydney had earned them the respect of people around the country.

“These boys are speaking exactly how they feel,” said attendee, Adam.

“Their (documentary and music) has shined a light on their reality, all these rappers say they are going through it, but these guys are.”

Another young man, who wore a ski mask and wished to be referred to as ‘Styla_c’, said he had flown from Brisbane to watch OneFour in Perth.

In a statement to The Nightly, the group said the Perth show had been a standout on their The Get Back Tour.

“It was a sold-out show and Fremantle brought a lot of crazy energy to the show last night. We felt the love, and look forward to coming back and doing it even bigger next time.”

They said they hope to perform back in NSW soon — which missed out on the current tour run.

“For now, we’re enjoying touring interstate and putting on huge, successful, safe, sold-out shows in different cities.

“It’s only a matter of time til we can do the same in Sydney.”

The group first burst onto the musical scene with their track ‘The Message’ in 2019.

OneFour’s talent has been recognised by some of the world’s biggest musical acts and has led to collaborations with acts including The Kid Laroi and Skepta.

The roots of the modern drill music scene dates back to Chicago in the early 2010s before London “drillers” went on to catapult the genre to the world.

Its confrontational and aggressive lyricism began when rappers spoke of their constant realities surrounded by murder, street crime and gang wars.

Rapper Pac-Man is credited by many as the first artist to use the term “drilling” in a song — a term used to describe attacking an opposing gang with gunfire.

Now, Australian artists such as OneFour are rapping about their lives on the streets to millions — outlining a course, ideally, away from firearm and knife violence.