Justice - Still Scribbling

Having proven himself on the world stage as a battle MC, Melbourne rhyme-smith Justice has much more to say. 3D’s Cyclone hears him out.

Justice, of the duo Justice & Kaos, has in his own way fulfilled the prophecy of his moniker. In 2005 he slayed the opposition at the hip hop mega battle Scribble Jam in the US, becoming the first non-American in its decade-long history to win.

The freestyler even beat the previous year's victor, Illmaculate. That glorious battle - held in Cincinnati, Ohio - is enshrined for prosperity on a new DVD that Justice admits he finds "embarrassing" to watch.

When Justice battled, did he feel he had something to prove to the American contingent? He says no.

"It wasn't really that I had something to prove to them - it sounds corny, but I guess I had something to prove to myself.

"I didn't think I was gonna win in the first place, anyway, so I wasn't really too concerned with how they saw me, I just didn't wanna make a fool out of myself. I didn't wanna walk away thinking 'I could have done better' or anything like that. I was ready to accept defeat, but not doing the best that I could do, I didn't want that to happen. So going into it, it was pretty nerve-wracking.

"It was a weird environment at first because I'd learnt from all the guys who were in the battle - I'd been watching them for the last year-and-a-half or so - but, once the battle started, it was familiar territory. It was like all the battles back here, so it's just second nature."

Justice agrees that the Americans are mostly unaware of the Australian hip hop boom. "They know that stuff's going on - a lot of them were really interested in what's happening down here. They obviously didn't know the full extent, and they didn't know much material, but they definitely knew that things were happening. But I don't think they really had an idea of where we're at."

Having successfully battled American MCs on their own turf, is Justice now more confident that an Australian hip hop artist could move into the US? "It's a bit like '[selling] ice to Eskimos' 'cause everything is hip hop over there and there's just so many struggling artists, it'd be hard to bring someone out of here and market them over there as something other than a gimmick."

Instead Justice would prefer to launch Justice & Kaos in Asia - after all, he has a connection, being half Malaysian.

Justice didn't journey to the US to defend his title in 2006. TheSaurus, one of those he'd beat, won. For Justice, it was a case of 'been there, done that' - he's looking to fresh challenges. Justice & Kaos - formerly Third World Militia - have signed to Warner through Solid State Recordings, a label devised by Weapon X with Andrew Montell. They've just aired The FOB Mixtape, with a darkly funny if politically incorrect theme, and will shortly premiere an EP, which Justice considers a "demo" to test the market. Justice ultimately decided that competing in 2005's Scribble Jam was enough.

"I didn't get a chance to go back last year, I really wanted to, and they invited me back, but it was at a real bad time 'cause it was right at the peak of when we were starting to finish up the EP. We were finalising all the contractual agreements with the label and so I said I'd really love to come but, unfortunately, I've gotta stay back here and work on music."

Justice is grateful for his title. "It opened up a lot more doors - I think where people weren't taking notice before, when they see a Justice track they'd probably be more inclined to check it now. For me it was therapeutic just to have in my mind, OK, yeah, I've really taken it to the end now, I can start working on music and be satisfied that I couldn't take it any further."

The next goal for Justice is to make the transition from battle MC into recording artist. "Right now I feel we've finished the EP and I'm ready to move on. Going from battling to recording, I found at the start I'd wanna just do a lot of mixtape tracks, like grab a jack beat and write a battle verse and spit it and try and make it sound cool, whereas nowadays, when it comes to mixtape tracks, we're tired of that. We're like, Yeah, we've been there, done that, now we wanna sit down and actually write songs."

In Melbourne Justice tends to keep to his own crew. He's not one to get involved in local politics. "I think in terms of battling I was viewed as an individual. I learned most of what I did from the guy who I rap with, Kaos, but he stopped at one point and said 'Nah, I don't wanna battle anymore' and I just kept going. So from a battling perspective I was on my own. But, in terms of music, and the guys who I associate with in hip hop, we don't really have a huge posse, but I definitely have got a group of people who I'm inspired by and we work together and everything like that. But my ties don't really stretch out that far within the scene.

"That's not to say that I don't respect a lot of the groups out there and a lot of the crews doing their thing.

"To me it seems like, with Melbourne, because there's so many rappers, it's hard to associate yourself with everyone. Whenever you do a show, half the crowd are MCs, so everyone's looking at you, judging you and saying 'Oh, I bet I can do better than this guy.' You have to stick to yourself and be true to yourself, whereas when I went to Sydney, the crowd just seemed like fans, they were there for the music - and so that's the way I see it at the moment."
 
Justice wants Australian hip hop to evolve into a culture as diverse as that of the US. "I've always been of the opinion that there's no real such thing as 'Australian hip hop', it's just hip hop that's made in this part of the world and it's gonna have all different sounds and there's gonna be fans and there's gonna be haters. But the sooner people can realise that we're all in it for the same thing - it's just all about music - the sooner the scene can progress and we can start enjoying more diverse music, rather than the same sounds over and over. Hopefully it will get there."

WHO: Justice
WHAT: Scribble Jam DVD out on Shogun
WHEN: Out now
MORE: www.shogundist.com