While they aren’t new to the scene and already have a large following in their Australian homebase, 1300 are embarking on a new journey. After leaving the Sydney underground music scene to get in touch with their Korean roots in Seoul, through a deal with Universal Music Korea, the group now mark the release of their full debut album ILLSAMGONGGONG.
ILLSAMGONGGONG really just means “one-three-hundred” in Korean, when read phonetically, so it’s technically a self-titled album. But this in itself is already a huge deal as they get their introduction to the Korean music market and audience, making a clear statement that they value their roots.
But who are 1300? They are a group of guys from the underground music scene composed of DALI, goyo, and rako who handle vocals and rap, and Nerdi and pokari who produce the music. The rappers were initially part of another music group called Aisleland, and they met Nerdie and pokari after attending a listening party. The rest is history.
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Having formed in Sydney, with a couple of releases and mixtapes under their belt, 1300 have built a rather large following and have done two sold-out Australian tours.
Now, if you wanted to get to know 1300 better, ILLSAMGONGGONG would be the best place to start! The album’s opener of the same name is like the group’s big announcement (maybe even a warning full of sirens) that they are back after a long hiatus. Being back means so much more with their newfound identity and brotherhood that lives through ILLSAMGONGGONG. The loudness and confidence of the track busting the door for their album is all you need to hear to understand what 1300 is all about.
The lead single ‘clear out the room’ serves as a partner to ILLSAMGONGGONG, like a scrappier declaration of their return and a statement of their ambitions to take on the global stage. Between the two tracks, you get to see the spectrum of 1300’s identity, with one end being refined chaos, and the other end being laidback defiance.
And in the true essence of versatility, 1300 jumps genres throughout the album. There are a couple of EDM tracks that resonate with true K-Pop fashion, especially ‘party all night’ and ‘BRAVE’. These tracks were built completely different from the other tracks that surround it, paying homage to modern K-Pop and Korean hip-hop, code switching between English and Korean throughout the songs.
To get their feet across the doors in South Korea, ‘Headrock’ is the track that shows 1300 belongs in the room. Featuring South Korean rapper and hitmaker GIRIBOY, ‘Headrock’ shows that 1300 is confident enough to hold their own with someone they admire and hold in high regard, and someone with a lot of calibre in the music scene.
At their core, 1300 are rap and hip-hop. And they do have tracks that show that they are still the classic Aussie rap crew that grew their fanbase at the grassroots. Out of all these tracks, ‘Fever’ stands out as the most energetic. It’s simply pure fun. In fact, 1300 agrees that if there were a song that showed their personalities the best, it would be ‘Fever’. But this track also plays on their strengths of being rapper at their core, showing that they aren’t newcomers to the hip-hop scene.
While ILLSAMGONGGONG is 1300’s debut album, it also shows that they can flex as hard as any other hip-hop crew and seamlessly transition into the K-Pop register. ILLSAMGONGGONG isn’t just another album to add to their already fleshed out discography. It’s an album about genuine friendship and brotherhood, and shows us just what 1300 is all about.
