Diafrix Interview

Last year’s Pocket Full Of Dreams was the undisputable breakthrough album for Melbourne’s Diafrix, but as one half of the hip hop duo Khaled ‘Azmarino’ Abdulwahad acknowledges, it’s only the beginning of the journey. While their sophomore effort has taken Azmarino and Mohamed ‘Momo’ Komba’s status in the Oz hip hop scene to a whole new level, the pair claim there is still a long way to go and a lot more hard work to be done before either one of them is fully satisfied. Still, taking out iTunes’ 2012 Best Australian Hip Hop Release and supporting Ryan Lewis and Macklemore recently has made for a pretty nice start to the year, as Azmarino agrees.

“We’ve supported big acts before, like Public Enemy, Lupe Fiasco, Bruno Mars… But Ryan Lewis and Macklemore was different! It was really great to meet them and share the stage with them and hang out afterwards. They’re such humble guys, which is nice – Macklemore is a recovering alcoholic so he doesn’t drink anymore. That meant there was no alcohol backstage, which is the opposite of what we’re used to with other artists. It was different and interesting and fun to tour with them six days in a row. It’s funny how some people hate on them but they managed to sell out their shows. I think it just shows you that as soon as you become popular there are going to be some people that just don’t like that.”

Not that Diafrix are concerned about the haters. With Pocket Full Of Dreams having spawned three massive singles – Running It, Easy Come, Easy Go and I’m A Dreamer (featuring 360) – Azmarino and Momo have been receiving plenty of support from Triple J as well as the more commercial Nova. Popularity? Mainstream success? After years on Struggle Street – bring it on.

“Definitely,” Azmarino concurs. “We’ve worked so hard for it. It’s been a very long process, especially with this album. We’ve been hoping that this was the one that would take us to the next step, which it has. It’s turned around a lot of things, we consider ourselves lucky. We’ve been in the industry for a long time now and we’ve seen many talented MCs with no chance of getting on the radio, so anything that gets played by us, we are very grateful for. Hopefully we can keep up the momentum. It’s been beautiful and it’s been amazing and we are hoping that this means more opportunities will be opened for young African rappers to experience some success too.”

Both African refugees who moved to Australia in search of a better future – Azmarino in the early 2000s and Momo at the age of three – it’s safe to say that both are well acquainted with life on Struggle Street. It’s one of the many reasons they have chosen to pay it forward by including young up-and-coming Sydney MC Miracle on their upcoming national tour.

“He’s a young guy who we discovered and we have a lot of things in common with him,” Azmarino reveals. “One of those things is his African background. He’s 20 years old and we’ve helped out with a lot of workshops for young kids in the past, so we came across him and he really made an impression on us. We really admire the fact that he’s hustled in the last three years so we are really excited about our fans getting to see him and discovering him.”

From the looks of things, the days of hustling are over for Diafrix – the pair is about to hit the road on one of their most extensive tours yet and are set to return to the studio later in the year to commence work on the follow-up to Pocket Full Of Dreams.

“We’re just gathering information for it right now, we’re looking at topics and working on beats. This album has had a really strong theme about problems and struggle and about persevering and hoping that tomorrow is going to be alright. We’re in a bit of a different place now so who knows how the next one will turn out. It’s been a struggle, but it’s been a beautiful struggle.”

WHO: Diafrix
WHERE: Rocket Bar
WHEN: Sat Apr 20