Australian rap pioneers OneFour v the police: ‘They haven’t had to answer for anything’
OneFour might be the most beleaguered act in Australia right now. Since their debut six years ago, the western Sydney drill pioneers have accrued millions of streams, scored three Aria nominations, and received support from the likes of hip-hop superstars Skepta, Dave, A$AP Ferg and the Kid Laroi – yet they’ve been prevented from playing live, again and again, by police.
A new Netflix documentary catalogues their meteoric rise and incessant struggles. Its title – OneFour: Against All Odds – draws from the name of their 2020 EP, though it’s also an apt summation of their tortuous path towards success.
Over 85 minutes, the film paints a fairytale picture turned nightmarish: a group that rose to fame from the streets of Mount Druitt, historically one of Sydney’s poorest postcodes, before becoming the targets of Strike Force Raptor – a New South Wales police squad who, by their own description, “target groups and individuals who engage in serious and organised crime”. In 2019, OneFour broke through with their viral track The Message – and in the same year, three of their members were incarcerated for their involvement in a pub brawl.
Against All Odds documents the sheer scale of policing the rappers have experienced: unrelenting surveillance, raids to their homes and pressure on venues to cancel OneFour shows – which has worked almost every time. In one of the film’s most chilling moments, we hear a voice recording from a police sergeant: “I’m going to use everything in my power to make your life miserable until you stop doing what you’re doing.”
At the film’s SXSW Sydney premiere in October, the same tensions emerged. An audience gathered at Sydney’s International Convention Centre, bristling with energy; meanwhile, police kept watch. “There was such a nice big community presence at the screening,” director Gabriel Gasparinatos tells Guardian Australia on a video call with OneFour manager Ricky Simandjuntak. “This was undercut by quite an obvious police presence in and around the theatre and outside. I think it was the only film screening at SXSW to have metal detectors and undercover police.”
Simandjuntak sighs. “You kind of become numb to it after a while,” he says, calling the policing “a waste of money”.
In a statement, the NSW police said that they provided “a high-visibility operation for the entirety of the SXSW festival” across multiple venues and locations. “The premiere was just one of these said multiple locations,” the NSW police wrote. “While police provide safety and security advice to venues, promoters, and other stakeholders ahead of major events, the decision as to whether or not an event will proceed lies with the relevant venue.”
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Throughout the documentary, however, the NSW police seem to go back and forth about whether their actions are targeted or a part of “standard” practices. At one point, a police superintendent, Jason Weinstein, states directly to camera, “We will make sure that we are lawfully harassing that group.” In 2019, a national tour was cancelled by venues; a sergeant later told the ABC that OneFour’s music was “inciting violence”. On the night they were slated to finally play to a public audience in Sydney in 2022 – secretly supporting Kamilaroi rapper the Kid Laroi – the police raided the home where two OneFour members lived. We see startling footage of the raid in the film, though the police deny it was undertaken to prevent the performance.
“They haven’t had to answer for anything or really hold themselves accountable for what they’re doing,”
Simandjuntak says. “So I guess until that happens, we never really have an answer, do we? Like, they’re just gonna be there.”
Their conflict with police has garnered OneFour comparisons to NWA – the Compton group who, in the 80s, made a name off their tensions with law enforcement, culminating in their hit Fuck tha Police. OneFour’s drill sound also draws from global influences, slotting into a genre which originated in Chicago around 2011 and spread across the UK a year later. What ties drill together across regional subgenres – from Australia, Ireland and Brooklyn – is the diaristic lyricism that traces the turbulent lives of its narrators. It’s inherently gritty, violent and nihilistic. And unlike the sometimes fictitious braggadocio you may expect in hip-hop, honesty is prized.
OneFour’s songs take in their troubled lives in the forgotten suburbs of Sydney and the horrors they’ve seen – some of which they’ve partaken in. “In the same way that people in the US didn’t realise there could be drill music in Australia,” Gasparinatos says, “I think there’s also people who don’t understand the issue Australia has with policing. Every city in the world has an underworld, has its haves and the havenots. And I think it’s just so important to be able to spread real Australian stories to show what the experiences are for so many people that haven’t historically had a voice.”
Through it all, there are moments of levity in the documentary. Like when OneFour start a TikTok craze via their joyfully simple dance, the Mounty bop – so named for their home town. And when group member Spenny captivates an entire audience by himself in New Zealand after fellow rapper J Emz gets deported for his criminal record.
And, of course, the film’s climax – when the group finally perform live in Sydney following the night of the raid, up on stage in front of 20,000 people with their friend and champion, the Kid Laroi.
That’s seemingly the end of the film – until another bout of confronting footage appears on screen. Pacific Islander boxer Tim Tszyu has asked the group to walk him into the ring as they perform. The venue has done their due diligence by contacting police about the group’s appearance beforehand. The police haven’t responded, but on the day, they make a surprise visit, shutting down OneFour’s performance. The group are given no answers; instead, they’re told to face the wall for an unprovoked search. “It’s an ongoing cycle,” Gasparinatos says. “It’s not as simple as they get their roses at the end. It continues.”
Simandjuntak, however, won’t be cowed. “The more you throw in front of us, the more resilient we get,” he says. “And the more determined we are to succeed.”
OneFour: Against All Odds is streaming on Netflix globally.