Lil Darkie – Whammy Bar: January 17, 2023

LIL DARKIE is California based multi-genre rap musician who played Tāmaki Makaurau as part of his 9and his crew’s first ever Australasian tour.

LIL DARKIE aka Joshua Jagan Hamilton is indian-American, bisexual creator who at times defies categorisation. Creating as part of a fluid crew (Gunk Rock, The Fidgets, and Spider Gang) which includes WENDIGO, (onstage tonight as guitar, vocals and producer) he is associated with the ‘alternative’ rap scene that is rejuvenating, reinventing Hip Hop, in the same way Punk shook the foundations of rock decades earlier.

Lil Darkie is a self-styled provocateur, not just as a musician, but also as an individualist. Since erupting onto the scene with his 2019 song Holocaust, with the accompanying video which depicted a black cartoon character in a Nazi uniform he has continuously provoked with his controversial tweets, diverse music, and eccentric personality.

But despite albeit, temporary de-platforming by Spotify and Soundcloud, kneejerk cancellations, and facile recriminations, he has gone from strength to strength, applying a DIY approach in creating a space for himself. Lil Darkie exists only on the web in a punk style DIY which includes online posters, a blog and even a merchandise site. You won’t find his music as a hard copy, it only exists in the web, Lil Darkie is far from threatening to become mainstream.

Tonight’s show is not what I expected…

I arrive at 8.15pm, and Lil Darkie have already started!  Onstage at 8.10pm! No support it seems.

The comfortably full room is crowded with white teens, an average age of 19… at a stretch, with a smattering of 16 year olds accompanied by their parents, that are mostly hiding at the end of the bar (supposedly and under 16yo snuck into Whammy while the cleaners were in during the day and tried to hide out for the show – his fans are ardent it seems!)

Lil Darkie is onstage, almost unrecognisable, looking shaggy and not at all photogenic, his t-shirt emblazons ‘I hope all your dreams come true’ The crew are already blasting, it’s a live band plus dj on stage, like a US punk band from the 80s, not slick, dirty like Black Flag, the antithesis of straight-edged hardcore.

Then it flips to a RnB style song, I Can See Clearly Now, melodic, soothing, Then Lil Darkie announces ‘I’m going to throw up, be right back’ and leaves us to a band instrumental

Through the next few songs he bounces between his classic voice, trap metal style growls, and melodic RnB tunes, at least one is reminiscent of Pink Floyd at times, well almost. Lil Darkie expresses ‘Don’t expect other people to act decent.’

Experimental Rap comes to the front as most of the band abandons their instruments excepting the drums, to become vocalists, stage performers ‘This is a weird one’ Lil Darkie warns Put It In is very much the rap in Trap Metal. He’s ‘Fighting the urge to throw up over everybody’

Lil Darkie warns the crowd this is a weird one, and introduces La La Underbelly ‘This one is about how we are devolving as a species’ at the end he spots something on a crowd members t-shirt. He declares ‘legalizing marijuana will make kids less fucked up’ The crowd erupts, which nicely Segway’s into Fried Egg a drum n bass style anti-drug song.

It’s obvious Lil Darkie is not one to be boxed, and one of his strongest tunes Trap Metal shines, soars high in its’ tongue in cheek put down of being categorised as just a trap metal crew. It is clever, tuneful and dynamic, would love to have this on a 7” slab of vinyl.

Lil Darkie’s crew take us back to the beginning, with one of the songs that all started it, Genocide. He gets the kids on board with ‘ommms’ crowd participation time and the pit explodes, it’s not the almost 11 minute version though. Lil Darkie returns wearing a GI helmet ‘This is our last song’ and it’s the one everybody has been waiting for, the actual song that started it all, Holocaust “B-B-Bitch I’m smokin’ gas in my chambers like it’s the holocaust”

Tonight’s show wasn’t what I expected… it was the future… perhaps.

Simon Coffey