By Andrew Drever
It might come as a surprise to many that Remi Kolawole (who, with producer Justin "Sensible J" Smith, makes up Remi) experienced a deep mental crash in the aftermath of the breakthrough, critically acclaimed 2014 album, Raw x Infinity.
The album announced a major new arrival in Australian hip-hop, winning awards (and grants – $80,000 in welcome cash, all up – mostly going to the tax office, says Kolawole) including the prestigious Australian Music Prize Award (a first time win by a hip-hop act) and gongs in the Rolling Stone Awards and Australian Independent Record Label Association Awards.
Demon days: Remi's new album is out now.
Remi subsequently played to enthusiastic crowds in the US, Europe and the UK, as well as fanatical crowds at festivals and their own shows in Australia.
Kolawole, 25, a brash, ferocious rapper with confident charisma to burn, collaborated with everyone from Flume and Damon Albarn to Hilltop Hoods, Seth Sentry and Sticky Fingers. There was much to celebrate and an exciting future seemed assured.
But Kolawole broke up with his long-term girlfriend and fell into an unexpectedly rapid mental spiral, compounded by long-suppressed racial abuse issues (he is of mixed Nigerian-Australian heritage) and drug and alcohol abuse.
"The most regular thing about depression is that it usually happens to people you don't expect it to, at times you don't expect," says a now fit, healthy and happy Kolawole.
"There will be a root problem most of the time, maybe a few different things, like a break-up and falling out of love for the first time. But there will also be many other things that can come through and affect you."
While recovering, Kolawole experienced debilitating writer's block, unable to write about anything other than his malaise, so he decided to channel the demons into diary-style lyrics for the Raw x Infinity follow-up.
"Most of the new record was written because I couldn't write about anything else except for depression," he says. "That was a first for me, where I had barriers up in my mind, that unless you talk about them they're going to stay there and they're not going to go anywhere.
"Unless you write about them and get them out, they're not going to be done. When you're depressed, you have no confidence and you can't think of anything but sadness. It shouldn't have got to the point where I had to write a whole album about it, but it did."
Recorded over two years at Smith's Oakleigh home studio, Kolawole's illness is laid bare on Divas and Demons.
In unflinching detail, it lyrically charts his unfaithfulness (For Good), relationship breakdown (Laaa La La Lost, Too Much), depression (Forsaken Man, Hate You), substance abuse (Contact Hi/High, Substance Therapy), experiences with racism (Lose Sleep, Young and Free), newfound singledom (Move On) and finally recovery and optimism (365, Purple Haze for the Ether).
The most regular thing about depression is that it usually happens to people you don't expect it to.
Smith's sophisticated production is complemented by live instrumentation and guest musicians including Hiatus Kaiyote keyboardist Simon Maven and Melbourne singer/producer Silentjay (Alejandro Jay Abapo).
Vocal guests include Sampa the Great, Brisbane-born, London-based future R&B star Jordan Rakei, Average Rap Band's Tom Scott and Man Made Machine's Cazeaux O.S.L.O.
"Every single person not only accompanied the album, but took it to another level in a way we could never have done," Kolawole says.
Since Raw x Infinity, Kolawole has continued to speak out on race issues at shows, on social media and in interviews, informed by some of his own ugly experiences. Fans initially drawn to live shows by the party favours of 2013 breakthrough single Sangria may have been taken aback by Kolawole's stories of personal racism, traced back to his childhood and continuing to this day.
"A lot of ignorant Australians prefer their black people, their people of colour, their women, their queer people, to be silent," he explains grimly.
"So a lot of times, if you start becoming vocal, they will bite back. But it seems like there are more people standing alongside us in some of our beliefs, and also educating themselves on some of those beliefs and teaching me things I didn't know.
"All we really want is for people to be willing to learn ... and dance ... and clap on the two and the four ... if that's not too much to ask."
Divas and Demons is out now. Remi play at the Rolling Stone Live Lodge at Worker's Club, Fitzroy, on Saturday, September 24 (sold out), Sydney's Newtown Social Club on December 2 and Howler, Brunswick, on December 17.