Uncompromising in its depiction of both conflict and self-expression but subtle in the connections it makes, this is a valuable Australian documentary about the hip-hop group Onefour and their rise despite adversity.
Writer and director Gabriel Gasparinatos doesn’t shy away from the controversy that has defined the renegade outfit and subsequently been used against them. As reportage this is vivid and sustained – the narrative is punctuated with footage of street fights and armed police raids, celebratory appearances and jailhouse communiques.
“Footy, the factory, or a life of crime” are the main prospects for the Pacific Islander community in western Sydney, says Onefour member Spenny.Onefour’s five members are from Mount Druitt in Sydney’s outer western suburbs, part of a Pacific Islander community that offers three choices to its young men: “footy, the factory, or a life of crime,” says Spenny .
Early supporters, such as youth worker Ian Escandor, whose music program at Mount Druitt’s Street University introduced Onefour to the recording studio, acknowledge a duality that some still struggle to reconcile. Onefour were involved with a street gang whose violent clashes with rival gangs were numerous, and that’s what they rapped about. Drill, their hip-hop genre, is abrasive and explicit. Onefour made autobiography into art, creating an underground sensation.
The documentary’s ultimate focus is the targeting of Onefour by Strike Force Raptor, the NSW Police unit that tackles organised crime. As explained by the senior officers interviewed, Onefour’s rise was seen as a risk to public safety, even after three members were jailed in 2019 for their part in a 2018 pub assault. The “suppression tactics” Raptor deployed included exerting pressure to shut down Onefour gigs not only in NSW, but nationally.
Australian Documentary Hip-Hop Onefour Rise Adversity
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