#cupiid

The Syd Kids are made up of just that; 2 Sydney kids who started as a jerk crew and found their way into the hip hop music scene. The pair are best friends and balance each other out, where Cupiid says he likes to “have fun and party” whilst Manu is “serious and in a way, wants to change the world”. Nevertheless, things get heavy when it comes to work: “We probably hate each other, we always have disagreements and get at each other all the time.”

Who influences your music? Do you have anyone in mind when you write?

I’m into Lupe Fiasco and Tyga – he’s really raw…instead of trying to change the world, he just raps about what he does.

He’s the Rack City guy right?

Yeah. I know Manu’s favorite is J. Cole. Another person who inspires me is my aunt, who’s passed away. Before all of this, she believed in me when no one really did, before when I was just a kid in school – she inspires me a lot.

With your new single, Party Rendezvous, what’s your process of coming up with music?

Manu and I, we work in the studio, go with beats, find a sound and put a lot of thought into it together as a team. I have thousands of lyrics and verses that I write on my phone, and when I look at it, it reminds me of something – maybe a year ago, being in a club – even right now in an interview – I’d just write about it.

When, where and how was your first gig?

Our first gig for when we started singing was summer break 2009, one of the Under 18s in Australia. We were just dancing for fun on the street in Parramatta, and some guy was handing out flyers about it, so we asked if we could play a set and he said for sure. We did it ourselves, we sold tickets to sell and we made money off it – so that was our first gig.

Were you guys nervous?

We weren’t nervous because we really wanted it that much. We even had a set ready before we knew we were doing a show, because we wanted it that bad before, and we were so ready to do it. From there, we just got hungry for it, and since then, we’ve had about a month off in 4 years of doing gigs every week.

Sounds hectic, and you’re cool with that?

Yeah – we love it. But there was a point in time where we had to become professional as well, and that was really hard, because we’ve done everything ourselves thus far. People try signing us, and people promise you things and never follow through, but we’ve just kept going on and we never let anything get us down. We have been down; we’ve been to really bad points, like we’ve both been homeless at one point. But in the last 4 years we’ve both become strong people as well, we’ve been to our lowest point – and we won’t give up now

You guys are pretty popular on the Internet. What’s the fan base online? Do you get negative comments?

We try to make sure we meet and talk to everyone that knows us, it’s not like ‘a fan is a fan’, at some stage of my life, they’ve saved me. You can’t say it doesn’t get to you, because it does. I get inbox-ed at least everyday, or on video comments saying something like ‘give up, quit’, but at the end of the day you just have to try and deal with it your own way.

On Twitter, you’re pretty vocal on the topic of men abusing women – I assume you’ve heard about Chris Brown’s act of violence…thoughts?

I don’t know, I’ve met the dude in real life, and it’s kind of weird. I think what I’ve said about having past issues, like he had past issues that he couldn’t control. But in the end, hitting a lady is just wrong because I’ve seen it my whole life as a kid. St the same time, I grew up with him as my idol and someone I look up to…so yeah, it’s disappointing. It’s hard to say.

What’s the most surprising song on your iTunes?

Wait, what’s that song…it’s this Asian, d’you know it? Ba…yon style?

[With no hesitation] Oh, Gangnam style!

So that’s what it’s called! Yeah the video, is that the actual dance? Yeah, I might try that on stage then…

Do you listen to other genres of music?

I listen to everything, I even listen to classical music – I sit down, and I just listen to classical music. Another dude, DJ Ziggy – shout out to him – when we ride around Kings Cross and stuff, we just listen to classical music, like the violins and orchestras…

What’s next for The Syd Kids?

 We definitely want to be known around Australia and worldwide, but right now we want to focus on our music, release real big hits, start dance movements, just taking it as far as we can.