If you’ve never heard of Bliss n Eso, you’re probably not alone, but it might surprise you to find out that Bliss and Eso are Australia’s premiere hip hop music artists, and have a professional music career that spans more than a decade. Bliss n Eso is actually a trio of musicians. MC Bliss, also known as Jonathan Notley, is an American. MC Eso, an Australian, is also known as Max MacKinnon, and DJ Izm, a Moroccan, known as Tarik Ejjamai, rounds out the group.

Trio Takes To North America

The group met in high school and has performed together since that time. They occupy Australia’s top spot in terms of hip-hop artists, in a field that’s becoming more crowded every day. The group focuses on its lyrics and beats but has tried to avoid developing a predictable style.

They regularly perform live and still include traditional rap techniques like scratching and beatboxing to achieve their unique sound. While they’ve moved around from label to label, the group has also opened for some of rap’s most recognizable acts, including 50 Cent, G-Unit, and Lil Jon. Bliss and Eso have been nominated for ARIA awards, Australia’s version of the Grammys.

Bliss n Eso aren’t your typical hip-hop musical act, and have been very active in a number of charitable causes. The group’s work has helped fund relief work in South Africa as well as in Victoria, Australia. They’ve toured the US several times and have released four albums, one of which was certified gold and the group’s most recent release, Running on Air, was certified platinum.

If any of this surprises you, it shouldn’t. Hip-hop, as a musical artform, has demonstrated itself to be among the most culturally flexible, and has inspired musicians and artists from all over the world. New musicians find the genre to be welcoming, and relatively easy to break into, compared to other musical genres like rock.

Hip-hop, when combined with the ability to self-produce, self-publicize and self-distribute music, turns out to be highly appealing to listeners all over the world. There’s no easier way to start in the music business today than by producing your own hip-hop and rap beats.

Unlike other genres, it’s both acceptable and expected that artists who are just trying to break into the music scene will create and distribute free mixtapes of their music. If you’re an aspiring artist and are considering going this route, check out some of the best tools available on the market today, like dubTurbo and Sonic Producer. Download your copy of one or both of these applications, and you’ll be making your own unique sounds in no time!

Photo Credit: martinhoward, via Flickr

If you doubt the influence of rap music, take a look at some of the latest headlines. You’ll find a dog-sled racer who makes his own rap beats. You’ll also find Christian rappers, Asian hip-hop fusion beats and Korean rap artist topping the charts with their own brand of hip-hop and rap beats. Rap music is here to stay and it’s moving the music world in ways OG’s never dreamed of.

There’s Enough Room For Everyone

Rap and hip-hop are great musical genres because they’re flexible enough to incorporate local, regional and cultural tastes, while still staying true to the music. What’s even better is that it’s never been easier for new artists to enter the medium.

Today new artists can create, produce and distribute their own music, often for a fraction of the cost it would take to go through agents and established music distributors. This ability to access the audience directly and at a low cost means that musicians and artists no longer need big studio help to find their way into the center of the music scene.

The tools available to new artists today have never been better. Take DubTurbo, for example. DubTurbo enables you to produce your own music, comes with thousands of royalty-free sounds, samples and instruments, a full four-octave sampling keyboard, and tutorial videos and delivers the highest quality .WAV sound files you need to produce crisp, clean recordings that are ready for distribution.

DubTurbo is an awesome, powerful music production software package that’s available for both the Mac and PC. That means you don’t need to purchase any additional recording equipment or computer equipment. You can just download the software and start working on your musical career.

A licensed copy of DubTurbo is a fraction of the cost of renting a professional recording studio and bringing in musicians. With DubTurbo, you have full creative control of your tracks and the program is easy to use. It also comes with a library of video tutorials that can help you get the most of DubTurbo. All of the included samples are royalty-free, which means that you can mix and remix the samples into your own work any way you like. With the built in sampling keyboard, you can also make your own samples and create or enhance the sound library that comes with DubTurbo.

There’s no reason to wait. The rap and hip-hop worlds are waiting for you to make your own impressions. Download your copy of DubTurbo today and start producing your own style of hip-hop or rap music!

Photo Credit: altemark, via Flickr