Urthboy

Urthboy is a member of the Aussie hip-hop group the Herd and the first to make a name for himself as a solo artist, with a string of releases to his name that often guest-star fellow members of The Herd and their associated label, Elefant Traks.

Born Tim Levinson, it was his brother who influenced his love of music. The older Levinson went on to be a DJ and co-edit a music magazine, but not before giving his younger brother the gift of a wide-reaching education in eclectic music. The two shared a room and a stereo and the older and bigger of the two brothers had the ultimate say in what they listened to. The first group he joined as Urthboy was Explanetary, formed with Realistix and later incorporating Luke Dubs, Elgusto, and Aja Stuart, who were performing as Funk Injections at the time. At this point the Elefant Traks label was a hobby started by Urthboy and his friends to distribute a party mix-tape, but in 2001 the first proper Explanetary EP, In On the Deal, was released through the label. That same year, the label's owners formed The Herd and released their first album together.

Urthboy spent the next few years focusing on The Herd, with whom he started to work as a producer as well as an MC. The skills and connections he learned there he later brought to bear on Distant Sense of Random Menace, his first solo album, in 2004. He toured the album with old friends Elgusto acting as DJ and The Herd's Ozi Batla as co-MC. 2007's The Signal was produced in record time at Sound Heaven Studios in The Blue Mountains, where Urthboy had gone to school when he was a boy. Presenting a bouncier, less introspective sound than Distant Sense of Random Menace, it was immediately popular and helped him become a name in his own right. Guests on the album included Mia Dyson, Ozi Batla, Hau from Koolism, and The Tongue.