Sidney Phillips, Australia’s own ‘trans adlay’ rapper, is one of a kind

We must start at the “c---.” The c-word is, after all, the title of the remarkable new album from local “trans adlay” rapper Sidney Phillips.

For Phillips, the word – a staple in “adlay” and “eshay” culture, and especially in “lad rap” or “gutter rap”, where everyone is either a “sick c---” or a “dumb c---” – is appropriately loaded.

“It’s definitely provocative,” Phillips admits, a mischievous smile peering behind her shaggy bangs. “It’s a big word but it’s emblematic of Australian culture, whether you love it or hate it.”

Earlier this year, a music journalist counted the number of “c---s” Phillips uttered on her 2024 album, Penance ; it was 88. I haven’t put in such journalistic rigour yet, but surely stamping it across the top of the new project trumps any number.

“It’s a cool word,” says Phillips. “I like it because it can be positive or negative. I can relate to it as a rapper, as an Australian, and also because it’s been used by the LGBT community that I’m also a part of, where things are ‘c---y’ and stuff like that. I like the multiple meanings.”

At 23, Phillips is the shining light of Australian underground hip-hop. A prolific artist, C--- is her sixth album in about five years – following her breakout and bona fide classic, 2023’s I’m So Tired of Being Staunchly , and a never-ending stream of singles and collaborations with her wider crew stealthyn00b.

Pairing the crispest of trends in internet rap with Gen-Z references (“c--- I’m Effy, c--- I’m Cassie”), unique Australianisms – her viral freestyle on Triple J’s Bars included nods to Webjet and The Big Lez Show , for example – and her slurry melodic delivery, she’s become an iconoclast to a generation of very online locals, earning acclaim at home and overseas. Does she recognise her impact?

“Um, yes,” Phillips says with a droll laugh. “I don’t like to make a thing of it because I don’t want people to think I’m up myself. But at the same time, I get scared that if I don’t talk about it then people won’t realise it’s the truth, you know?

“Doing adlay rap over PluggnB and digicore beats, with the Aussie accent and talking about Aussie culture? Ain’t nobody was doing that before me. All of a sudden, there’s so many kids doing it. It’s fresh. I’m not saying they copied me or that I invented it, but can I say I popularised it? Maybe.”

Phillips has also helped steer Australian hip-hop – which, especially in its connection to lad culture and eshay culture, is traditionally quite masculine (and often toxically so) – to a more inclusive bent.

“I think that’s a generational thing and it’s online culture,” says Phillips of the new open-mindedness in hip-hop. She’s part of a generation of rap fans who grew up with forward-thinking influences throughout the 2010s, including Young Thug, who famously wore a ruffled dress on his Jeffery album cover; the “based God” Lil B, who rapped about being a “pretty boy” in skinny jeans; and Lil Uzi Vert, a non-binary alien who cites Paramore’s Hayley Williams as a prime influence.

“What I loved about it is the attitude, doing what you want and other people can f--- off,” says Phillips.