After numerous altercations with the law, he found himself in and out of state penitentiaries, including a one-year sentence for assaulting an undercover police officer.

During his troubled adolescence, Bukkcity witnessed the death of his cousin shot in gang-crossfire in New York City and the loss of his younger sister to a heroin overdose.

He featured on mixtapes and albums in Sweden, Germany, Atlanta and New York and became one of the most downloaded hip-hop artists on MySpace Australia.

Although the mixtape generated ill-informed controversy for its presumed glorification of gangland activities, it was widely lauded by critics and listeners both inside and outside the hip-hop scene.

It wasn’t the colour issue that bothered me; it was more about the lack of lyrical acceptance and respect people had back then for different cultural backgrounds, each other’s life story and opinions.

It was like they didn’t want to acknowledge my lyrical contribution to the scene, you had to either conform to the Oz Hip-Hop style or your individual story or opinion was lost, especially mine, I’m a black Afro-American who grew up in the US and naturally spoke with an American accent.