License to Drill: Inside the Rise of 2Six
We caught up with Canberra collective 2Six backstage before their hometown show last week:
Speaking to $eptian,YoungJimmy, Hkramz and their manager Marcos who have decided to do drill their way. We talk about how the crew formed, how they set themselves apart and their work with collaborator & mentor Turquoise Prince. Their story, the people around them and a gentle nudge of inspiration all helping shape their iconic sound.
Words and picture by Hreefer for Mustard Flats
It goes without saying that drill is a huge genre. It came from Chicago in the early 2010s, was exported over to the UK at nearly the same time where it absolutely exploded and gave us the classic subgenre that we all know and love today. Inspired by UK garage, it’s become an iconic sound in its own right. As of the late 2010s, it made a huge splash in the anglosphere, and eventually it inexorably became a part of Australia's [musical] identity, so to speak.
And now here we are, in the year 2025, with the Drill subgenre absolutely dominating the hip hop scene. But amongst the sea of homogeneity, there’s a group of Canberra creatives that have done drill differently. Their sound isn't typical, and they possess the ability to stand out, even though surrounded by a culture of derivatives.
“I’d never seen anything like it in Canberra because it was just this party….I can’t wait to see what these young guns do next”
It was about 6:05pm, just a few hours before the show started. I committed to meeting the boys a bit earlier, but I got slightly lost on the way there. Only briefly interrupted by the sight of a tall dude, buried in his laptop, briskly walking to the venue, so I followed.
That same guy was nice enough to help me find my way to the second floor gestured to me to come up the elevator with him, then curiously enquired what my business was with his associates;
“Yeah, well, I’m here to interview the boys,”
“Damn, an interview?” he remarked. “They’ve made it.”
In an era where everyone treats music like a numbers game, their fresh approach to drill feels like water in the desert. Their personalities come through their songs, and give their sound a distinct soul and they keep it all in house.
“It’s like a label…There’s a lot of people around us. We got a lot of people willing to put in the work for us.”
Marcos
YoungJimmy, Hkramz & $eptian [L-R]
Walking into the balcony, our site of the interview, was the tall brisk-walking laptop-observing gentleman from earlier. Marcos Love, manager of 2Six and multi-hyphenate powerhouse and I come to find out, he is undoubtedly as busy as he seemed.
Hreefer: Marcos, I noticed that you wear all the hats. So you’re doing the production but you're also doing the management and shows, is it stressful at all? Did you originally see yourself as assuming all those roles or did it just fall on you?
Marcos: I’ll start off with this; it is definitely stressful. Managing three separate artists into one group and organising shows like this for them is pretty stressful but I still get it done; it’s what I love to do. It’s a bit half/half I reckon; I kinda saw myself going towards this path, it also sparked from my old job, I'd do restaurant openings and being responsible for training up a whole new team definitely brought that into me.
YoungJimmy: Can't lie, this guy loves taking initiative.
Hkramz: So basically, we’re like fast food workers.
Hkramz and YoungJimmy by hreefr
ORIGINS
Hreefer: Back to basics 101. The actual creative/songwriting process, obviously since everyone plays their part, who kicks the concepts off? Does someone go hey I've got this idea, I've got these lyrics, this melody, who starts it and gets the ball rolling?
YJ: It's a mix of everything. We can plan something up before we get in or someone can come in with a solo song at first and it turns into a group song. Most of the time we do go in the studio together we pick out something we like, that we’re feeling that day, everyday’s different.
$eptian: It's such a mix up, some days we’ll come in, we’ll all be on the same timing and we’ll sort out the song in 2-3 hours.
“Don't Miss was our first release. It was originally $eptian’s song, and then Hkramz and I came in and put on a verse each.” Marcos
YJ: Yeah, we hear something and we know. When we heard ‘Bang’ (Latest release) for the first time, we knew we wanted to hop on the song together.
Marcos: That was the first time they came to my studio, when we created that song. One of our old mates, I got a video of him freestyling on that same beat, and so I messaged him and I was like “Yo, we gotta get to the stu” and he was like I'll bring my boys. And so they came, we recorded it and it turned out crazy.
$eptian: Damn, bro I got goosebumps.
$eptian
Hreefer: Let’s talk about Turquoise Prince and his influence. When I first listened to your songs, especially your most recent one, I was like ‘these guys don't sound like any other drill rappers and they don't sound amateur’. Obviously you got very strong production behind you, but it helps if you have a naturally strong creative foundation, that’s kind of a cheat code.
Marcos: Ever since we started working with Turquoise, he's been a crazy influence and always drives us to become better. Every time he comes into the studio he's positive, giving us motivational words, always pushing us. All the boys individually, he's talked to all of them, so he’s definitely a good person to have around and has definitely helped us in the past.
Hk: Even during some of the first songs, like when it was just me and him in the studio, it was really good to have his input on some of the songs I’d make, just to change it up, because a lot of the time the main element I ran into that some of my songs sounding the same, but with T’s help he was able to make it sound completely different or make it sound how I originally wanted it to sound.
Hreefer: Yeah, and again, even listening to your music, I can't really feel any [competitive] tension. Like, I'm very into rock music, and you can often tell, ‘Oh this guy wants to be the rockstar, that guy wants all the guitar solos.’
Hk: No ones here to be above each other. We’re here to make music together.
Marcos: It's a collective.
Hk: We all want the same thing so there's no point.
$ep: We just punch on with each other;)
Marcos: The good thing with these boys is banter will always be turned into a joke so it never gets taken personally, we’ll always stay locked in and we never lose ties in a group like this.
“ Sometimes you’ll be like, ‘that shit sounds ass’. And you’re like, ‘fair enough’, someone needs to say it;)”
LEGACY
Hreefer: Final question. What kind of legacy do you wish to leave behind? Both individually and as a collective.
$ep: Generational wealth.
YJ: It might sound corny, like we’re saying it just to say it but bro, we got one life. We gotta go for it, everyone else that's made it says the same shit; anyone can do it.
$ep: I'm just trying to live a good life and feed my people. Have a set life where I can sleep happily. Don't even lie, everyone wants what we want. To make it and rest easy.
YJ: As a group we’ll go as far as we can. But individually we’ll always want to have our place.
“I definitely want to leave an imprint on the music industry.”
Marcos: I wanna leave something equivalent to what Timbaland, X, Juice Wrld or Lil Peep left.
When I first started listening to music regardless of genre they still left an imprint in the music industry of how music sounds today. They definitely shifted the way music was gonna go and that's kind of what i wanna do as well, explore creativity and kinda leave a footprint in the music industry.
2Six
After a solid chat, it only made sense that I had to talk to Turquoise Prince. A local legend in his own right, but now helping a new crop of Canberra artists craft their own sound and tread their own path.
“[They had] the magic where everything just falls together, like a flow state. And everything was effortless, not in an arrogant way. That was a fun one, I def felt that energy. ”
MENTOR
Hreefer: How did you meet and how did you guys start working together?
Turquoise Prince: Yeah, let's go back to square one. I think they followed me a while ago on Instagram, I’d say like three to four years ago. But they later told me that they'd known about me since they were in school, which is cute. I kind of just heard about them and I was like, it's cool that they're doing stuff, mad, but at the same time I was still figuring out my music journey; life journey, really. And this was again, two years ago. Then one of my young guns told me to just come to the show and check his mates out at Transit Bar.
So yeah, at the end of 2023 I went and watched them play and was just blown away. The energy was crazy. The boys just had that, what's the word?
Hreefer: Je ne sais quoi?
TP: Exactly. Yeah, exactly. They just had the X factor, you know, that wow factor, where you're just blown away and you're like, wow, I can't wait to see what these young guns do next.
Turquoise Prince (Right)
YoungJimmy
TP: At the end of the show, I was like, I'm going to just walk backstage, congratulate the boys for killing it. So I walked backstage and Yoga was like, ‘Yo, Turquoise!’, and I was just like, alright, they know me. So I just said ‘What’s up, you boys killed that, that was crazy!’ and we sort of had a little chat after.
In my head I was like these kids are so advanced in production; the two producers are so advanced and the boys are stars, so yeah, I was just like, let's do it. I went in like a month or two later to his grandparents house where he's got his little studio setup and it's a mad little studio, and we just gelled instantly, it was like chemistry, but he [Marcos] is entirely about the music. There's no ego, it's all about the outcome.
“I have to tell them boys, this is crazy. You've killed it, this is freakish. The mix is amazing, freaks me out how good this is, you know?” TP
And then these boys, the three rappers in the group, they don't stop either. They just go for it. They're always in the studio and they're always making music and it's and even their content game, just the understanding is super impressive, so that's why I really love working with these boys.
Hreefer: Especially as an industry veteran, I'd actually argue that you are one of the people that definitely are kind of like a cornerstone of Canberra hip hop.
TP: Thank you, thank you. I definitely represent.
FUTURE
Hreefer: I really respect the putting aside of ego, because a lot of people that have been doing this for a really long time kind of go, oh, you know, I'm at this level, why do I need to, you know, go do this or go do that?
TP: I just think it's so rewarding to be a part of something so special. I grew up in Canberra, born and bred. I moved away to Sydney for a while a couple of years back from 2016 to 2019. And I was always representing Canberra, but the scene just didn't feel fulfilling to me, like it was in Canberra. There were just too many cliques and I never felt like I gelled with anyone from this scene here in Canberra. I never fit in.
In Sydney I fit in because it's very authentic over there. But in Canberra, I guess since the pool is so small, we have like a quarter of the population of Sydney here, so there's not as many people and there's not as many artists and this is going to sound egotistical, but the quality of artists wasn't appealing to me and there weren't many people I wanted to work with. Now that’s changing.
$eptian & YoungJimmy
Hkramz
“I have to tell them boys, this is crazy. You’ve killed it, this is freakish. The mix is amazing, freaks me out how good this is, you know?”
After seeing their live show, it became pretty evident that these boys had something special. Emblematic of an entirely new and raw scene, coming up on the Canberran horizon.
Turquoise Prince: I'm in this for the long run, 100%, it's exciting. And this product, their producers and I, we got something that I've only had, I guess, once before, you know. That world-class potential is just insane and they're just so dedicated and they love it. They're just all about it.
They're young, and I just remember myself at that age, and it’s good to see the hunger and passion, I love that. Let's just see where it goes. And if the boys can maintain this level of hunger and drive and passion, then they can only grow, really.
2Six [represent], right?
Yeah, Two Six, exactly.
Their current release, ‘Bang’, features GTee and Turquoise Prince. Available on all streaming platforms.
Words and pictures by Hreefer for Mustard Flats
