“It’s the boy becoming the man,” Chillinit says of his third album, Family Ties. “It's just growth from [2018 debut album] Women Weed & Wordplay. A 20-year-old with five strippers on his first album cover, shot on an iPhone 5, to giving his mum $100,000—here's the growth right there.” Don’t get it twisted: The Sydney artist (“I’m not a rapper anymore, I’m an artist,” he states) still loves women, weed, and wordplay, but he’s been through love, loss, and learnings, and he’s ready to draw back the curtain. “Some people call their friends. Some people meditate. I make music,” he says. “Sometimes it might just be because I'm having a shit day and I want make myself feel better. Sometimes it might be because I lost the love of my life and I want to pour my heart and soul out onto a track instead of crying.” The album title is an ode to both his actual family—there’s a track dedicated to his mother—and his chosen one, 420 Fam. “We love money, weed, happiness, good vibes, good energy, making art, and making people smile,” he says. The music is more expansive and interesting than ever, with references to the ’90s sounds he grew up with alongside the new waves of Australian hip-hop and everything coming out of the UK. “I would recommend every person to listen to this album start to finish, because it's made to be in that order,” he says. As you do, read through what Chillinit has to say about each track on Family Ties. “The Full Story (Intro)” (feat. Dylan Frost) “It’s an ode to the '90s—to Wu-Tang, Big L, the stuff I grew up on—because I tend to be pocketed as a grime rapper or a drill rapper. If you listen to the lyrics, you get the full story of what it's like to be Chillinit. It's not always big bags of weed and parties. There's a devil on your left and an angel on your right, and you've got to balance that.” “420 & 201” (feat. Huskii) “This song is for the cult-classic fans who don't give a fuck for the choruses and the hooks and just want to hear Chillinit and Huskii explain why they are Chillinit and Huskii. It's just raw to the bone, boom bap, raw dog. Shout out Bliss n Eso's DJ Izm, who’s doing the scratching.” “Blueberry Muffin” “‘Blueberry Muffin,’ ‘Inner Thoughts (Vulnerability),’ and ‘You & Yourself’ are from three different parts of a relationship. I wrote this when I was heavily in love at the start of the relationship. ‘Inner Thoughts’ was a rough period, and ‘You & Yourself’ was when, unfortunately, after a year and a half, the relationship ended. That was all during the process of writing the album. Blueberry Muffin is the nickname of my ex-girlfriend. But I didn't take it off the album just because we broke up. Family Ties is for every person in my life that's had an impact and been a part of my journey. It would be a wrongdoing to myself to take it off the album.” “Dreaming of This Day” “It’s in my top three favorites. I really have dreamed of this day. We’re three albums deep. Imagine being a 14-year-old kid sitting in a little basement with a bowl, writing raps, going, ‘One day I'll be famous,’ and here you are. That song was really just an ode to myself, to all the hard work I've put in, all the demons I've battled, to all the shit I've put up with to get to this moment and how much it's worth it.” “Jamie Oliver (Skit)” “It's an ode to Women Weed & Wordplay—we had three skits on my first album. Also, some of my favorite albums from Eminem, Notorious B.I.G., JAY-Z, they’re all known for their skits. They give an insight to a song. For me, the ‘Jamie Oliver’ skit is just about how me and HP Mwayz have the recipe to whip you a fucking banger. What better person to introduce that than Jamie Oliver?” “Jamie Oliver” (feat. HP Mwayz) “Name a genre that I can't touch. Name me a rapper in this country who can do drill, who can do hip-hop, who can do a love song, who can do an acoustic guitar song and then do a love ballad and not get called out on it.” “Cashed Out Stoner” (feat. Izzie Gibbs) “Izzie Gibbs is an inspiration of mine from when I was younger. If you followed my journey, I was on JDZmedia, a UK YouTube channel. I had a freestyle and my views actually went past Izzie Gibbs'. To have him feature on my album was a massive achievement for me.” “Inner Thoughts (Vulnerability)” (feat. LucyLucy) “I had to stop twice during recording this song to compose myself, emotionally. That's how hard it was. I took some time with Lucy, the girl that I feature on the track, to do some singing lessons—I didn't want to fuck around, I really wanted to hit that note. And I really wanted my ex-girl to feel the pain of how afraid I am to fall in love again because of how much it hurt to lose it. The reason there's the ‘(Vulnerability)’ in brackets is because, unless you're sitting there watching me cry, this is the most vulnerable you’ll ever see me.” “Run Up the Ball” (feat. Lisi) “Me and Lisi are old footy boys. I played rugby league from the age of nine to the age of 20, and Lisi used to play up in Queensland. If you're a wordplay fan and you love rugby league, you're going to have an orgasm playing this song. If all you hear is ‘I'm immortal,’ good for you. If you understand why I'm immortal, because I'm Clive Churchill, then you'll understand the complexity of the bar.” “The Huskii Story – Devil on My Left” (feat. Huskii) “Huskii is like a brother. He had to be on the album or it wouldn't be Family Ties. I learned about the business and went, ‘Hey, how about I use my hook and you tell your story, because I come from a different world to you, and the world needs your story as well.’ He’s been in jail for a year and a bit, the poor bastard. He hasn't had a chance to tell his story. And he nailed it.” “Von Dutch” (feat. Shxdow) “All I'm going to say is, do yourself a favor and just go play it.” “High to Chase the Low” “The album was already done, we had 20 songs. Then I wrote this and I was just like, ‘What do I do with this song?’ This was about me realizing that even though marijuana is not a problem in my life, I'm realizing that sometimes I'm getting high to chase the lows. I felt like it would be a wrongdoing to not share that side of myself on the album.” “Wombat (Interlude)” (feat. Wombat) “It’s a tough thing for me to balance helping friends out and also taking the spotlight off your friends when you, in a humble way, have a very large cult following like I do. When you do a feature with Wombat, even though Wombat, to me, is the best lyricist in the country, sometimes I can overtake how good he is because someone hears my shit more. To me, that's not Wombat. That's my brother who is getting a free track on my album. He gets all the rights to all of that. He'll make money off that.” “You & Yourself” “The Kanye sample cost us a healthy chunk of money to get cleared—there's rules and rights around speeches and things on YouTube. But that beat was made by my brother Brock. And I was willing to pay whatever it cost for my brother to have the beat exactly how he wanted it, because it's Family Ties and it's for my brother. It’s my favorite song off the album. I thought that I had met my wife, we’re going to have kids. It's great. Next thing you know, that was gone, then COVID comes. You just take a moment and you go, ‘Shit, shit. It's just me here.’ And then here I am embracing it and going, ‘Girl, you and yourself. Do you, I'll do me, life goes on.’ I shared a relationship with the world, and I think it's cool. I’m basically just being naked on this song.” “Fisherman's Friends Side Project” (feat. B.Brock & Badrapper) “Myself, Brock, and Badrapper are starting a side project, which is going to be deep house, dubstep rap, drum ’n’ bass type stuff. We're going to be called Fisherman's Friends because we're the freshest and we also keep you from getting done on a swab test.” “Henny & Reefer” “That was me slowly transitioning into the moment that I'm having now. I felt like ‘Henny & Reefer’ was a classic example of ‘I'm growing up and falling in love. Why am I making songs called “Henny & Reefer”?’ But at the same time, I still wanted to capture that.” “Still Can't Sing but It Helps the Pain. Pt. 2 (Interlude)” “It’s part two; it’s a nod to part one on Women Weed & Wordplay, where I didn't know how to sing and I just was like, ‘Fuck it. Let's try.’ I wanted to give people the opportunity to go back and hear the growth and difference in my voice. Did I go forward? Did I go backwards? Did they miss the old me? Did they want the new me? I want the fans to really have an opinion on because I want to see what they think of it.” “Bigger They Are, Harder They Fall” “The song is basically about how I learned to be careful what you wish for, because if you go too big and get too big in the head, you're going to crumble. Make sure you eat your humble pie and make sure you count your blessings and enjoy the journeys. Don't get lost in the sauce.” “Susan's Son” “The reason I’m here, wearing glasses, wearing Givenchy, talking about my third album right now, is because of Susan. My mother is my queen, my mother is my goddess, and my mother is the one that raised me. I gave her $100,000 and people are saying that that's a flex. That's scratching the surface of what I would possibly owe her. I'd take a bullet for that woman, let alone give her a hundred grand. It’s not wordplay. It's not how good I can rap. It's just ‘I love you, mum, here's a hundred grand.’” “Pablo” “It’s basically reminiscent of kind of a ‘Soulmates & Strippers,’ ‘Rap Zombie’-style track. It's just a slapper. There's no theme or life story. It's just some gang shit. ‘I live my life like Pablo Escobar but I don't sell coke,’ basically, is all I'm trying to say.” “Bad Santa” “‘Bad Santa’ is literally three and a half minutes with no chorus, no hook, no bridge, no nothing. Just me rapping in your motherfucking face. I thought, what better way to end the album, after going through this big rollercoaster journey of all these sides of Chillinit, than a quick reminder that it's still Chillinit. I want to shout out Adele, because it's so refreshing to be 26, 27, in a transition, and hear her explaining how she felt like growing up through this and relate to her. It just makes me know that I've made the right album, I've made the right call and this album truly represents who I am. If you like it, it means you like me. If you don't, then with all due respect, see you later.”