Artist Spotlight - boler mani

Having forged his talent over a number of years, the ever-changing boler mani is an artist and producer who continually seeks originality in his pursuit of musical excellence. Hailing from Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, the up-and-comer has experienced a steady rise in the Australian hip-hop scene, continually aspiring to evolve his artistry with every track he puts out.

boler mani’s discography embodies the effort of a producer who is unafraid to draw from all across the hip-hop spectrum, whilst remaining an adherent to perfecting each and every track he builds. Suffice to say, boler mani’s come-up has seen him experiment with a variety of sounds whilst remaining committed to hitting listeners with pure, unadulterated heat in every bar he delivers.

If one was to go back to 2018 and listen to boler mani’s ‘some love’ with the hindsight of the discography that followed, they would be impressed. As far as early (in one’s career) releases in Australian hip-hop go, ‘some love’ oozes the charisma, maturity and capability that one would associate with a seasoned veteran on the scene. The track itself, written, produced and performed by a then high schooler boler mani, hits the listener with booming, reverberating drums and emphatic bars that leave you stomping around the room.

2019 was undeniably a massive year for boler mani. In and amongst collaborations with Hobart’s Lil Xander, the rapper released five tracks, each an extension of the varying components of boler mani’s talent and thoughts. The MC kicked off the year with ‘miss anxiety’, a track dedicated to boler mani’s own battles with anxiety and the self-empowerment that has resulted from overcoming it. February 2019 release ‘bang’ employs that unrelenting tempo and energy that I have come to love from boler mani, with April’s ‘applause’ displaying the confidence, swagger and bravado of a truly one-of-a-kind artist. July’s ‘doozy’ is a catchy & lyrically devastating song which speaks on one’s ability to elevate their tiniest mistakes into their greatest exhaustions, whilst November’s ‘cost’ sees boler mani conveying the importance of viewing mistakes as lessons.

February 2020 release ‘exit’ is a truly potent track. Listening to it makes one feel like boler mani is weaponising beat switch-ups, with the track offering a plethora of booming digitised drum patterns tailor made for boler mani to spit his bars on. ‘robbery’, released in April 2020, is an ensemble of boler mani’s delicate vocal stretches and range of deliveries that sees the rapper balancing artist life and love.

2021’s ‘unsatiated’ is undoubtedly the height of boler mani’s musical genius thus far. Head-rattling drums run all throughout the track and will leave you hooked. Those who are yet to experience the video clip for this track are doing themselves a hefty disservice. And if anything is for certain with boler mani, it is the glimpses into boler mani’s eclectic mind that must be savoured.

The recent success of Australian hip-hop’s new wave of talent has been immense, with the causality behind such an explosion in interest stemming from an embracing of authenticity, experimentalism and fearlessness on the part of the artists. And in the case of boler mani, these factors do not just drive his work, rather they are the fuel for him to push the boundaries and limitations of hip-hop in any which way he chooses. Moreover, it his boler mani’s abundance of emotional intelligence and self-awareness (no doubt facets he has worked to build over the years) that draws me to his music and keeps me coming back again and again.

Published May 6th, 2021.