OneFour's message to the police: ‘We're different now. We're good people'

The Age

20 hours ago

It seems fitting that the opening number on OneFour's debut album, Look At Me Now, is titled Change. A pulsing track that sees the group reckoning with the past and thinking about the future: 'And now the question is: will you remain the same?' raps Jerome 'J Emz' Misa over a heavy beat. 'Or are you willing to do whatever it takes to change?'
Change has been the one constant in OneFour's turbulent 10-year history as Australia's most prominent hip-hop outfit, a period defined by upheaval, controversy, prison time and hype – anything but stability.
Formed in 2014, the all-Pasifika rap crew from Mount Druitt in Western Sydney was initially composed of five members – brothers Jerome and Pio 'YP' Misa, Salec 'Lekks' Su'a, Dahcell 'Celly' Ramos, and Spencer 'Spenny' Magalogo.
They quickly became the face of Australia's drill movement, a sub-genre of hip-hop that emerged from Chicago a decade ago. It is known for its faster, heavier sound and raw lyrics, often depicting gang culture. Adopting this style, OneFour infused it with a uniquely Western Sydney flavour, references to 'eshays' and 'lads' speaking to a subculture born from the very same streets they grew up in.
It didn't take long for the group to tap into viral success, with songs like 2018's What You Know and 2019's Spot The Difference going platinum on the ARIA charts and racking up hundreds of millions of streams.
As the buzz grew, so too did the accolades. ARIA nominations followed, while hip-hop superstars, including Skepta, Dave, A$AP Ferg, and the Kid Laroi, voiced their support for OneFour's warts-and-all portrait of street life in Mount Druitt.
'My district has too much drillers, like who wants it? Like who wants war with Sydney's realest?'
Spot The Difference, OneFour
But their meteoric rise was halted in 2019 when Lekks, Celly and YP were jailed for a pub brawl. That same year, a national tour was cancelled after venues began pulling out, something OneFour attributed to pressure from the police and confirmation that the group was being monitored by two elite police units – Strike Force Raptor, created to hunt underground criminal networks, and Strike Force Imbara, which investigates gang feuds.
In a widely circulated voice memo supplied to the ABC, Sergeant Nathan Trueman from the Raptor squad promised, 'I'm going to use everything in my power to make your life miserable until you stop doing what you're doing.'
The constant noise around OneFour only seemed to boost their infamy. Their shows continued to be cancelled while their streaming numbers skyrocketed (they have an impressive 2.4 million monthly listeners on Spotify).
The release of a 2024 Netflix documentary, Against All Odds, broadened their reach yet reinforced the idea that the story of OneFour had become more important than the music they produced. 'Exactly right,' says J Emz. 'And that's why we needed a change. We're about the music, and we want people to know that.'
I'm sitting with J Emz, Celly and Spenny in a back room of Sony Music's headquarters in Sydney's CBD. There are bowls of lollies on the table and slabs of soft drinks, but no one eats or drinks anything.
This is the new look OneFour after a lineup change. YP left the group last year after becoming ordained as a Christian priest, while Lekks remains part of OneFour but was deported to New Zealand following his four-year prison sentence.
J Emz sits opposite me, the group's elder statesman who does most of the talking. Alongside him is Celly, who was recently released after serving five years of his 10-year sentence for the brawl. Next to me is Spenny, who is softly spoken and polite but visibly uncomfortable with being interviewed.
I ask them about that first track, Change, and whether the lyrics were born out of a challenge they set themselves. 'For sure, I don't think any of us can pretend we haven't made mistakes,' says J Emz.
'But we've grown up a lot. So much has happened in our career to knock us off track – some of that is our fault, some of it isn't, but we've gotten much better at holding each other accountable.'
What does that look like? 'There have been some heated chats for sure,' admits J Emz, while Celly and Spenny nod in agreement. 'Sometimes I got to remind the boys what they're going back to if this doesn't work out.'
No one knows that better than Celly, whose incarceration meant he missed much of the album's development. Instead, he worked on his lyrics in prison and recorded once he got out.
'The journey for me was different [with this album] being in jail; you can either sit there and waste your days or try to use the time wisely, so I started writing a lot,' he says. 'All you have is time to think about what you've done to end up there and what you'll do not to go back, so the minute I got out, I was straight into it.'
'I dropped that ball, time out, they threw me inside, I'm back on the bench.'
Celly on Look At Me Now's Family
The result is Look At Me Now, a sprawling 15-track album on which the group collaborates with several high-profile UK drill rappers, including Nemzzz, Headie One, and Abra Cadabra. The record also sees OneFour collaborate for the second time with the Kid Laroi on Distant Strangers.
Laroi and OneFour first crossed paths when they were both coming up and have remained close throughout Laroi's success, with OneFour the opening act on his most recent tour of Australia. 'I get inspired by Laroi every time, any opportunity we get to be around him is a learning for us,' says Spenny. 'This is a guy on top, and he's still the same kid we knew from back in the day.'
The release of Look At Me Now comes ahead of a nationwide tour in July and August that presents a familiar problem: they will play in every major city except Sydney.
According to the group, NSW police continue to pressure venues by demanding extra user-pays-police (where officers are hired to police a private event paid for by the venue), leaving venues unwilling to host the band in their hometown.
'We don't blame the venues when they have to take a dive, but it's frustrating; our management has tried everything,' says J Emz. 'The police make it difficult for the shows to go ahead, so the venues have no option but to pull out.'
In a statement , NSW Police said: 'We provide safety and security advice to venues, promoters, and other stakeholders ahead of major events. However, the decision as to whether an event will proceed lies with the relevant venue.'
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J Emz admits that, for the first time, he'd encourage NSW Police to listen to their music. 'The message is: we're different now, we're good people,' he says. 'I don't want to be defined by what I did,' adds Celly. 'I served my time, suffered the consequences, and this is the next chapter.'
Instead, the group had to settle for a special 'listening event' at a secret location in Western Sydney on Thursday night, where their album was played in full.
The event was all-ages and alcohol-free, and while the group didn't perform, they were on hand to witness local fans hearing their debut album for the first time.
The idea of OneFour, Sydney's most notorious drill crew, hosting a family-friendly album launch may seem at odds with their public persona. Or it's proof that they're hoping to change.