LOCAL hip-hop group N-Sayne Ent. has returned from the TAFE NSW Battle of the Bands held in Dee Why, Sydney, with a host of new contacts and a chance to tour NSW in February.

N-Sayne Ent. is made up of two TAFE Inverell students Patrick (DC) Doyle and Jacob (Jay-Dowg) Griffiths, who have been writing songs and creating beats together for almost seven years.

“I’ve been rapping for about seven years and Jacob used to write with me and do beatboxing but the Sydney gig was his first performance rapping on stage,” Patrick said.

“We ended coming in runner-up, but the crowd really got into out stuff, there were lots of different styles of music there, rock, metal, acoustic so it was good to have people supporting our style,” Jacob said.

After the competition Jacob and Patrick met up with the winners of the competition, Mainstream from Coffs Harbour to talk about possible collaborations after Mainstream was so impressed with Patrick and Jacob’s performance at the competition.

“After the competition was over we were talking to the guys from Mainstream and they are interested in collaborating with us, writing some music and working on lyrics and they have also invited us to tour with them around the coast in February, we weren’t expecting such a big response from one competition,” Patrick said.

Patrick and Jacob were first influenced by American rap and hip-hop, but now count Australian acts such as Bliss & Eso, The Herd and the Hilltop Hoods as the biggest influences on their writing and performances.

“When we first started Aussie hip-hop was only just starting out and the American stuff was all about being rich and having heaps of girls, that isn’t what we’re about - we write about real issues that affect us.”

Patrick and Jacob will be very busy in the near future with gigs planned around Inverell including a performance at the Inverell Town Hall this Friday starting at 6:30pm. There is also a mixtape release on the cards in the near future.