Sophiegrophy’s never sent out a press release, and she doesn’t have a manager. Like some of our most treasured artists, her success is entirely word-of-mouth — or rather, word-of-DM. Last year, her Facebook freestyle videos started clocking tens of thousands of plays; we’d wager most of Sophie’s fans discovered her on the platform, a rare place to find new artists today (we usually head to Soundcloud for that, right?).
What is it that makes people feel excited by Sophie right away, even if the production isn’t perfect, or the budgets are small? Part of what makes her so listenable is that she doesn’t feel like an outsider to the music she’s making; or rather, it doesn’t feel studied. She didn’t learn this stuff from anyone. In fact, Sophie doesn’t actually listen to much music—she says she only hears hip hop when going out with her friends. At home, if she isn’t working on her sound, she’ll put on Lucky Dube.
In person Sophie’s warm, eager to laugh, and effervescent. We met up in new Melbourne to talk about life until now, her vision, and her bratty brother.
On Astrology…
I’m a Virgo I relate to a lot, quite a lot actually! I’m the type of person who worries too much and I need things to be perfect, which isn’t good. If things aren’t perfect, I start overthinking everything, it’s so bad. These days if one of my friends is talking about a guy, I’ll be like “so what’s his star sign?” Every time!
On her childhood….
I moved to Melbourne’s south-east five years ago. Every time my family and I move we always land in the area that’s considered dangerous! It’s always been that way, like damn, why is always south? Can’t we live on the west for once? We moved from New Zealand, but I’ve lost my Kiwi accent now. I got so emotional when I had to leave, I was leaving one of my best friends. I remember my mum tried to make me feel better by saying “don’t worry, you’ll be back every weekend!” — it took me five years to actually go back! Everything looked so much smaller, and there was nothing to do. Some of my friends are mothers now! I’m still here all immature, laughing at anything and everything.
On her future…
I started rapping when I was 12 or 13, but I’ve never gone as hard as I am now. Obviously doing everything on my own, things take awhile. I wish it moved at a faster pace, but I don’t have a team, so it is what it is. The dream is to make it big, but signing a big deal isn’t part of that. I’m not going to change my style.
On the name…
Growing up I was always the weird kid, I would create all theses names for myself with little stories to them. When I started rapping, I wanted to have a stage name for myself. So I went on Google and just typed in “what rhymes with Sophie?” There was Trophy, but sounded a bit “meh.” So I went with Grophy. That’s it! It’s so funny.
On keeping things in the family…
My brother does my videos, and he takes his time. We’ll make a plan and say, “alright, tomorrow we’ll go do this video.” And the day will come and I’ll wake him up and he’ll just be like “Aye, aye, can we do it another time?” Like bro, fix your voice first of all, why are you talking like that? It’s not a reality show. There are some tracks I’ve got ready, I’m just waiting on him! That’s what you get for getting your siblings involved.
Follow Sophie on Soundcloud and Instagram.
Credits
Text Isabelle Hellyer
Photography Ellen Virgona