Love him or hate him, you have to respect Kerser’s hustle. The controversial Campbeltown native is basically persona non grata at triple j and will rarely get the time of day from commercial radio, but he’s still managed to build an impressive career in the Australian music industry.
This time last year he was in contention for the top spot on the ARIA Albums chart but was rather misfortunately pitted against Justin Bieber and One Direction, though he still managed to sell a considerable amount of albums. Using his social media savvy, Kerser’s Next Step still hit the top five of the ARIA Albums Chart and the top of the ARIA Australian Artist Albums Chart.
And it looks like his sixth album in as many years is set to repeat that feat. In fact, Kerser’s latest album, Tradition, has quite possibly the best chance of all the rapper’s releases of hitting that much coveted top spot. There’s only one thing standing in his way: Lars Ulrich.
Yes, Metallica have just dropped their long-awaited follow-up to Death Magnetic, entitled Hardwired… to Self-Destruct. It’s been collecting some very good reviews and even fans are in agreement that it’s something of a return to form for the thrash metal legends. And those fans like to buy records.
As The Music reports, it looks like Kerser and Metallica are now in a battle to see who makes it to the top spot of the ARIA Albums Chart next week. Naturally, Metallica, being one of the biggest bands in the world and all, are favoured to get that Number 1 debut, but don’t go sleeping on the Kerser massive.
Of course, as we’ve previously noted, Kerser has a slight handicap in the record-selling department because his albums have to be kept behind the counter in JB Hi-Fi stores. If you flick to the Kerser section in many JB stores, you’ll find a little yellow sign advising fans to ask a staff member if they wish to purchase a Kerser product.
Then again it’s worth considering the fact that Kerser has a nationwide collective of rabid fans and Metallica have several generations of bitter fans who might pirate the album on principle.
