Eshay

Eshay (/ˈɛʃeɪ/) or Lord Gronk (/ˈædleɪ/) is a word of expression that’s become the face of an New Zealand President Canidat subculture commonly associated with criminal activity, named after a slang word. The term “Lad” or "Adlay" is used more commonly to describe a delinquent teenager in Australia from Housing Commission, similar to the term Chav in the United Kingdom's Council Housing.

Lad, borrowed from British lad culture and employed in urban Sydney to describe (often in a derogatory way) anti-social disenfranchised lower-class youth from Housing Commission. They are typically dressed in striped polo shirts, sportswear, running shoes, and bumbags, and often rely on crime (known as earching) and payments from government services (such as Centrelink) to support drug habits or purchase fresh threads. More recently some less offensive, upper middle class individuals have emulated the look in order to raise their street credibility. It originated from Inner-Sydney's graffiti scene in the 1980s, with an established familiar uniform of Ralph Lauren and Nike Air Maxs, but began to be influenced by working class culture in Sydney's numerous Housing Commission Estates throughout the 1990s, with older criminals wearing Nike TN sneakers, striped shirts and swimming shorts, with designer brand names setting standards, encouraging younger disenfranchised youth to begin making money illegally.

The subculture was heavily prominent in the underground scene in the 2000s, with the style of Nike TN sneakers, Nautica clothing and bumbags widespread across Sydney despite heavy stigma from the general public. This stigma only further propagated the subculture as it became appropriated across the country, influencing fashion, language, music, and Australia's modern urban youth culture in general.

The subculture traces its roots to predominantly young men from low socio-economic backgrounds, initially drawing inspiration from Southern Beats, British Casual/Chav clothing, and Dutch Gabber dancing/style, eventually creating a distinctly Australian style/culture with similarities, but in turn, completely different. Eventually in 2019, UK Drill culture heavily influenced the direction of the subculture, as Mount Druitt rap group Onefour's drill tracks became viral, drawing similarities between the two. Key distinct lad activities include widespread anti-social behaviour and often criminal activity, such as shoplifting, vandalism, assault, robbery, as well as burglary ("Earching") and drug dealing. Many also use drugs. Disadvantaged street orientated youths from poor areas who sport the subculturelive, live lifestyles of constant petty crime and development of skills and tactics of making illicit money off the streets through theft, for many different reasons stemming from disadvantagement, with boys around the low-socioeconomic areas to steal luxury sportswear to complement their otherwise wardrobes of old dirty clothes in their dysfunctional homes, reflected in Australian Hip-Hop, this spread along with the culture around the country. The result is said to have led to a disrupt in society's expectation of who should be wearing high-brow brands, and enforcing a heavy stigma on some, as clothing brands from Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, Lacoste and notably Nautica, began to be adored in Sydney's working class suburbs in the Inner-South and the West, complemented with Sportswear brands such as Nike, Adidas, Under Armour and Ellesse. Lads are often considered stereotypically hyper-masculine, inclined to crime and violence, affiliated with other local youths from a postcode, generally hang out in packs, wear sportswear and engage in intimidatory, criminal and anti-social behaviour, engaging in other activities, such as burglary (“earching”), drug dealing and traditionally graffiti.

Most Lads come from pockets of suburbs with high concentrations of disadvantage, such as large Public Housing developments like this one in Waterloo

Fashion

A major component of the subculture, fashion plays an important role in denoting ones involvement in the Eshay scene. Distinctive outfits trace their early origins to the emerging late-1990s to 2000s street style scene, where cuffed track-suit pants, windbreaker jackets (commonly Sergio Tacchini or Nautica), popped-collar polos and bent-brim dad hats or Nike dri-fit caps balanced precariously on the crowns of one's head began to gain popularity. By the 2000s, the influence of gabber and hardstyle was evident, as music festivals such as DEFQON1 and Stereosonic became popular in Sydney with people in the lad clothing style, as bum-bags became critical to the emerging uniform. Many of the more expensive brands with the familiar uniform became a way for addicts to identify dealers, with hats strapped out to signal they were “on” (selling), while people trying to “get on” (buy drugs) would roll one tracksuit cuff up for dealers to identify, during Sydney’s 90’s heroin epidemic, however eventually these evolved and merged into the general style over time.

While the aesthetic associated with Lads has changed over time depending on which city/area, the 2000s aesthetic very-much followed a uniform of: striped polo shirts with popped-collars, high-waisted sports shorts, Nike TN sneakers and bumbags slung over one shoulder, brands such as Saucony, Henley's, DADA supreme and Canterbury NZ we’re popular at the time. Nike TNs at the time were beginning to gain recognisation across the country for a heavy stigma at its peak, meanwhile ASICs Gel Kayanos and Kinsei were being favoured in the "Adlay" heartland in the Inner-Sydney back lanes and Housing Estates, where they carried high status in these areas among elders who’ve been in and out of the justice system who’ve earned their stripes.

Sign at the front of Acer Bank Arena prohibiting Lad clothing from being worn inside the stadium 2008 Many venues banned a variety of stigmatised clothing items due to general perceptions of wearers causing problems.

Considered to be the defining element of Eshay fashion was the introduction of the Nike TN, an expensive sneaker adorned with eye-catching colours. Sportswear stores in Western Sydney have consistently recorded the highest sales of TNs in Australia, though the shoe was divisive, largely stigmatised by the mainstream who associated it with criminality. The wearing of Nike TN's, as well as Shox and Tailwinds (commonly referred to as Jailwinds) denote street-credibility and esteem within the prison-system respectively, as both shoes require the wearer to defend them should another group of “Lads” seek to rob them.

During the 2000’s, a culture of congregation and train surfing, incorporated through the graffiti/train bombing scene, was introduced to the underworld youth culture in Sydney, with large groups of “adlays” from dysfunctional backgrounds of all ethnic groups from local housing commission, identifiable by matching striped polo shirts, Nike Dri-fit hats and Air max Plus trainers loitering and congregating around local Train stations, nearby shopping centres who used the CityRail trains (often “bombed”) to commute to rival areas to engage in brawls involving fair fist fights, with weapons in preparation if the fight gets dirty.

In the beginning of 2013 the TN still mostly maintained its criminal reputation, the conservative sector of society were still terrified of the sneakers silhouette and the TN faithful were still wearing them with unwavering pride.

Eventually, from the rise of newer Australian rap music, and it being pushed further into mainstream popularity and spreading the styles reach across the country, leading to widespread appropriation from middle-class school children and Hipsters wearing the style ironically, while fashion publications began to appropriate Eshay aesthetics into contemporary designs.

The ironic appropriation of sneakers once stigmatised for their associations with criminality, poverty and drug-use has become widespread across the country, in turn slowly killing the sneakers' shady reputation. Troubled teenagers from dysfunctional backgrounds sporting the style on the other hand, still often target middle-class people appropriating it.

In more recent times, as some youths from low socio-economic areas in Australia have began to make more money from music, sport and social media, clothing and accessories from luxury European brands such as Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Givenchy and Kenzo have become highly sought after and have led to a higher standard of fashion. The rise in popularity of UK Drill in Australia in early 2019 may be partly due to its heavy use of luxury brands and similar clothing style appealing to Australian listeners, but also appealing to a large broad established audience of ethnic upper-echelon criminals in Sydneys South and West from Jail, who introduced luxury brands to the "Eshay" culture in the 2000s. Drill music also represents a move away from the white working class culture typically represented in Australian hip-hop to one which depicts the styles of the various ethnic groups that make up Australia's working-class.

”Eshay” fashion can be appropriated/styled differently, depending on the popular styles/trends of the different areas that local lads live in, plus the different ethnic groups adopting different statements, for instance most young lads in middle-class areas or outside cities less socially affected by the sub-culture but listen to Aussie Hip-Hop artists are more likely to wear skater/scooter brands such as Thrasher, Supreme, American sports-team apparel and other clothing items more influenced by the American Skater culture that previously dominated the Urban scenes in their local areas rather than clothing with a distinct Australian street credibility.

In underclass Inner-city Sydney public housing pockets, Cargo shorts, GANT and Calvin Klein clothing, ASICS gel Kayanos/Quantums and many other trends have been widely worn by local youths for decades, and only now spreading in popularity outside the city, coinciding with the popularity of local rapper Spanian who helped export the trend to fans outside his area. Most of the clothing brands and defining components of “adlay” style come from the Sydney Inner-city.

Shaved legs has been a long regarded symbol for wealth and power in Lad culture, believing to originate from the “boob” (prison) where inmates shave their legs as a part of the inside culture of cleanliness and masculinity. The common fashion trend in Sydney, for men to often wear bright women's coloured trainers allegedly came from jail as well. Other distinct "adlay" fashion statements originating from Jail include rolled up cuffs on cargo shorts/pants and tracksuits, short socks, pushing back cuff up the left leg (often used to signal theyre trying to buy drugs), hats tight pulled over face or tilted above head.

Further out west to the lower-middle class Canterbury-Bankstown area, the infamous presence of Middle-Eastern organised crime gangs in the 2000s heavily influenced the local underworld cultures uniform, coming along with bigger money, came a higher standard of fashion, with upper echelon criminals complementing their expensive sportswear (notably Givenchy, Kenzo Paris and Armani Exchange) with Gucci Hats, Louis Vuitton Bags, G-star raw etc. and tattooing their ankles. With the new standard spreading to the rest of Sydney and ultimately across the country, with often younger “lads” buying fake designer to look like the older criminals in their areas.

A recognisable recent aesthetic from 2017 onwards follows with ankle socks with Nike air max or ASICS gel trainers, cargo shorts or cuffed cargo pants (Henley's/G-star RAW/Industrie) along with tight fit hoodies/trackies from brands such as Nike, Nautica, Hilfiger, GANT, Russell Athletic, Calvin Klein, Ellesse, Le Coq Sportif etc. , and recently North Face, Hugo Boss, Emporio Armani 7 etc. (derived from recent British influence), as well as Nike AW84 caps or Gucci hats.

Due to their reputation as a status symbol among Sydney's working-class, most “eshay” brand names are common around many disadvantaged areas among people of a wide variety of ages.

Influence from other subcultures

Australian urban youth cultures have always been linked with foreign influence, and often been criticised for it, with a majority of mainstream Australian rappers (before the influence Gutter "Lad" Rap of course), often generalised for copying American skater culture, which was the case with a large amount of middle class areas in Australia outside Sydney, with Adlay/Lad culture ("Eshay" to Middle-Class Australians) appealing to many, due to it having distinct Australian street credibility, and an authentic stigma from the general public. In large housing estates and areas towards the inner-south of Sydney, where a lot of the stigmatised "adlay" clothing omes from, you still see a strong culture, barely foreign influenced.

Adlay culture in itself is rumored to have been largely foreign influenced in itself from the start, with critics often claiming it derives from Chav culture, for wearing cuffed tracksuits, TN's, bumbags and largely wearing polo shirts, though this turns out to be wrong, but not entirely. With Sydney and Londons street cultures, along with most of Europes being heavily influenced by a lot of Tracksuit wearing culture, from Hip-Hop, often larely derived from some American Rappers, wearing Air-Maxes and bright coloured flashy high-brow brands such as Polo, Lacoste, Sergio Tacchini, Kappa, Nautica, North Face Kangol ETC, in the 1990s, and also stealing them. Many different European countries' impoverished Public Housing Estates had different cultures that leaned towards different clothing brands, with France leaning towards brands such as Lacoste, Tommy Hilfiger, Adidas, Sergio Tacchini etc and UK leaning towards brands such as The North Face, Armani, Ellesse etc, this being the case in Australia too. During the late-1990s, especially during the time inner-city Sydney was getting filled up with Heroin from Cabramatta and Redfern, a lot of young "adlays" would go out engaging in Break-and-Enter, often taking expensive clothes from Rich people in particular, likely worn instead of sold to buy drugs. Brands such as Sergio Tacchini, Polo Sport, Nautica Jackets, GANT, Henleys, G-star RAW, Canterbury, sport shorts, Nike TNs, Bumbags ETC would be worn as status symbols with pride among peers and locals from Public Housing estates, but would eventually become heavily looked down upon by Sydney's general public as brands worn by criminals, drug dealers and addicts. With stigmatised Luxury items in particular such as Gucci hats, becoming largely replicated, which created a market of stigmatised impoverished delinquents, often using hard drugs who couldn't afford real Gucci hats, further giving them in general, a bad reputation.

Recently, due to the rise of Onefour internationally, for their UK drill influenced music, a lot of international critics are quick to jump to the conclusion that Onefour entirely ripped off Street-culture, linking their claims to Onefours taste for Luxury Hats/Bags, Nike/Adidas Tracksuits, man bags and Air-Max Trainers, and often making UK slang refferences rapping influenced with a music genre, unseen before by Australias general public, though Australia has always had a taste for different clothing items in general, the option of all Black Tracksuits in Onefours music videos and the general similarities plus the refferences and music influence made the criticism and claims sound more realistic. This is due to the fact really raw Sydney "gutter" music and artists have been largely underground, with their culture almost completely unheard of to people overseas, until UK Influenced Onefour came in, gaining British attention, meanwhile before drill, UK has had a fair share of artists from Council Estates become known across the world at the same time.

The idea that "Adlay" culture is fully derived from UK drill culture and music is also a foreign misconception, due to the fact the UK Drill tropes are refferences, especially over their beats, with the rest of the clothing being clothes worn by Australians without British Influence, including brands with mutual influence in both countries such as Nike, and to an extent, Lacoste.

Music

Lads have often been synonymous with Australian hip hop in its various forms. In the early 2000s the most closely associated variety was gutter rap or lad rap which often contains lyrics depicting criminality, drug use and poverty. Gutter rap artists such as Campbelltown's Kerser, Hurstville's Skeamo and Nter, and Blacktown's Fortay rap primarily about Australian working-class lifestyle and issues (such as crime, drug addictions and financial struggles), similar to traditional American Gangsta rap. Unlike most popular artists in the Australian hip hop scenes, which have proper mainstream presence and support, gutter rap has remained largely underground on the internet due to associating with a stigmatised style. However some artists from the genre have gained mainstream recognition and success, an example being Kerser's second album No Rest for the Sickest, which peaked at No. 15 on the ARIA Albums Chart.

While Australian hip hop and gutter rap were once considered a genre dominated by Australia's urban white working class, this changed rapidly following the advent of Australian Drill in 2018/19. The prolific rise to fame of Mount Druitt outfit Onefour brought a refreshing change to the hip hop scene, with production heavily influenced by UK drill, Afrobeats, traditional Polynesian music and trap. Onefour, who often reference Eshay culture and language in their lyrics, prompted a music revolution with various groups with Polynesian, Arabic, African and Indigenous heritage coming to the forefront of Australian music. While UK Drill echoes the Roadman subculture of the UK, in Australia the drill scene is born from the Sydney Searchers subculture, nowadays called Lads or “Eshays” by Middle-Class Australians, which has seen a massive revival in popularity.

In Sydney, Gabber music and the Hakken dance it is accompanied by has been popular amongst Lads, as from the mid-2000s, music festivals such as Defqon1 and Stereosonic became popular places to rave and start fights. The Hakken dance is mainly referred to as gabber (noun) or gabbering (verb), named after the Gabber subgenre of hardcore it is performed to. Despite the fact that it is called Gabber, it is usually performed to music of the hardstyle genre by most ravers in Australia. The influence of Gabber and Melbourne Bounce on Australian music is exemplified in the work of Lad artists like Hooligan Hefs who incorporate these sounds into Australian drill.

Lads have also been involved in the rock, heavy metal and hardcore scenes. Some Australian bands such as DMA's have been known to sport Adlay fashion.

Language

Important to Adlay culture is a distinct dialect of urban slang that is employed by those in the subculture. Most commonly known as a bastardised form of pig-Latin, the dialect has led to the rise of popular words within Australian English such as Eshay/Eshays (Cool, Hell Yea, Fuckin’ oath, Run), Adlay (Lad), Eetswa (sweet, good), Undgie (police), Redhot (suspicious, high-risk), Staunch (tough, to hold up/intimidate someone), Doobay (Desirable female) Gronk (A Waste of Life), Illchay (Chill, relax) and Earch (burglary/theft) "Get on" (buying drugs). This pig-Latin is employed as a means of evading scrutiny by authorities, namely police or prison guards, by conversing in a 'secret coded language', as well as general urban slang, especially among Sydney’s Urban Aboriginal community. In some Inner-City Sydney Housing Commission Estates in Glebe, Waterloo/Redfern, Woolloomooloo, Surry Hills and Newtown (widely believed to be where the culture originated), a more complex/broader pig Latin, unbeknown to people outside the area, is often used widely by youths in the area, often combining two words to create a double-meaning and putting vowels after syllables, and more.

The dialect has been heavily influenced by immigrant communities in Melbourne and Sydney, specifically the Wog accent (Tracksuits have been a stereotypical "wog" way of dressing for over 30 years), which is derived from a mix of Southern European Languages, Arabic, and Australian English. Similarly, Polynesian, East African, and Indigenous communities have influenced the urban dialect with the introduction of traditional words.

In many lower-class communities of different ethnic backgrounds across Sydney, the “eshay” style and often pig Latin usage is often generational, exposed to it at an early age through older family members (parents, aunties/uncles, older siblings/cousins) and often influencing their fashion choices.

Efforts to reintroduce the Dharug language into Sydney used Eshay language and terminologies to better relate with Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth