“Yeah, I was a jerk of a kid. I was always
argumentative and that’s what got me in trouble at
school. The smallest things would exacerbate into
something huge – a detention would turn into
two and then I’d get suspended.
Rap music helped me focus that hostility for
authority and it kept me out of trouble.
But I don’t feel like I found my true voice until
my 2014 [solo] album Sheplife – I was 25. That
was when I got the grown-up idea of, ‘I have
to make something that’s not just for me, I have
to make something that I can leave behind’.
That was my goal from then on – shifting from
just making songs and albums into forging a legacy.
Because I thought, ‘If I get hit by a bus tomorrow,
what is it I’m leaving behind, what is it that people
are going to remember me by? Just a dumb bunch
of songs that were cool, but didn’t say much? Well,
that’s a fucking waste.’
Reclaim Australia was the album we needed when
we were kids. We had Public Enemy and NWA and
Rakim – the guys who really sparked the
modernisation of rap and it was phenomenal. But we
jumped into the early ’00s and there was this big
piece missing on the mantle. NWA and PE weren’t
quite 100 per cent – that one per cent that was
localised to us would have meant so much more.
The intention of [single] ‘January 26’ came from somewhere so, so
honest – we never set out to be like, ‘All right, we’ll make this song
and we’ll change the way everyone thinks about it’. Nah, it was never
that way. And for Malcolm Turnbull to come out and say it’s divisive- well shit Mal, the day itself is inherently divisive. You’re a lawyer –
figure that fucking out. And I’ll say he’s a coward, that he’s a bitch –
but I’ll be the one in the news the next day.
There’s such a disconnect between Indigenous and white Australia –
and we make fun on that on The Weekly - I’m reporting from ‘Indigenous
Australia’, like it’s a whole fucking other part of the country.
Our presence in the media is shit. It’s too easy to dismiss the
Indigenous voice – but I worked my way up and people can’t just ignore
me any more; they used to but now they can’t as I’m on TV every week.
I remember calling out Bill Shorten on The Weekly – sometimes you
forget who you’re reaching and talking to, you’re going hard and
telling a joke. And then Bill rang me up and he’s like, ‘Fuck, that was
funny’ – he’s an everyman, he swears. ‘Yeah, thanks Bill, just keeping
you on your toes.’ But now, because of that, when things happen I
have Bill’s number. Now, I’m not saying we talk all the time, but
because of this, I have access to fill him in on stuff that’s going on and
where things are at.
A PROUD YORTA YORTA MAN, FOUNDEROF ABORIGINAL HIP-HOP LABEL, BADAPPLES MUSIC, SOLO ARTIST, WRITER,AND TV REGULAR – BRIGGS IS HERE ANDHE’S DRIVING A NECESSARY DISCOURSE.“Our presence in the
media is shit. It’s too
easy to dismiss the
Indigenous voice.”
Imagine if Australia embraced Indigenous
culture. And imagine if it wasn’t just tokenistic- so it’s not like, ‘urgh, Welcome to Country’;
‘urgh Acknowledgment of Country’; ‘here they
come, look at ’em’.
Australia has an Indigenous culture 80,000 odd
years old, but they don’t embrace it and until they
do, Australian culture will remain British. There’s
nothing 100 per cent Australian until you embrace
the Indigenous. Beers, BBQs – that shit’s universal.
And it needs to be interwoven and come from
the ground up, so it’s not some mystical kind of
idea about Indigenous people who live out in
the bush – we live next fucking door.
It’s not that we hate white people – it’s just that
racists happen to be white. And sharing culture is
one of the best things in life – so to play a gig and
see white kids and the other races feeling what
we’re bringing, it reminds us that we’re doing
the right thing and making something tangible
people can grasp on to.
I have these avenues to exercise my opinions
and my thoughts and so many young blackfellas,
they hit me up, they’re like, ‘Thanks for saying
that ’cause that’s how I feel’. And that’s the best
stuff in the world – I couldn’t give a fuck about
anything else.
I don’t feel any pressure – these are my opinions
and I’m voicing them as best as I can. And I’ve
never presented myself as anything other than what
I am – just a young blackfella from country Victoria. I’m not an
academic, I barely made it through school and have no further
education. Yeah, I’m a bum. And these opinions that I’ve been able to
form all come from the strength of my community and everyone
around me and all the people who let me be the artist I wanted to be - my family and everyone back home who supported me and helped me.
If what I’m doing sparks the next generation to say, ‘You mean I can
do something other than play footy?’, then great. Hopefully in these
kids we’re building a self-confidence and self-worth for them
to realise and think they can be whatever they want.” n
GROOMING: MICHAEL BRENNAN AT THE ARTIST GROUP USING ORIBE.
MEN OF THE YEAR 2017 GQ.COM.AU 145