Mat Ward

Verbal Reality Volume One
Provocalz
Native Sun / Hustle Hard, 2012
$15
www.provocalz.bigcartel.com

"Every time you see in the media someone's been killed by police it always just happens to be an Aboriginal," says radical rapper Provocalz.

It's 9.30 on a Saturday morning and the south-west Sydney spitter is telling Green Left why he made his hard-hitting horrorcore track, "Cop Shot".

Idle No More (Invasion Day) The Mixtape
Featuring K-Otic 1, Darah, Felon, Mr Forge, Toombs, Provocalz, Teila, Unda Dwella, Lorna Munro, Kaiyu, Boe Knows, Big Luke, Dubbzone
www.datpiff.com

This World Is Dead
Blockheads
January 2013
www.blockheads-grindcore.fr

French grindcore band Blockheads have hammered out a solid reputation in the European extreme music scene over the past two decades. Their lyrics spit bile against corruption, colonialism, the corporate media, inequality, pollution, pro-lifers and much more. Mat Ward spoke to bassist and vocalist Erik about their new album, This World Is Dead, and the political situation in France.

Vibes, Love, Revolution
Fear Nuttin Band
Released 2012
www.fearnuttinband.com

Fear Nuttin Band blend Jamaican yardie culture with American hardcore punk in the hybrid genre of “yardcore”. The Massachusetts-based group also throw in plenty of pugilistic politics and sharp satire. Front man Prowla and guitarist Christafari Regan spoke to Green Left's Mat Ward.

Yabun Festival
Featuring Dizzy Doolan
Saturday January 26, Sydney

When rapper Dizzy Doolan is asked whether her song "Women's Business" is inspired by the Aboriginal concept of secret women's business, she replies simply: "I was inspired to write 'Women's Business' purely because I was sick of seeing men disrespect women. I wanted to inspire women to be strong and to have a voice and be heard."

A Breath Of Stale Air
Local Resident Failure
Pee Records
Released June, 2012
peerecords.com

Newcastle punks Local Resident Failure are heavier than Clive Palmer, tighter than Gina Rinehart and have just dropped a motherlode of a debut album.

But the analogies with Australia's mining fat cats end there. A Breath Of Stale Air spits gobfuls of bile at right-wingers, from the mainstream media to racist rednecks - not least on "Every Day's A Holiday On Christmas Island", the band's scathing condemnation of xenophobia.

For its final issue of 2012, Green Left asked staff, contributors and others to name their book of the year.

Mel Barnes
Co-editor of Green Left Weekly
Mine-field
By Paul Cleary
Black Inc
http://bit.ly/NdE39u

In his follow-up to Too Much Luck, Paul Cleary travels throughout Australia to speak to people affected by the rapid coal and coal seam gas expansion taking place.

Face the Fire
Jimblah
Obese Records
Buy now on iTunes
www.myspace.com/jimblah01

If James Alberts, better known as Adelaide-based rapper Jimblah, hadn't discovered hip hop, he could well have ended up serving time in prison.

Instead, he now serves prisoners in prison, by teaching them.

"In my early teens, I just wanted a place to fit and I looked up to the older lads who were [committing crimes]," Alberts, a 27-year-old Larrakia man, tells Green Left Weekly.

I Believe In Revolution
Darah
Darah Music
2012
www.darahmusic.tumblr.com

Darah says it was a fellow Aboriginal rapper who inspired him to take a more radical direction on his latest album, I Believe In Revolution. "This whole album was largely inspired by Big Luke’s album Message From A Black Man," the Victorian emcee tells Green Left.

Just as Big Luke took a no-holds barred approach on that album, so Darah has come out with both guns blazing on his latest effort. But Big Luke is not just an inspiration to Darah.

Forever
Kayemtee
Impossible Odds Records
2012
www.impossibleoddsrecords.com

Jimmy Barnes is probably the most heterosexual man in Australia - but he has now inspired probably the best homosexual rap tune to come out of the country.

The Cold Chisel frontman is famous for allegedly bedding more than 1000 women early on in his career. But Indigenous femcee Kayemtee has taken his band's highest-charting song, "Forever Now", and given it a radical twist.