Phoenix
Jimblah
Elefant Traks
2013
www.elefanttraks.com
Most people fear fire, but Jimblah embraces it. The element flares up again and again in the rapper's searingly original work - from his first album, Face The Fire, to the one that just rose from its ashes, Phoenix.
Aboriginal
A Dose Of Reality
Eskatology
September 2013
Download free here
www.eskatology.com
On his latest EP, A Dose Of Reality, Adelaide-based emcee Eskatology raps about the refugees he works with.
"I've worked with many refugees in my job as a youth worker," says the rapper, who is giving the 10-track EP away as a free download.
Bring The Sun Out EP
Impossible Odds
Classik Nawu
Coldwater Band
July 2013
www.impossibleoddsrecords.com
"Land rights is a load of crap," says Kaylah Truth. They are not the kind of words you'd expect to hear from a radical, politically-savvy Indigenous rapper. But Truth, of militant Murri hip-hop group Impossible Odds, says she has learnt from bitter experience to pursue sovereignty instead.
On the band's album, Against All Odds, she raps:
I no longer need my fists to fight
I just write whenever those emotions do arise
Visions in Black and White -
Images from Indigenous Australia
Redfern Community Centre, Sydney
Until June 24, 2013.
www.headon.com.au
"Ngurragah," says Barbara McGrady, and smiles. The word, pronounced "nuh-ruh-gah", is one of her favourite utterances. But this committed activist and community photographer won't be using it to describe her latest exhibition, being held as part of Head On, the second largest photography festival in the world.
Deep Thought EP
Caper
April 5, 2013
www.caper.net.au
Rapper Caper slams the Native Title Act as a "white bible" on his latest release.
The Narungga emcee, who has worked as a Native Title field officer in South Australia for the past 10 years, raps on his track "The Writing's On The Wall":
A lot of misconceptions about us owning land
We don’t own any, man
I work for Native Title
The government is a rival
Assholes with a white bible
The Campaign
Kings Konekted
Class A Records
April 19, 2013
www.classarecords.com
Kings Konekted have just released some of the choicest cuts in Australian hip-hop - and they were inspired by some of the whackest cuts in Australian politics.
The Brisbane b-boys' new EP The Campaign paints a pretty gritty picture of life under cost-cutting Queensland Premier Campbell Newman.
The Bryte Side Of Life
Bryte
Too Solid / MGM
April 5, 2013
www.brytemc.com
Bryte's new album, The Bryte Side Of Life, may urge his listeners to think positive, but it's not all sweetness and light. The Aboriginal rapper has lost none of the political bite that snarled from his award-winning first album, Full Stop, four years ago.
The Perth-based performing poet kicks off his latest long-player with "World On Strike", a rallying call for global industrial action.
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".
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."
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.
Eklectic Methodz
Jpoint
Northern Orphanz Recordings
www.northernorphanz.webs.com
Rapper JPoint is building up a strong body of work - and not just in the music world. The Indigenous emcee runs his own record label, produces music for other artists and has a string of releases under his belt.
But he is also competing above the belt - by entering his first body-building contest. For JPoint, it's been a transformation.
Verbal Diary
Sneake1
www.facebook.com/Sneake1Music
When George Sambo was about seven years old, he used a wad of crooked cash to shout all his mates sausage rolls. The Queensland schoolboy couldn't have known then that those fatty rolls would set him rolling on a path to making phat rolling beats. But that's what happened.
"The first time I stole was when I was, like, Grade Four, Five, jumping in someone's window," he tells Green Left, fresh from stepping off stage at the Oxford Arts Factory in Sydney.
The Debut Recordings Volume 1
Native Ryme
Native Ryme Entertainment Group
November 2012
www.nativeryme.com
When you're representing a culture that has lasted 60,000 years, it doesn't matter that your debut album has taken a mere 18.
"We've always prided ourselves on coming from a culture that's been a song and dance culture for millennia, you know," says C-Roc, whose rap group, Native Ryme, are only just releasing an album a generation after he formed the band in 1994.
Pulling Strings
Izzy n The Profit
www.izzyntheprofit.com
It’s midnight in midwest Sydney and Izzy n The Profit are whipping a crowd into a full-blown frenzy. The audience is tiny, but the rappers are leaping around the Rooty Hill RSL like they’re ripping the roof off a stadium.
Eskape Reality
Eskatology
July 25, 2012
Bandcamp
What's in a name? Everything, for Aboriginal rapper Eskatology. His music has his name written all over it.
Eskatology, also known as 26-year-old South Australian Jonathan Stier, first came across the term "eschatology" through studying religion.
"Religion does play a part in my life, and I was doing a bit of religious studying and came across this word and it intrigued me," he tells Green Left Weekly.
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