PHOTO CREDIT: Michelle Grace Hunder
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED BY https://www.thebigissue.org.au #588, JUNE 2019

With creative powerhouse Briggs at its helm, record label Bad Apples is set to push Indigenous musicians squarely into the spotlight.

BRIGGS. One name for one man with many guises. A rapper with a unique sense of humour that’s made him a regular on the ABC’s The Weekly. A Simpsons fan invited to write for creator Matt Groening on his new Netflix series, Disenchantment. The man who made music for Indigenous sci-fi series Cleverman while playing the character Maliyan. The solo artist who teamed with producer Trials to create the earth-shaking duo A.B. Original. The Yorta Yorta man from Shepparton emblazoned with tattoos honouring his people. And, in what may turn out to be his most significant role yet, record label boss at Bad Apples.

“[I’m] trying to change the way that Australians perceive what Indigenous artists can be and who they are,” Adam Briggs says ahead of the Bad Apples showcase, taking place at the Sydney Opera House as part of Vivid Live.

Bad Apples is helmed by Briggs and label manager Coco Eke, who together nurture the careers of hip-hop artists BIRDZ, Nooky and Philly. The label is also home to A.B. Original.

“I don’t think it was as reactionary as people might think,” he muses of the label’s creation. “We often spoke, for the last few years, of how there was a lack of representation and there always has been, you know? The label doesn’t feel like a reaction to that; it feels like it’s actively trying to change the space and what the scene looked like. We were just trying to create a new lane, a new pathway.”

As one of the artists who has forged a career on this new pathway, emcee BIRDZ details the significance of Bad Apples Music when it’s come to his own creative direction: “When I first joined [the label], it was exciting to have a home and a support network,” he says. “It’s a label, but it’s a family and a home. There’s really no other way to describe it. I was excited about joining a movement that was led by someone that understood who I was and where I came from.”

Releasing his debut album Train of Thought to industry acclaim in 2017, the Melbourne-based rapper has become a fixture on stages around the country, and is acknowledged as an important new voice of Australian hip-hop. The confidence to opine as strongly and freely as he has stems from the support of Briggs and Bad Apples.

“I have a vision and they’re like, ‘This is how you make it great’,” he says. “Just having that support and having them reaffirming and instilling that confidence in me, that’s really been significant. Those kinds of things led to me making an album I wanted to make and to be recognised the way it was recognised.”

Similarly, fellow Bad Apples artists Nooky and Philly have undergone immense levels of creative change in the years since their signing. Young artists cutting their teeth on stages and behind the production desk, they are prime examples of Australian excellence born out of determination and hunger for success.

Briggs is full of praise. “The growth of dudes like Nooky — being such a fantastic producer as well — watching that part of his career grow over the last couple of years [has been great]. Being able to be there for Phil, and helping guide him through his album and video; just being able to be there for these dudes at this point and also having the scope to grow it.”

The ambition and broadened scope have culminated in a handful of successfully curated events, where Bad Apples have been able to give more emerging artists a platform – an exciting indicator of the kind of Indigenous talent approaching the precipice of wider acclaim.

“Bad Apples did two all female line-ups for the Brunswick Music Festival and the Parramasala one in Parramatta.” Briggs says. “That was a conscious effort on our behalf over the last 18 months. I was like, ‘Look, it’s really easy for us to sign black men rappers, they’re everywhere! If we want to make the impact we want to make across the community, we need to be representative of the community’.

“It’s the exact same execution and method that we had when we started the label,” he continues. “It’s like, ‘There’s not enough blackfella rappers who have pathways, let’s make one.’ Alright, now we’ve done that, how do we bring in women and how do we make them feel safe and comfortable as well? Let’s work at that. I understand that I’m a dude in that world too, so I’m trying to navigate that and be as helpful as possible.”

For BIRDZ, this Sydney Opera House event in particular is exciting to be a part of. “It’s a real example of where Bad Apples is heading and it feels like there’s no real limit. I think that’s a big thing. For so long, a lot of us had felt there was a limit on us, but Bad Apples has really shown that there isn’t.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Michelle Grace Hunder
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED BY THE AUSTRALIAN MUSIC VAULT, APRIL 2019

A cultural movement derived from oppression. A musical genre that has illuminated struggle and identified a sense of belonging amongst the marginalised and in doing so, became an art form of empowerment. It became a unifying presence in communities seeking it. From its beginnings in the Bronx, hip hop has since developed into a dominating force in pop culture today. A simple glance at commercial pop music charts and its prominence is clear.

Internationally, each guise of the genre has represented the unique identity of the society from which it has been born. Links to its African-American origins have remained in varying degrees, however, the development of hip hop in other countries has become a powerful (and oftentimes very entertaining) soundtrack to the changing of many a societal identity.

Australian hip hop is a perfect example of this. From charged messages against racial injustice and discrimination in the 1980s and 1990s, through to the localisation of the music being embraced by the wider Australian music industry in the 2000s and now, with an ambitious new generation of artists picking up the mantle, there is no other sector of Australian music in as much flux as Australian hip hop.

“I’ll be the spanner in the works of your f*cked up plans…”
TZU, 'Recoil' 2005

Cultural and identity politics have been a steadfast foundation of Australian hip hop’s evolution, whether it be Munkimuk’s ‘Dreamtime’, The Herd’s ‘77%’ or more recently, A.B Original’s ‘January 26’, the representation of the financial, racial and governmental fractures within Australian communities has long been subject of artists’ bodies of work.

Though largely influenced by groups including Public Enemy, politically-charged Australian hip hop laid strong foundations for musicians at the head of today’s resurgence three decades ago. Emerging from a thriving creative underground, artists including Brothablack, Wire MC, Munkimuk and the South West Syndicate vocalised issues affecting Aboriginal communities and setting a powerful precedent for expression through rap with that the likes of Briggs, A.B Original and BIRDZ continue to champion today.

As the culture of Australian hip hop became further embraced by the wider music industry through the 2000s, once more we saw a distinctive voice filter through the beats. There was a notable strive for an ‘Australian identity’ that was less reliant on a heavy borrowing from the US, more on highlighting the Australian lifestyle and the ups and downs that had come with it.

“We’re staying dedicated to perfection…”
Hilltop Hoods, ‘Still Standing’ 2009

Music by Koolism, 1200 Techniques, Def Wish Cast, The Herd and the Hilltop Hoods became orchestral in the establishment of Australian hip hop’s new chapter. As ARIA began to recognise the public’s growing interest in the genre, the industry became home to thriving voices including Illy, Drapht, Thundamentals and Horrorshow. A familiarity found in accent and cadence, humour and content matter, gave rise to Australian hip hop with a large demographic of music fans, yet it was not without its criticisms.

The ‘redneck rap’ label is one that Australian hip hop artists have been shirking as the climate for hip hop globally has also been changing. As hip hop merges more and more with pop, electronic and indie music, new influences have emerged. Collaboration with musicians outside the genre, from both Australia and abroad have brought international attention and acclaim to not just Multi-Platinum selling artists like the Hilltop Hoods, but also to trailblazing names like Tkay Maidza, Sampa The Great and L-FRESH The Lion.

“Pour up the love, let the healing begin…”
Sampa The Great, ‘Energy ft. Nadeem Din-Gabisi’ 2018

In the music of a younger generation, Australian hip hop breathes a new and ferocious fire. Urgency comes from the pens of wordsmiths like Sampa The Great, Genesis Owusu, Tasman Keith and Remi. Rising up as a powerful voice for those marginalised communities still suffering, Australian hip hop is fast regaining a platform to affect, uplift and encourage change. The idea of looking back in moving forward, charges this new music with potency and musically, Australian hip hop is seeing a renaissance of classic and contemporary hip hop, R&B and soul carving out a dominating presence within the genre.

Australian hip hop is music that represents growth without ignoring the fact it still has quite a way to go in achieving an ideal balance that allows for new voices to shine brightly. Women, a largely underdeveloped sector of the culture in Australia, are now emerging as key players in taking Australian hip hop forward.

In the lyricism of Sampa The Great, Tkay Maidza, OKENYO, Coda Conduct, Kaylah Truth, Nardean and Jesswar, Australian hip hop has adopted a fierce, opinionated and wickedly charming new guise. Their stories and records stand toe to toe with their predecessors.

For each lover of 1200 Techniques’ Choose One, there’s a mutual love and respect for Sampa The Great’s Birds and The Bee9. Just as TZU’s Smiling At Strangers album entertained while injecting sharp edge into the songs, so too does OKENYO’s defining release, THE WAVE.

“We were fruits from the trees, now you watch us grow…”
Genesis Owusu, ‘Wit Da Team’ 2018

As the Aussie hip hop fan demographic continues to diversify, so does the music tastes of the wider audience of Australian music fan. The emergence of Baker Boy, Dallas Woods and Kaiit in the recent peripheries of not just the Australian hip hop industry, but fans too, marks an exciting counterpoint for the culture moving forward. Young, potent musical storytellers completely in charge of their artistic direction, contributing to strength in Australian hip hop’s new guard with musicianship rooted in individual style and delivery.

The history of Australian hip hop and its evolution is impossible to consolidate into a strict framework. What can be gleaned from the last three decades of releases, triumphs and cultural shifts is that Australian hip hop is a genre that continues to look inward at itself, at its history, as new generations of storytellers establish a new identity for the culture.

Artists today are unafraid to acknowledge the failures of the genres past, but also the achievements of those who have come before.

The future of Australian hip hop has never looked brighter.