[The Vine:] We ran a column a while ago where we talked to some Australian MCs about racism in Australian hip-hop and the conclusion was that it's not the MCs who're encouraging racism -- certainly when you look at the work of the Elefant Traks folks, they're trying to preach against that -- but it exists in the audience. There was also an edition of Conversations with L-FRESH where you talked to other rappers about it. What is your experience with prejudice in Australian hip-hop?
I agree. I feel like it's something that often is evident within the audience. In the Conversations videos, Jimblah said something that's really important: "The perceived level of racism in hip-hop in Australia is a result of dominant mainstream views towards racism in Australia." It's bigger than what we perceive in hip-hop. Australia doesn't take racism seriously enough. Most mainstream conversations about racism often do not include the people who experience it the most. Often our voices and the voices of those who do experience it are left out of the conversation.
Australia is a country that's founded on racism. You think about colonisation, you think about the mistreatment and genocide of Indigenous people -- the establishment of Australia was born off this kind of racism and that's permeated through systematically during the solidification of Australia. There are so many issues there that haven't been dealt with seriously enough for us to have a genuine conversation about racism and what that means for people in Australia and contemporary times. We have a lot of work to do.
My experience has been varied. The most common experience that would reflect it in a way people would easily be able to understand is that whenever I get on a stage, if people haven't seen me perform before, I can see people in the audience anticipating what it might be and having a laugh, not knowing what to expect. Then when I start rhyming it's like "Wow, okay well let me take this seriously, let me listen." I use that to my advantage in the way I try to set up my live shows. But that in and of itself is a statement because when I start rhyming, it's like, "How about you look at me now without prejudice and listen to what it is I have to say, and value that over what you perceived initially when you saw me?"
There's other stuff as well that I'm sure other artists have experienced, in a much more serious way than I have. I've been quite fortunate. I think we haven't spoken about this seriously at a mainstream level and until we do that, racism's gonna play a role in a lot of industries across the country, not just within the music industry or within hip-hop.
