Indigenous hip-hop artist Baker Boy talks music and dance
As homegrown hip-hop has gained traction, standout Indigenous performer Baker Boy is about unifying black and white Australia.
It took some time for Australian ears to become comfortable with a local hip-hop sound, perhaps because, at first, there was more than a little cultural cringe associated with hearing our young performers putting their own spin on this most American of modern music forms.
Adelaide trio Hilltop Hoods were the first act to popularise the style at a national level through their 2003 album The Calling and signature song The Nosebleed Section. This rising tide lifted plenty of boats, as the likes of Bliss n Eso, 360, The Herd, Drapht and Illy then found wide audiences and radio airplay, both on Triple J and on commercial stations.
It took a little longer for an Indigenous Australian hip-hop artist to break through to the mainstream, though. Shepparton rapper Adam Briggs and his subsequent duo with Trials, named A.B. Original, helped open the door to the 2017 debut of Baker Boy, an electric and charismatic individual who has truly changed the hip-hop game.
Born Danzal Baker in northeast Arnhem Land and raised in the remote Northern Territory communities of Milingimbi and Maningrida, the 25-year-old quickly attracted Triple J airplay through his ear-catching, rapid-fire rap style, which skilfully incorporates both English and Yolngu Matha.
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“He’s just phenomenal,” singer-songwriter Archie Roach told The Australian in 2019. “I love what he does – he represents his culture but does it through his music, his dancing and rapping.”
For Roach, who has been recording and performing since 1990 and has seen the rise of Australian hip-hop in its totality, the cross-cultural shift is pleasing to see.
“It’s crossing over to the mainstream,” he said. “The Australian music scene is so broad now; it’s not just seen as ‘Australiana’, or Indigenous music, or world music – it’s just good Australian music. It’s good to see that. I like the way it’s going.”
‘I love what he does – he represents his culture but does it through his music, his dancing and rapping.’
Rather than flood the market, Baker and his live band – which includes a live drummer, DJ and a couple of male back-up dancers as a nod to his own roots as an original member of the NT dance troupe Djuki Mala – took it slowly, releasing just a couple of tracks each year while impressing audiences coast to coast.
In 2019, Baker was named Young Australian of the Year, while within the music industry he has twice been named Artist of the Year at the National Indigenous Music Awards, in 2019 and 2020, and he has received six ARIA Award nominations without yet taking home a trophy.
On Australia Day 2021, he was named as a recipient of a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for his service to the performing arts as a singer and musician, but the artist declined to give interviews and instead issued a statement.
“I’m grateful for this recognition, and look forward to being able to share and celebrate it, but I do not wish to comment any further at this stage as I am in mourning for Invasion Day,” he said.
“I look forward to a time where we celebrate our country, our people and their achievements on a different day out of respect for all of my First Nations brothers and sisters. Thank you.”
In October 2021, Baker Boy released his debut album, Gela, an impressive 14-track set that was supported by seven single releases as far back as 2019’s Meditjin.
By then, he had also performed at many of the nation’s biggest arts and music festivals, as well as before big crowds at the Fire Fight Australia fundraiser just before the Covid pandemic hit, and at the 2021 AFL Grand Final in Perth.
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Now approaching five years in the national spotlight, after his first two singles both earned a place in Triple J’s Hottest 100 of 2017 music poll – Marryuna at No. 17 and Cloud 9 at No. 76, respectively – Baker has long been aware of his unique role in unifying black and white Australia through song and dance, just as the likes of Yothu Yindi and Warumpi Band did decades earlier.
“What I’m about is bridging the two worlds together,” Baker told The Australian in early 2018. But that pressure and expectation can sometimes be too much for one man to bear, no matter how talented and game-changing he is.
While his public persona is built on a conscious message of positivity, Baker took to social media in June 2020 to reflect on the shooting death of American man George Floyd, the resultant Black Lives Matter protests and his own experiences.
“This is my life and I am scared,” he wrote on Instagram. “I have anxiety about going to unknown places like a different cafe from my usual, not to mention the challenge of touring from the fear of racism that, yes, is still rampant here in Australia too […] Activism starts at home, with hard conversations.”