Hand-in-Hand: Why Aboriginal Culture and Hip-Hop Work Together So Well

From the outside looking in, the Australian hip-hop scene looks predominantly White. Despite this, Indigenous rappers have always had a place in the Aussie music scene, voicing their hardships and experiences. The culture of hip-hop and aspects of Aboriginal culture work together seamlessly. But why?

There are undeniable similarities between Aboriginal song and dance that date back tens of thousands of years, and hip-hop. This is purely by coincidence, as hip-hop, of course, was not born amongst Indigenous Australians; it began with African-Americans. However, as rapper Kaylah Truth states, the two cultures go hand-in-hand, and maybe that's why rap has been the genre most commonly explored by Indigenous musicians, at least in the past decade.

“We have very parallel elements in our culture to hip-hop culture. In hip-hop you’ve got the DJ, the breakdancer, the rapper, and the graffiti artist, and in our culture it’s the same. We’ve got music- anyone that makes music, you know the didge player, clapsticks- we’ve got the songman which is the same as the rapper in hip-hop culture, and we’re the oldest graffiti artists in the world.”~Kaylah Truth

In my own experiences seeing Aboriginal rappers live in concert, as well as meeting and interviewing them, it's been clear to see the parallel elements Kaylah mentions above. So what do these similarities look like in the music itself?

Instrumentation

The two cultures and styles of music- Indigenous and hip-hop- further merge together and overlap perfectly when rappers use Indigenous instrumentation in their beats. Where in other genres such as country, where the structure of the music restricts certain creative and cultural expressions, hip-hop has such no limitations; because of the large mix of genres hip-hop stems from, and the utilization of DJ’s allows for an endless range of sounds and effects. Listening to songs such as ‘Marryuna’ by Baker Boy, the fusion of ancient traditional instruments and modern song structures work together in ways that would not be possible in many other genres; for example, where in Rock we might hear a typical guitar solo, in ‘Marryuna’, we get a didgeridoo solo. In Baker Boy's live shows, he includes a dance segment to go with Marryuna's chorus, where he uses both breakdancing techniques and traditional Indigenous ones, flowing between the two styles seamlessly.

Lyricism

Baker Boy is a great example again, not only for Aboriginal instrumentation, but for his lyrics. Coming from Arnhem Land, Baker Boy has been the first Aboriginal musician to rap almost entirely in his native Yolngu language. That's not to say that it hasn't been done before; pioneers such as Munkimuk have done some verses in their nation's language. However, Baker Boy's entirely discography consists primarily of his own language, something that I can't see being possible outside of hip-hop, especially when so many of his listeners are non-Indigenous. The emphasis on rhythm and flow of the words within the genre of hip-hop correlates perfectly with Aboriginal languages; even if the listener cannot understand what Baker Boy is saying, they can enjoy the beat and flow. The restrictions created in other genres due to focus on melody do not apply to hip-hop, allowing a wide range of words to be used both English and non-English. It is from this lyrical freedom that the parallel between rapper and song-man becomes evident, as Aboriginal artists can serve the same purpose within an entirely new avenue.

THE VERDICT

Aboriginal culture and the modern culture of hip-hop are undoubtedly and strangely connected, despite being separated forever by time and location until only very recently. This is due to not just the technical side of things- instruments, production- but also to lyrical freedom and resonance in musical structure.