A.B. Original Are Doing More Than Making 'The Blackest Album Ever'

31 August 2016 | 4:47 pm | Cyclone Wehner

"'Hey Trials, we're already making the blackest music that ever happened - let's put the blackest name on it and then be black.'"

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Adam Briggs, Australia's first Indigenous polymath rap star, and Daniel "Trials" Rankine, the Funkoars' MC/producer, are generating heat with their supergroup A.B. Original. But while they're unleashing potent tracks like 2 Black 2 Strong and January 26 (featuring Dan Sultan), A.B. Original's mission is even bolder. Briggs, a Yorta Yorta man from Shepparton, Victoria, and Rankine, a descendant of the Ngarrindjeri peoples based in Adelaide, hope to stimulate future waves of Indigenous hip hoppers.

Already 2016 has been monumental for the pair. Briggs has just scooped another award at the National Indigenous Music Awards, with The Children Came Back, his sequel to Archie Roach's Took The Children Away, named "Song Of The Year". "I sent it back to my mum," Briggs says. "I send all my awards to my mum."

"It's a platform that we feel is almost a little bit bigger than us because now we get to try and inspire the kids and be the rappers that we wish we had when we were kids."

Then both A.B. Original members were involved in Ryan Griffen's engrossing TV series Cleverman — the part-dystopian drama, part-superhero saga drawing on tales of the Dreamtime. Though most hip hop heads would have recognised Briggs playing the hairy warrior Maliyan, they may not realise that Rankine toiled behind the scenes. "I was fortunate enough to soundtrack a lot of that first season, which is a dream come true — to soundtrack a sci-fi show with black fellas in it," Rankine says. A.B. Original were responsible, too, for Cleverman's theme, Take Me Home - blessed by Gurrumul's vocals.

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Today the duo, each patched in to a conference call from different states, joke about being part of what Briggs calls "a black brat pack". "We'll have to do The Breakfast Club!" he chortles. Rankine counter-quips, "the black pack!"

Briggs has emerged as a compellingly articulate activist, decrying pernicious racism, but he also commands a sharp wit. Lately, he's developed his flair for social satire on Twitter into an impressive sideline, writing for - and acting in - the ABC's sketch show Black Comedy

But right now A.B. Original are gearing up for the release of their debut, Reclaim Australia, before year's end - the recent single January 26 an Invasion (Australia) Day protest song. The album will drop on Bad Apples Music, which Briggs launched to "nurture" Indigenous hip hop artists, under the auspices of Hilltop Hoods' Golden Era. In the meantime, A.B. Original will be keynote speakers at BIGSOUND 2016, their session facilitated by Lindsay "The Doctor" McDougall. They've likewise scheduled a showcase.

A.B. Original clicked early last year when Briggs and Rankine performed at Beat The Drum, triple j's 40th anniversary concert, yet their partnership goes way back. Rankine has contributed beats to Briggs' various projects - including 2014's ARIA Top 20 Sheplife. "Me and Trials have been working together for the better part of probably ten, 15 years," Briggs recaps. "I guess like now, when we did it, we just put a brand on it. We took a brand and we were like, 'Yeah, this is our brand - it's time to big this up.'" The MC stresses that A.B. Original "grew very organically". "It wasn't contrived - like, 'Me and Trials need to get together and make the blackest album that's ever happened.' It was like, 'Hey Trials, we're already making the blackest music that ever happened - let's put the blackest name on it and then be black.'" Indeed, A.B. Original cut the kind of hardcore socio-political rap pioneered by Briggs' hero Ice Cube. Above all, they're aiming to mobilise young Indigenous hip hop 'gamechangers'. "It's a platform that we feel is almost a little bit bigger than us because now we get to try and inspire the kids and be the rappers that we wish we had when we were kids," says Briggs. "I wanted to be the rapper that I could identify with and I could look up to."

In April, A.B. Original joined Hilltop Hoods' Restrung arena tour - Rankine rhapsodising about the experience. "It was beautiful to see that many people, especially young kids, screaming 2 Black 2 Strong — whether they were or not."

A.B. Original's management requests that BIGSOUND interviewers not probe them about Reclaim Australia - that's for a separate media cycle. However, Briggs hints at a cameo by a female Indigenous artist. (He's determined that Bad Apples' next signing be a female rapper. "There's enough dudes - it's a dude party over here.")

Regardless, A.B. Original are keeping busy. Briggs is in the midst of moving. "I'm just surrounded by cardboard!" Not that he's set aside creative endeavours. "I'm writing a few bits and pieces for TV, but nothing I can really speak about yet." Shortly, Rankine will commence work on sound for Cleverman, season two. And, intriguingly, there's a chance Briggs might return to the show, Maliyan's fate "ambiguous". "I was shot, but was I killed?," he teases. "Who knows..."