The Honest And Raw Inspirations Behind His Latest Release

The power poet Birdz (aka Nathan Bird) is finally airing his debut on Bad Apples Music - the label Adam Briggs launched for young Indigenous Australian hip hop game changers. And, with its explorations of racial struggle, survival and striving, Train Of Thought could be 2017's most compelling homegrown album.

Train Of Thought is the culmination of journeys both inner and global. Born in Rockhampton, Queensland, but raised in the Northern Territory township of Katherine, Bird developed perspective on his Aboriginal identity via hip hop. "One of my best friends is from Zimbabwe and he came to Katherine pretty early in my life and introduced me to NWA and Cypress Hill," Bird recalls. "It was just really like a window to the outside world. So I gravitated towards music like that - [music] that represented something and really spoke to what was happening in [people's] communities around the world. I just always loved the fact that it's a really kinda uncensored method of sharing your story."

He was already rapping as a pre-teen. Later, the genial - and intellectually curious - Bird spent two years in Canada on a student exchange, interacting with "the different native mob" (and its MCs). He also visited hip hop's "birthplace" of New York. "That was really exciting - and just really inspiring as well."

Bird eventually settled in Melbourne. The MC dropped an EP, Birdz Eye View, on his cousin Fred Leone's Impossible Odds Records in 2013. Meanwhile, he met Briggs through producer James Mangohig. Today, Bird refers to the AB Original rapper as his "brother".

For Train Of Thought, Bird composed songs in a modest home studio - his lyrics shaped by instinct, contemplation and musical expression. "The primary goal that I was striving for was to really just share my story," he reveals. "I always try to make my music as honest as possible. If you do that, and if you share your own story, then it's not gonna sound too much like anything else." Indeed, Train Of Thought centres on family, and self-discovery, Bird having a deep heritage as a Murri and Butchulla man.

The album's most resonant anthem may yet be the Joelistics-produced Black Lives Matter - Bird's reminder that, while police brutality is a huge issue Stateside, Australia likewise has appalling racialised injustice. "We gotta look at our own backyard and take ownership of that." Bird feels strongly about Testify - a raw expose of missionaries' darkest exploits - which features Leone. (Other album guests include friends such as Darwin vocalist Serina Pech, Jimblah and Caiti Baker.)

Bird is intent on realising hip hop's DIY manifesto - and encouraging others. "If there was an overall theme in my music, and a meaning in it, I guess it would be the drive for self-determination and empowerment - empowerment of myself, my family and community," he says. "I'm really in a zone. I feel like I'm really starting with the album to hit a pocket creatively. I'm excited to just keep making more music and to shine light and bring as much awareness as I can."