3% Unveil New Single With Music Video Starring Patty Mills, Cathy Freeman, And More
Celebrating the beginning of NAIDOC Week, the song and music video are a tribute to inspiring First Nations legends.
3% (Credit: Mclean Stephenson)
Acclaimed, multi-award-winning First Nations collective 3% are making an almighty return.
Consisting of Nooky, Dallas Woods, and Angus Field, the groundbreaking trio are celebrating the beginning of NAIDOC (National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Day Observance Committee) Week, which kicks off on July 6th, by releasing a new single and accompanying music video titled Our Greats.
Our Greats encompasses a dialogue between 3% and the young people that they continue to inspire with their work, as well as acting as a moving tribute to the First Nation legends who came before them. In the song, a chorus of kids - including many from the We Are Warriors programs (an Indigenous social enterprise dedicated to empowering Indigenous youth run by Nooky himself) and Nooky’s own children - aptly sings, “Standing on the shoulders of our greats.”
Members of the band further explain the striking poignancy of the song.
“Our Greats is a song for those who paved the way before us so that we could dare to achieve for the future. The legacy that they wove into our rich history creates a timely reminder of who we are and what we can achieve; and for those who are still to come, they paint a picture of inspiration for them to excel and exceed from what has already been done by our people,” says Angus Field.
Dallas Woods states that the song is “a tribute to the giants who walked before us – the ones who dared to believe, who fought through adversity, and who laid the foundation so we could stand tall today. Their legacy is carved into our spirit, their impact is beyond measure – and they all deserve statues in bronze. This one’s for them.”
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“Our Greats, for me, is a deeply personal song for so many reasons,” Nooky says. “One day, I had this beat from One Above, and I came up with a little hook and verse. A few months later, me and Gus got in the studio with Andy and we refined the idea to what you hear now. Andy said it’d be good to get some kids on the hook - and my eldest daughter had been asking to do a song with us ever since hearing her sister Calula on Coming Home.”
He continued, “Also, through the work we do with We Are Warriors, we have a lot of young mob in the programs who can rap and sing. A few months later, I flew to Melbourne with Olivia and Calula to record the hook, and I was blown away by how quick they picked it up; I didn’t know they could sing like that. Not long after that, through We Are Warriors, I got to take young Taphiao to Miami to hang out with Patty Mills, then when we got back to Australia, all the other kids recorded their parts.
“In the song, the kids shout out a bunch of mob who are achieving and have achieved at the highest level. They were rattling off too many names to fit in the song, but I felt proud that these kids knew who Cathy Freeman is; who Ash Barty and Adam Goodes are. I could see the greatness reflected in them, and to hear them stand up and sing with such strength and hope blows me away. I’m just glad they let me put a verse on their song.”
Check out the music video below.
The accompanying music video, featuring Patty Mills, who last played in the NBA for the Los Angeles Clippers, and Olympic champion runner Cathy Freeman, and more, is deeply touching. It shows We Are Warriors taking a young man from Trangie (NSW) to America to meet Patty Mills, his idol.
Memories from his visit are intertwined with scenes of greatness from some of the country’s most inspiring First Nations legends - including Ash Barty, Cathy Freeman, Patty Mills, Adam Goodes and more - while the children sing and watch along, aspiring to their own greatness. Cathy Freeman’s iconic 2000 Sydney Olympic Torch burns brightly throughout; an enduring symbol of Blak Excellence.
After winning Best Hip Hop/Rap Release and Best Cover Art at the 2024 ARIA Awards, 3% are continuing to move onward and upward, and Our Greats is a moving piece of art that exemplifies the significant values that they stand for as musicians and as activists.
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