AB Original Slam ‘Redneck’ Chris Lilley’s ‘Sociopath’ Apology

Celebrated indigenous hip hop duo AB Original have hit back at Chris Lilley following a series of racially insensitive tweets.

On Saturday, the actor shared his 2012 blackface music video for Squashed N***a on Instagram, only hours after protests in Melbourne over the death of 14-year-old Indigenous boy Elijah Doughty.

Lilley’s social media pages – now deleted – were inundated with people condemning his actions, including Briggs and Trials of AB Original.

Lilley issued an apology claiming the initial post was “not connected in any way to current news stories”.

Speaking with The Music, the pair slammed Lilley’s apology, calling him a “redneck” for his “racist antics”.

“He put it back on us – he said that we misinterpreted his racism,” Briggs said.

“As the person inflicting the pain, you don’t get to tell the person you’re inflicting pain upon that it doesn’t hurt – that’s not how it works; that’s sociopath shit,” said Trials.

“It shows his disconnection from black culture, black politics and black people in general.”

The Melbourne rally was held to protest the lenient sentencing of a man given three years for dangerous driving after hitting Doughty with his car in regional WA, instead of a manslaughter charge.

Lilley’s video features Angry Boys character S.Mouse – portrayed by Lilley – as being run over.

“That song dropped six years ago and we told everyone he was full of shit and no one listened,” Briggs said.

“It took five years to get that credence to tell everyone that what he did was racist and fucking whack and now everyone’s like, ‘You know what, we just gave you five awards, he must be racist.’

“Chris Lilley should be fined a hundred grand for that. Racism should have a monetary penalty rate next to it and then white people would respect it.”

AB Original performed at Splendour earlier this month with Doughty as their backdrop.

"What we do when we’re up [on stage] is try to educate and try to bring people into the reality of our world, and whether that’s about inclusion or exclusion, we want to make that message loud and fucking clear," Trials said.

“We knew we had an opportunity to step up to that podium and say something of worth, bring something of note and leave something that was in the same vein as our album; it was no longer about doing dope shows as it was leaving a mark,” Briggs said.

AB Original scored five awards at the AIR Awards in Adelaide last week and were today nominated for four NIMAs.