With her new EP Big Tidda, the pioneering rapper has created a path for herself and future generations of rap talent.
To say 2024 has been a good year for BARKAA would be an understatement. From being named Artist of the Year at the 2024 NIMAs to releasing her new EP, Big Tidda to commercial and critical acclaim, BARKAA’S year has been the stuff of fantasy – a fantasy the Malyangapa and Barkindji rapper conjured in her head as a young girl.
“I’m the youngest of nine,” she explains to me while on her way down to Warrnambool, a small town in Victoria. “I grew up in a household where my older brothers and sisters loved hip-hop. My eldest brother Shane used to rap and he was my hero. I wanted to be just like him. I also loved performing for my family.”
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Later performing Britney Spears’ Oops I Did It Again at a local talent quest proved solid training for the career BARKAA would later inherit. “I feel like Britney subconsciously helped, even though I never won the talent quest and I got bullied for it. I still got up and did it, and I think that says a lot.”
These early experiences set the scene for a career in music. Not coming from a musical background, however, she didn’t know how to reach these heights.“My mum has her master’s in criminology. She wanted us to be academics but it kind of didn’t end up that way,” she jokes.
After BARKAA was released from custody, she began posting videos of herself on Facebook. While she enjoyed doing it and receiving feedback from the mob, she never thought she could make a career out of it. After later receiving encouragement from rap pioneer Nooky, she decided to take it a bit more seriously. Their interaction proved to be the instigating force for BARKAA’s career.
“He later told me there was a Klub Koori gig at Carriageworks in Redfern. Him and the Bad Apples brothers were performing. Then he chucked me up for one song and it changed my life,” she recalls.
Later releasing her first EP, Blak Matriarchy, BARKAA finally found her feet both personally and professionally. She’s since inspired generations of young Indigenous rappers to give it a go.
“We’re big on encouraging more of the mob to get involved. The more of us in the scene, the better. I’m big on telling people to just do it and take the risk. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be where I am now.”
Since dubbed ‘the new Matriarch of Australian rap’, BARKAA has just released her second EP, Big Tidda.
“It’s about my tidda girls. It’s a form of endearment between sister girls in the community. It’s a form of endearment because we’re tying mob to kinship. So, the title basically just means big sister.”
In a more positive headspace than she was when writing Blak Matriarchy, BARKAA wanted to do something different with this EP. “I wanted it to show how I’m living now, South-west Sydney raised. Life’s not perfect, but it’s close. I’m in a better time in my life.”
Describing the recording process as ‘freeing’, BARKAA took a slightly more organic approach to this EP, focusing on honesty first.
“I just wanted it to be truthful. One of my mottos has always been ‘tell the truth even if your voice shakes’ and if you tell the truth in who you are, no one can use that against you.”
BARKAA pays tribute to her own mother in the song Alinta. “It’s about my mum and I’s struggles together as mother and daughter. How we’re closer now and stronger together. How we made it back,” she shares. This catharsis later allowed for forgiveness from both BARKAA and her mother.
“My mum didn’t have the services I did growing up. She went through trauma and powered through. I’m at an age where I don’t hold anything against her. I’m appreciative of the strong Blak woman she is and the strong Blak woman she’s raised me to be.”
Now a mother of three kids herself, BARKAA’s life is on the up. Mere hours after chatting to me she was brought out as a surprise guest by Thelma Plum. Needless to say, I think her rise will continue for a long time to come.
See BARKAA on her Big Tidda tour at the Corner Hotel on October 18. Get your tickets here.
