When Yorta Yorta rapper Adam Briggs heard that both the NSW premier and education minister were criticising the playing of a track by fellow artist Birdz in a primary school this week, he had two thoughts.
First: “Sick. Birdz is gonna get way more streams. I hope it puts him back in the charts!” And second: “What is it, 1991? If there’s any way of showing how far behind Australia is, leave it to the premier of NSW to put us on the map … It’s not like it’s Ice-T’s Cop Killer.”
Rapper Adam Briggs: “Anything that paints Australia in a bad light is always going to be controversial.”Credit: Edwina Pickles
The song that made headlines is Bagi-la-m Bargan: a 2020 hit featuring Butchulla songman Fred Leone, co-written with Trials, who forms half of A.B. Original with Briggs. It was originally made for the critically acclaimed NITV documentary Looky, Looky Here Comes Cooky. It was ranked number 30 in Triple J’s Hottest 100 that year.
Told from the perspective of a Butchulla warrior watching Captain Cook roll into shore, the song was being used instead of a school bell in the lead up to, and during, Reconciliation Week, in a public primary school in Sydney’s south before an anonymous parent complained to 2GB (the radio station, like this masthead, is owned by Nine).
The father said he felt the song’s lyrics – which call Cook a “white devil” and “murderer without licence” – were inappropriate and led to his son asking him if there was “something wrong with being white”.
NSW Education Minister Prue Car also spoke to 2GB sympathising with the father and saying “anything that creates any sort of division we can’t have in our schools”. Premier Chris Minns suggested schools should go back to traditional bells while also making a pointed remark about genre: “Rap songs, in general, [are] probably not the best for NSW schools.”
Though the school did not receive any direct complaints from parents, the song has now been pulled from its rotation and the school’s leadership has been counselled about making “appropriate choices” in the future.
It’s a move that Briggs, who also owns the record label the song was released on, describes as “pretty concerning”. “What is suitable for schools then?” he asks. “[To say] rap music isn’t suitable for schools … that’s very telling. Are we saying black music isn’t suitable for schools? What’s the take here?