Influential hip-hop artist, RZA, from the American group, Wu-Tang Clan – one of the most influential hip-hop groups in history– has taken time to talk about Indigenous Australia with local hip-hop star, Briggs.
In Sydney to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their influential 1993 debut album, 'Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)', the group performed four sold-out shows at the Sydney Opera House with all nine members of the crew present.
The meeting sees Briggs take the opportunity to tell RZA about the group's influence on him and how he was inspired by seeing established Black artists performing on television.
“I grew up in the 90s. It was the affinity with seeing something that was black on TV. I’m indigenous, Yorta Yorta is my tribe, from Victoria. And seeing something so dangerous and cool," Briggs tells RZA.
"I was the perfect age for that era of Wu-Tang and Dr Dre... I consider myself so fortunate to have been around that era.”
Briggs says that through his music he hopes to send messages and educate listeners about Australian settlement and the impact it had on Indigenous people. He says educating people through music was something he learnt from RZA and Wu-Tang.
"What I bring to my music, what I try to bring with my message is learning, and I learnt a lot of that from the artists I followed in my youth and I know the '36 Chamber of Wu-Tang was about teaching, and that was something I carried with my stuff," Briggs said.
RZA uses their conversation as an opportunity to learn about Indigenous Australia.
“In America, we are aware of the Indigenous people. What’s the proper way you would like to be addressed by someone?" RZA asked Briggs.
“If you know the person and the person from the tribe, you would address them as a Yorta Yorta man or woman. That’s my tribe," Briggs said.
Briggs tells RZA that addressing an Indigenous person can be broader if you are unaware of the person's tribe.
"The plain definition, Indigenous, Aboriginal, First Nations... they all work," he said.
The conversation also saw the two talking about RZA's first exposure to hip-hop, the group's first time in Australia and why they played only at the Sydney Opera House.
