STACK #204 Oct 2021

MUSIC FEATURE

visit stack.com.au

brother would go call out ‘Gela!’ and we all just turn around like, ‘Which one?’” he chuckles. Gela is the title Baker's chosen for his debut album, something fans of the rapper have been marking time to hear ever since superb singles Cloud 9 and Marryunna hit airwaves in 2017 – winning the then-20-year-old the Triple J Unearthed National Indigenous Music Awards comp. In the intervening four years, Baker has toured extensively overseas and at home, turning out propulsive gems that

Photographer: Charlie Ashfield HMU: Xeneb Allen Stylist and Creative Direction: Aurie Indianna

I really love funk music... I'm always looking for that song that, as soon as you hear it, you do that stanky face

thump with bright basslines and rhythms, alongside the rapper's irresistible flow which incorporates both English and Yolngu Matha. It's not difficult to absorb Yolngu Matha words via

Baker's music; even casual fans will find they've learned nouns like 'yidaki', 'meditjin' and 'marryunna', and amongst some full- Yolngu verses, Gela also includes swap-ins a non-Yolngu speaker will pick up on. (For example: on Funk Wit Us , Baker calls to “All my brothers in the building, all my sisters in the building,” and later on, asks “Where all the arlys at? Where all the yapas at?”) “It just happens subconsciously,” Baker explains. “Every time I talk with my family, we kind of infuse Yolngu Matha with English. Some of the words – car, plane, surgeon, chair – we don't have them in our language. So we criss-cross with English to make a full sentence.” That track, Funk Wit Us , is one of several which relish full-body immersion in a funky bassline. It's one of the things that makes Baker's music so distinctive from other hip hop – that bright, melodic funk vibe that side-eyes George Clinton and Kool & the Gang. “First of all, I really love funk music,” Baker grins. “Anything to do with funk! I’m always looking for that song that, as soon as you hear it, you do that stanky face: 'Oooh, what is that ?!’" he cries, doing the classic pursed-lips-squinty-eyes expression. "I want that! I want that reaction from everyone. When I listen to funk music I do that face, and I go ‘Yes! I want to make something like this'..."

INTERVIEW

On his debut album Gela - packed to the gills with vivid rhythms that are made to be moved to - Danzal Baker proves that this calling's in his cells and his soul. Read the full piece online at stack.com.au. Words Zoë Radas BAKER BOY

Gela by Baker Boy is out Oct 15 via Universal.

C alvin AKA Snoop, Aubrey AKA Drake, Diamonté AKA Saweetie, Marshall AKA Eminem: if you've got a rapper name, you've also got the name your mum calls you. If you're Danzal Baker – AKA lauded young MC Baker Boy – you have a third sort of name, and it's unentanglable fromYolngu culture: the skin name. Baker was given the skin name 'Barralung' – commonly nicknamed to 'Gela' (“GEE-lah”) – at birth in Darwin and has

carried it through his childhood in the remote Arnhem Land communities of Milingimbi and Maningrida, boarding school in Townsville, Uni at the Aboriginal Centre for Performing Arts in Brisbane, and south to the rugged, rural landscape of Victoria's Bendigo, where he now resides. “Our skin name puts us in a position in our clan groups,” Baker explains over Zoom. “There are heaps of brothers that are Gela as well; one

Continue reading the full interview online at stack.com.au

At JB Hi-Fi we love to turn our customers on to NEWMUSIC THE SCRIPT Tales FromThe Script

Tales FromThe Script compiles their biggest hits and fan favourites so far, along with new single I Want it All . Out now.

XX XXXXX 2020

jbhifi.com.au