Miss Kaninna is writing her own BLACKPRINT

For Miss Kaninna, BLACKPRINT is more than a collection of songs. Her debut mixtape arrives at a time when the artist is reflecting more deeply on her identity, her community and the history she has inherited. “I’m pretty excited to actually have the body of work out in the world, especially now,” she shares. “I feel like I’ve had a lot more time to sit and curate my sound, so it feels a lot more comprehensive and a lot more true to the kind of artist that I want to be.”

That reflection is inseparable from the realities of being Aboriginal in Australia. As a proud First Nations woman of Yorta Yorta, Dja Dja Wurrung, Kalkadoon, and Yirendali heritage, growing up on the shores of Bruny Island in lutruwita, Tasmania, she speaks openly about the ongoing struggle for self-determination in Aboriginal communities, and the tendency to treat colonisation as something safely confined to the past. “People think that what happened to us was so long ago when it really isn’t,” she says, pointing to her own family history. Her aunties and uncles were born under legislation that required Aboriginal people to seek permission from the police to marry, travel or carry out everyday activities. 

“Australia is such a small place, and the music industry is so big. Travelling to the UK, I realised that I have an opportunity to educate people on what’s going on,” she shares. Her latest single, ‘HANDOUT’, explores this in explicit detail. “It’s about educating people on what white fragility looks like in Australia, and what Black power looks like, too. What we feel, and what that feeling looks like contextualised. You know we’re angry; we’re staunch and deadly, but it’s not just rooted in anger. It’s also rooted in resistance and Black joy.”

It is this collision of personal history, Black artistry and lived experience that forms the blueprint for BLACKPRINT. Across the six tracks, these feelings are channelled through heavy bass, crisp percussion and groove-driven production, pulling from old-school hip-hop, funk, soul, R&B, rock, punk, grunge and club classics. 

Below, Miss Kaninna talks us through the music, community and history that helped shape her latest mixtape.

The Pinkprint, The Blueprint & being the BLACKPRINT

At the time of writing the title track, Miss Kaninna was listening to a lot of Doechii’s Alligator Bites Never Heal and Missy Elliot, as well as Paris, Texas. The latter, she had recently been introduced to at Laneway Festival, hearing them perform from the side of the stage before meeting the duo. “It was some of the coolest shit I’ve ever seen; the way they make people jump, so I was listening to some really groovy rap at that time.” The song was written years before the mixtape release, and she knew she was saving it for a special release. By the time she started working on the mixtape, the title was chosen.

The mixtape’s title is more than just a play on words; it’s also an homage to the Black artists who have revolutionised rap, and paved the way for a new generation of artists to rise with them. “I’ve always been a big Nicky fan, and she has The Pinkprint,” she shares, also citing Jay-Z’s The Blueprint. “I don’t really fuck with Jay-Z like that, but you can’t deny his impact on hip hop.”

Taking her own unique spin on the metaphor, the title was imbued with personal meaning as the artist reflected on the vastly misunderstood and downright incorrect histories Aboriginal communities are expected to accept. “I’ve been thinking a lot about the connections between reality and lies,” she shares. “Lies about Aboriginal people’s right to this land and how long we’ve been here – and what has been taken from us is our humanity.”

For Miss Kaninna, her artistry is inspired by an inherent longing to correct the misinformation she repeatedly hears. “I really do believe that Aboriginal people have been here since the beginning of time. We are the oldest living culture in the whole world. We still practice what we practised 100,000 years ago, and before then, it’s probably lost,” she explains. “The BLACKPRINT is really reminding people that this is stolen land, and it is an illegal occupation.” She draws comparisons to other illegal occupations, such as the Palestinian genocide by Israel. “It’s become quite evident between colonised peoples that we have to find solidarity in one another, so the ‘blackprint’ is trying to pay homage to my family – my family has always known this land, and I’ve never left.”

The BLACKPRINT is really reminding people that this is stolen land, and it is an illegal occupation. It’s become quite evident between colonised peoples that we have to find solidarity in one another, so the ‘blackprint’ is trying to pay homage to my family – my family has always known this land, and I’ve never left.

Touring with Kneecap

While working on the mixtape, Miss Kaninna was far from the studio – supporting on the European leg of Kneecap’s Fenian Tour. The experience helped shape the project, doubling down on her vision for a fully-rapped record. “Going on tour with those boys was such a good full-send into rap,” she explains. “Coming off the back of a rap tour, I felt so focused on writing lyrics and what I was trying to say. Getting to play my songs live – I played ‘MOB TIES’ and ‘STOLEN WAGES’, which are two songs about my community – overseas was a trip, because I didn’t think anyone could relate to what I was saying.”

The tracks’ positive reactions came as a shock to Miss Kaninna, but also fuelled her. “I’m not even going to be pissed if people back in Australia don’t care [about the mixtape], because I know that followers [in the UK & Europe] get it,” she grins. She gushes over the British & Irish audiences she met on the tour and their energy for hip hop, with one city in particular capturing her heart. “We went to Birmingham, and I loved that place,” she shares. In her less than 24-hour stop-over, she went shopping for perfume and found new hair pieces in the city’s Black hair shops. “It reminds me a lot of Tassie, to be honest,” she says. “And the accent is so sexy.”

It’s about educating people on what white fragility looks like in Australia, and what Black power looks like, too. What we feel, and what that feeling looks like contextualised. You know we’re angry; we’re staunch and deadly, but it’s not just rooted in anger. It’s also rooted in resistance and Black joy.

Paying homage to underrecognised history

To build the visual language of BLACKPRINT, Miss Kaninna worked with Adriane Neshoda. “I talked to her about colour schemes early on, and just how important colours are,” she shares. Central to the project was the original Aboriginal flag, designed by Luritja artist Harold Thomas in 1970, along with an alternative design that features a golden spear and its ties to the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, the longest continuous protest for Indigenous land rights in the world. “If people want to really learn about Aboriginal history, they need to look into the Tent Embassy,” she asserts.

Both flags prominently feature the colour yellow, leading to the golden yellow wig Miss Kaninna adorns on the mixtape cover. “Half of my face is covered because I wanted to represent any of us, all of us, from this country,” she explains. “Any Aboriginal person is the blackprint. Any black fella, any person with Aboriginal blood in their veins, is the blackprint. It’s not just me I’m representing anymore.”

In our interview, I mentioned that the visuals also felt reminiscent of Lagos-born, London-based fashion designer and singer Mowalola Ogunlesi. Immediately, Miss Kaninna reveals that Mowalola is “one of my most favourite Black designers,” and that she was able to wear one of the designer’s bodysuits for the photoshoot.

Community as collaborators

For Miss Kaninna, the collaborations on BLACKPRINT aren’t about simply adding features to a tracklist, but about celebrating the many voices of her community on this project. She has been close to Jamahl Ami since moving to Melbourne, helping her learn more about rapping and the industry while becoming a regular creative collaborator. Their conversations often become material for their music, with Miss Kaninna describing him as a “staunch, solid, cultural man” whose perspective – particularly that of First Nations men – she feels is important to make space for. “There’s a lot of shit going on, and he has a lot to say,” she says. 

Their shared history also makes its way directly into the music. Working with producer Nikodimos, the trio drew on the energy of deep-cut Jay Rock, with Miss Kaninna introducing the reference as a starting point for the track. From there, she says, the song “just wrote itself”. “Me and Jamal, we talk a lot anyway,” she explains. “A lot of our conversations are what we’re talking about in the songs as well. We very much bounce off each other.”

Another collaborator, Kobie Dee, offered a different kind of inspiration. Miss Kaninna calls him “the fucking goat”, crediting him with pushing open doors for young Black rappers in Australia, while their friendship has grown through shared line-ups, shows and previous collaborations. Although they’re the same age, she calls him her “big brother”, and saw ‘Look At Me Now’ as an opportunity to bring his perspective into a song about how far they’ve both come. Miss Kaninna grew up on a small island, where her school had just 30 students and only two other Black children in her year. “Meeting Kobie was actually such a trip, and being able to do this full time was such a trip,” she says. “I think Kobie is the same, coming from a very small community, being able to make this his full-time job, and then being able to ask him to be on the song was so special.”

Half of my face is covered because I wanted to represent any of us, all of us, from this country. Any Aboriginal person is the blackprint. Any black fella, any person with Aboriginal blood in their veins, is the blackprint. It’s not just me I’m representing anymore.

Music made to listen to live

When Miss Kaninna started making music in Tasmania, it was with a band; moving to Melbourne changed the way she was able to make music, with less access to the live set-up she had grown up with. “The music became a lot more digitized, a lot more poppy,” she explains. Her live shows, however, have always remained rooted in those onstage elements, and with BLACKPRINT, she wanted to bring that physicality back into the studio. “Playing live to me is most important, and so I’m trying to translate what a live show feels like on the record.”

That meant putting basslines and drums at the centre of the mixtape, with electric guitars adding to the live-band feeling. One of her reference points was The Prodigy’s ‘Smack My Bitch Up’, a track she remembers loving for the way it made her feel when playing that kind of music with her band. “It’s been so nice to create that live sound in the studio now and release it in a way that is going to translate the same way on stage.”

That physicality is perhaps most evident on ‘STOLEN WAGES’, which the artist says became a favourite with audiences on the European tour because it is “so fucking hectic.” She actually made the track with the crowd in mind, creating it on “a cracked Logic” shortly before the Kneecap tour because she “wanted something for people to jump around to.” As she gears up for her BLACKPRINT tour in September, she’s holding out for the audience reaction: “It can’t be my favourite until everybody in the fucking room is jumping around and smashing their heads against each other,” she smiles.

BLACKPRINT is out tomorrow, Friday 21st August – presave on Spotify and Apple Music. 

The post Miss Kaninna is writing her own BLACKPRINT appeared first on BRICKS Magazine.