For Australian hip hop artist Kween G, this year's Australian Women In Music Awards (AWMAs) isn't just about recognition, but revolution as well.
“I feel it is very revolutionary to have an Australian Women In Music Awards,” Kween G says.
“Especially an award that recognises a category like hip hop where other mainstream awards put in an 'urban' category, then chuck everything that sounds urban in one place. I think it's important to define hip hop because hip hop is a lifestyle, it's a culture, it goes beyond just rap music.”
Originally from Uganda, Kween G migrated to Australia in the 1990s with her father seeking political asylum. “My dad was a single father who raised us and I watched him do so many things – he was a community leader, he was a teacher and so I was really inspired watching him and the stuff he was doing for the African community. I think that had something to do with how I connected through hip hop,” she says.
Relocating to Sydney and following her father's example, Kween G forged her own identity using the teachings gleaned from listening to hip hop. “It's politicised me, it's educated me and I've learnt a lot of history through listening to hip hop artists,” she says.
“It speaks to what we're talking about at the Awards this year and within the landscape of Australia, especially with First Nations people as well. Another revolutionary thing is seeing the amount of voices from First Nations hip hop, R&B and soul artists who are speaking about really conscious content.”
At this year's AWMAs (to be staged in Brisbane), Kween G will be facilitating a panel entitled 'Visibility In Hip Hop: Women On The Front Line', which features Kaylah Truth, Dizzy Doolan and Philly as panellists. The panel will focus on increasing the visibility of women in hip hop, which although has traditionally given voice to the disenfranchised, has also played its own part in denigrating and marginalising its female presence.
In the role of facilitator, Kween G is aiming to expand on conversations regarding women in hip hop and take them beyond the current paradigm, which she says are fundamentally misguided by the notion that women haven't existed in hip hop until recently, when in fact they have been there since the very beginning.
“For myself, this conversation is really important because we've had the talks about how there's not enough women in hip hop, it's male-dominated and all that.
“Those conversations are done and a lot of the conversations around it have not been so accurate because women have always been in hip hop,” she says.
“This [panel] in particular speaks to the political platform [hip hop has provided] throughout history but especially over the past few years, how particular political events have not seen women be the ones who are leading the conversations on the music side. So a lot hip hop you hear that is conscious is again more male voices, but it's about recognising that the women are always there.”
