{"id":948589,"date":"2026-11-01T09:46:26","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T09:46:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/948589\/"},"modified":"2026-11-01T09:46:26","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T09:46:26","slug":"indigenous-hip-hop-artist-kayps-explores-identity-and-culture-in-album-bunuba-baby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/948589\/","title":{"rendered":"Indigenous hip hop artist Kayps explores identity and culture in album Bunuba Baby"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Western Australian rapper Kurrungaya Bieundurry stumbled across a photo of his grandfather standing proudly as part of a landmark land rights protest, inspiration struck hard.<\/p>\n

WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are advised the images in this article contain people who are deceased.<\/p>\n

He knew immediately he wanted it as the cover of what would become his debut album, Bunuba Baby.<\/p>\n

That album reached number 2 on the Australian hip hop charts within a week of its August release and has since been nominated for a major Australian music award.<\/p>\n

It draws on his family’s fight for land rights which he hopes will encourage younger mob to connect with their culture.<\/p>\n

Bieundurry, known professionally as Kayps, had already written two songs for the album when he found the photo of his grandfather, who helped organise a blockade against an oil company wanting to drill a sacred site.<\/p>\n

That moment, known as the historic 1979 Noonkanbah protest, galvanised the Kimberley land rights movement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Kayps was immediately drawn to this photograph taken during the Noonkanbah blockade, featuring his grandfather. (Supplied: KAYPS)<\/p>\n

“The mob up there \u2014 including my grandfather who is in that photo and a lot of my uncles and great-uncles as well \u2014 stood and locked arms and refused to let these big drilling trucks come in,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ultimately the company broke the blockade but as Kayps notes, “they found nothing after they tore up all that land.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

The album’s artwork represents three generations of his family.<\/p>\n

\"Police<\/p>\n

Police broke up the blockade at Mickey’s Pool on Noonkanbah Station, arresting 22 people. (Supplied: Michael Gallagher)<\/p>\n

“My dad painted the Pirlirr \u2014 the Indigenous symbol \u2014 on the cover art. That’s his design, that’s our family symbol,” he said.<\/p>\n

Now he’s exploring his own identity and uncovering his political voice.<\/p>\n

Community music roots<\/p>\n

Born in Broome and raised in Wangkatjungka, a remote Kimberley town of around 200 residents, Kayps remembers his upbringing as the “perfect community environment”.<\/p>\n

“Every Friday, all the family would catch up at maybe one of the 20 houses in Wangkatjungka, just sitting around, everybody’s singing,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Kayps’ grandmother was a blues artist and his father a guitarist and singer. (Supplied: KAYPS\/Billy Zammit)<\/p>\n

“You’re looking at over 50 to 75 people meeting somewhere on this rundown basketball court in the middle of Wangkatjungka.”<\/p>\n

That sense of community and its shared love of singing country, blues and gospel music has driven him ever since.<\/p>\n

Kayps and his family moved to Perth when he was about five, but it wasn’t until he was 13 that he discovered the world of hip-hop.<\/p>\n

Rising rapper<\/p>\n

To afford music production software, he busked at the Kalamunda farmers market, playing the didgeridoo.<\/p>\n

Rapping on his own beats, he performed to a live crowd in Fremantle for the first time later that year.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Kayps is performing his album part of a national tour. (Supplied: KAYPS)<\/p>\n

“I got the loudest cheer of the night and that was the coolest thing for me ever,” he said.<\/p>\n

But during high school he found himself struggling as the only black student in his year.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Kayps says it was challenging moving to a predominantly white community in Perth. (ABC News: Mietta Adams)<\/p>\n

“I wanted to get braids to express myself … and they were like ‘oh that’s too extreme’, which is like the nice way of saying it’s too black,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Being so far away from home \u2014 it’s really hard, especially when you have no other representation for yourself.”<\/p>\n

Changing his tune<\/p>\n

Kayps, 21, said the lyrics on Bunuba Baby have evolved and are more politically charged than his previous work.<\/p>\n

He acknowledged earlier projects like ‘Nuisance’ and ‘Mimosa’ were “abrasive”, featuring misogynistic and violent lyrics, and reflected his young age.<\/p>\n

“I can’t stand listening to them,” he said, describing them as “disrespectful” and “awful”.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Kayps says his voice has evolved on the new project. (ABC News: Mietta Adams)<\/p>\n

He said other songs like ‘Blackfella’, which he made aged 13, were a product of the music he was consuming at the time.<\/p>\n

Late night conversations with his uncle and father \u2014 discussing issues in the community, his culture and responsibilities \u2014 shape his newer work.<\/p>\n

Kayps doesn’t shy away from controversy on Bunuba Baby, especially his lyrics about police.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The artist says his poltical voice has grown stronger in recent years. (Supplied: KAYPS)<\/p>\n

“A lot of the lyrics of police are intentional because that is a sub-branch of the systemic oppression that First Nations people face,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Indigenous deaths in custody as well, the statistics are there.”<\/p>\n

Connecting with culture<\/p>\n

He hopes Bunuba Baby inspires younger people to explore connecting with culture, particularly those who have grown up away from country.<\/p>\n

“I hope mob will walk away from it [the album] feeling like it’s not too late to go on that journey,” he said.<\/p>\n

“If you feel disconnected and want to reconnect, do it at your own pace.”\"A<\/p>\n

Kayps says he no longer pretends to be a scary rapper when posing for photos. (ABC News: Mietta Adams)<\/p>\n

Back home, Kayps hopes to conduct workshops in Fitzroy Crossing’s Night Place,<\/a> with one strong message for community.<\/p>\n

“You are your own person at the end of the day and how you choose to represent that is purely up to you,” he said.<\/p>\n

Kayps has been nominated as triple j’s unearthed artist of the year, with Bunuba Baby up for Australian album of the year at the J Awards.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Western Australian rapper Kurrungaya Bieundurry stumbled across a photo of his grandfather standing proudly as part of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":948590,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,516089,134,516087,516085,516086,516088,36092,136,86,3953,45],"class_list":["post-948589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bunuba-baby","tag-entertainment","tag-indigenous-politics","tag-indigenous-rapper","tag-kayps","tag-kurrungaya-bieundurry","tag-land-rights","tag-music","tag-perth-news","tag-triple-j","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=948589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/948590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=948589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=948589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=948589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}