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Arts/Society L-FRESH The LION: "Australia Doesn't Take Racism Seriously Enough"

Ishna

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JAKECLELAND | Monday 12 May 2014 - 11:30 AM | The Vine

"Forever Rising Exceeding Sudden Hardships." That's why you capitalise the FRESH in L-FRESH The Lion, one of the most energising rappers in Australian hip-hop.

Infusing street-level poetry with a Sikh's love of humanity, Sydney's L-FRESH first came to TheVine's attention last year with the release of 'One'. 10 months later -- last week -- his album of the same name dropped. In our interview, two phrases come up the most: "empowerment" and "community". Both concepts dominate One. "I felt so much love in life / I feel spoiled," he says on 'Macquarie Street'. The foundation of his approach is littered with considerations of war-torn countries and refugees, slavery and bondage in corrupt governments as much as substance abuse. And yet for all its darkness, L-FRESH always looks towards the sun: his faith in God and people.
This is how L gets down.

Please visit the article http://www.thevine.com.au/music/int...take-racism-seriously-enough-20140512-281278/ for a comprehensive interview with L-FRESH The Lion, complete with embedded video clips of his music.

Here's a clip from the article, specifically about racism:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRtOVuznqlU

And a couple of the Questions/Answers I found particulary interesting:

[The Vine:] I've been thinking a lot lately that merely being an empowering influence in other people's lives isn't enough; instead of just generating posvibes for yourself and other people you have to direct that positive energy into something constructive. So, you have these uplifting lyrics, but you're also involved in community activism, like before you mentioned Street University. Can you tell me about how you got started with that?

It has to come back to cultural roots. As a Sikh I'm always taught to give back to community. It's a legacy that's passed down by my ancestors, to always work hard and honestly, and to give back to those who're less fortunate, to ensure that you are being a valuable member of a community and you're not just driven by your own needs and wants. Also, growing up in south-west Sydney you can really see the impacts of the things like poverty, drug and alcohol abuse, the social disadvantages. I think about how I can play a role in assisting wherever I can. For me a lot of that comes through music. Hip-hop as a culture is about empowering community, that's how hip-hop was born. Understanding that as well I feel like I have a social responsibility on that level if I'm going to be benefiting from a culture that was born out of empowerment, that I should also be giving back to others in need as well.

[The Vine:] We ran a column a while ago where we talked to some Australian MCs about racism in Australian hip-hop and the conclusion was that it's not the MCs who're encouraging racism -- certainly when you look at the work of the Elefant Traks folks, they're trying to preach against that -- but it exists in the audience. There was also an edition of Conversations with L-FRESH where you talked to other rappers about it. What is your experience with prejudice in Australian hip-hop?

I agree. I feel like it's something that often is evident within the audience. In the Conversations videos, Jimblah said something that's really important: "The perceived level of racism in hip-hop in Australia is a result of dominant mainstream views towards racism in Australia." It's bigger than what we perceive in hip-hop. Australia doesn't take racism seriously enough. Most mainstream conversations about racism often do not include the people who experience it the most. Often our voices and the voices of those who do experience it are left out of the conversation.

Australia is a country that's founded on racism. You think about colonisation, you think about the mistreatment and genocide of Indigenous people -- the establishment of Australia was born off this kind of racism and that's permeated through systematically during the solidification of Australia. There are so many issues there that haven't been dealt with seriously enough for us to have a genuine conversation about racism and what that means for people in Australia and contemporary times. We have a lot of work to do.

My experience has been varied. The most common experience that would reflect it in a way people would easily be able to understand is that whenever I get on a stage, if people haven't seen me perform before, I can see people in the audience anticipating what it might be and having a laugh, not knowing what to expect. Then when I start rhyming it's like "Wow, okay well let me take this seriously, let me listen." I use that to my advantage in the way I try to set up my live shows. But that in and of itself is a statement because when I start rhyming, it's like, "How about you look at me now without prejudice and listen to what it is I have to say, and value that over what you perceived initially when you saw me?"

There's other stuff as well that I'm sure other artists have experienced, in a much more serious way than I have. I've been quite fortunate. I think we haven't spoken about this seriously at a mainstream level and until we do that, racism's gonna play a role in a lot of industries across the country, not just within the music industry or within hip-hop.
 

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