FRONTIER NEWS FEATURE

Danzal Baker saw his school desks as nothing but a stage. The young performer was often chastised and sent to the principal for dancing on them.

But Baker is now staring down much bigger stages, with his first single as Baker Boy, ‘Cloud 9 ft Kian’ making waves across the country

Since its release, Triple J has named him as their Indigenous Unearthed winner, earning him a spot at the National Indigenous Music Awards. He’s also slated to perform at Bigsound, one of the most important music industry events on the calendar, and record labels are crashing his manager’s email servers.

You wanna be as good as me? Boy you better practise / Step back feel the power of my blackness!

The powerful lyrics in ‘Cloud 9’ reflect Baker’s personal journey.

Born in Darwin and raised in the remote NT communities of Milingimbi and Maningrida, Baker grew up with hip hop in his blood.

“When hip hop exploded my dad was loving the vibe and was always blasting music of old hip hop,” Baker said.

“I heard it, I thought ‘that’s amazing’ — it makes me feel high, spirited and free.”

But growing up in a remote indigenous community isn’t an easy life in our rapidly developing world.

While Baker loves nothing more than to go back home, sleep on a sheet under the stars and go hunting and fishing, there weren’t a lot of opportunities for him growing up.

He soon found parallels between his life and the issues his hip hop idols sang about.

“I could relate to the struggles when it comes to community life,” he said.

“There was a lack of communication, a lack of education and also less opportunities — especially when you try and go to the city, and try to work, and some of the places think you’re not worth it and tell you to bugger off.

“Especially for indigenous people — it is hard and we do struggle.”

But his love of the stage eventually took him to Brisbane to study performing arts. That’s where he first met Michael Farah, co-founder of Indigenous Hip Hop Projects (IHHP).

Impressed with Baker’s talent and dedication, Farah called Baker when he was home in Milingimbi, to get him involved with the program.

“Mind you, I had no phone,” Baker said.

“Michael had to call the Milingimbi community and luckily the person who answered was my grandfather.”

Baker’s grandfather put Farah on to his aunt, who then had to figure out where the teenager was.

“My aunty just drove around going crazy and found me fishing with Mum,” Baker said.

“She came up smacking and hugging and kissing me yelling ‘I got good news for you’. “She kind of scared me!” His aunt told him IHHP had called and he got in touch with Farah. He soon found himself in Melbourne to attend an artist camp. “I was freaked out,” he said. “There was cold and hot, and changing weather, I was thinking ‘what is this? This is crazy!’

“Back in Arnhem Land we