Rapper and Malyangapa/Barkindji woman, BARKAA today shares her newest single and video Fight For Me.
The track features the fabulous Electric Fields and is a surprise accompanying track to her debut EP, Blak Matriarchy.
Adjoining the hugely applauded release of Blak Matriarchy, BARKAA re-enters the rap hemisphere with another deeply poignant and personal portrayal of Blak motherhood and enduring issues faced by First Nations people.
Fight For Me hits hard lyrically and in the booth, with production from Jaytee Hazard.
From a reverberating-trap led beat, that’s softer and lighter in backing instrumentals, BARKAA’s verses take center stage with a direct message and call out to protecting First Nations children, and the silent voices within the system that require dedicated action to fight intergenerational trauma.
A climactic chorus from First Nations duo, Electric Fields brings urgency and emotional depth to the track and its subject matter.
“Fight For Me is inspired by the silent voices in the system we don’t hear from, the babies voices,” BARKAA said of the track.
“This track was inspired by my mother’s story of growing up in foster care being wrongfully removed from my Nana and Pop and my children who had to spend years without me because I was too selfish in my addiction and too defeated as a woman to even bother fighting for them.”
“This is one of the most heartbreaking and hardest tracks I’ve ever had to write, because I had to take myself outside of my own feelings and think about how my children would’ve felt growing up without their mum there to cuddle them and protect them.”
“This song is about not just telling your babies that you love them, but actioning your love and fighting for them, sacrificing your own selfish needs to meet theirs and giving up drugs and fighting for them. This song talks about the trauma my mother went through being part of the Stolen Generation, growing up without family.”
BARKAA says Fight For Me is about fighting with everything you’ve got for your children.
“I got sick and tired of feeling sorry for myself and filling that void with substances, although substances helped me escape from my own trauma. No amount of substances could help me escape from the fact that I was passing my trauma onto my children,” BARKAA continues.
“We have to fight for our babies the way we fight for our next fix, we have to fight for our babies the way we fight for these deadbeat men because nobody can love you as much as the little people you created.”
“Never give up on giving up and never give up on your babies.”
Fight For Me is out now.
Do you need some support?
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Lifeline: 13 11 14 / lifeline.org.au
Beyondblue: 1300 22 4636 / www.beyondblue.org.au
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