Omar Musa’s Explosive New Music Video Is A Scorching Takedown Of Racism In Australia
"Much of what I wrote was reacting to the treatment of Yassmin Abdel-Mageid."
Earlier this month Queanbeyan poet, author and rapper Omar Musa dropped ‘Assimilate’, the fiery lead single from his upcoming album Since Ali Died. The track, which features Indigenous rapper Tasman Keith, is a powerful dissection of the current state of race relations in Australia – a regular theme of Musa’s writing, poetry and music.
Today Musa dropped the video for ‘Assimilate’, which features both him and Keith spitting some truth about Australia’s history of colonisation, our broken immigration policies and a savage condemnation of the concept of racial assimilation.
Musa, who has a Malaysian-Australian background, told Junkee that “much of what I wrote in my verses was reacting to the treatment of Yassmin Abdel-Mageid and a rejection of respectability politics”.
“Early on, she was embraced for her friendliness and vivaciousness, but as soon as she said something a tiny bit out of step with mainstream thinking, people were baying for her blood,” he said. “It further confirms the idea that there are double standards in this country, and that if you are of a certain background, no matter how politely and respectably you act, ultimately many people will never consider you truly and legitimately Australian.”
Like Abdel-Magied, Musa has been pretty explicit about his views on Australia’s problems with racism throughout his career. But how does he feel about the potential response?
“Since I was a child, people have often told me to try to ‘fit in’ to mainstream Australia, to ‘get with the program’, but the way I see it, that Australia is the one that oppresses refugees and Aboriginal people — why would I want to fit in to that?
“There have been times I have been trolled venomously for having the nerve to simply criticise Australia.
“One things I’ve heard repeatedly is the line ‘talk about biting the hand that feeds ya’. Well, my friends, remember, it’s also the hand that beats ya. This is a shifting cultural battleground and we need to have the hard conversations.”
The video, which was produced by creative agency Entropico, also includes a cameo by Malaysian-Australian artist Abdul Abdullah, who starred in Horrorshow’s video for ‘Ceiling Fan’, which also featured Musa and covered some of the same themes as ‘Assimilate’.
“As much as I feel white Australia has often tried to silence or sanitise and reduce me as either the model minority (Asian-Australian) or a dangerous threat (Muslim-Australian), ultimately when we talk about these issues, they are predicated on genocidal or assimilationist policies towards Aboriginal people,” Musa told Junkee. “So this song is a statement of solidarity between two people, two communities even, whose narratives are so often constructed by others. It is a call to arms — to question the status quo, to make our voices heard, not to be complacent in our thinking.
“Working with Tasman Keith was brilliant. Funnily enough, one of the first shows I ever did was with his father Wire MC, so it’s a spin out to be doing a song with his son so many years later. He recorded his demo verse in the abandoned school house on the mission up in Bowraville. He’s brilliant, blistering and has a mastery of rhyme at such a young age — everyone should keep an eye out for him because he’s got a big future. Far as I see it, it would be wrong not to get an Aboriginal voice on a song called ‘Assimilate’.”
In addition to writing and recording his new album, Musa has also been busy behind the scenes as a writer for the upcoming remake of Romper Stomper, Stan’s new show exploring the rise of the far-right.
Since Ali Died drops on December 1, and if ‘Assimilate’ is anything to go by it’s looking like one of the most important local records of the year.