Baker Boy, the ARIA-winning Yolŋu rapper, has named his sophomore album Djandjay after his late grandmother, Djandjay Baker, who inspired his love of hip-hop. The album, which follows his debut Gela, is his most politically charged work yet, addressing themes of anger, vulnerability, and Indigenous identity.
Baker’s grandparents, Djandjay and Robert, brought back a Fred Astaire film and early hip-hop records from a 1980s honeymoon. This sparked the creation of the Baker Boys dance group by Baker’s father and uncle, and later influenced Baker’s own career. “She was the matriarch… always boisterous energy and had no shame,” Baker said of his grandmother. “She was the reason that I fell in love with hip-hop.”
The album Djandjay also references a Yolŋu octopus spirit that guides souls forward, reflecting Baker’s desire to push his art in new directions. Tracks like War Cry and Thick Skin confront issues such as deaths in custody and the fallout from the Voice to Parliament referendum. “It felt like the country dehumanised me,” Baker said of the referendum’s rejection. “I wanted to build music that gives courage and confidence to people like me.”
Despite the serious themes, the album includes lighter moments, such as the dubstep-influenced Mad Dog and the reggaeton-tinged Peacekeeper, where Baker raps in Spanish. Baker, who lives quietly in Ocean Grove, Victoria, with his partner and bulldog, said the album allows him to express a fuller range of emotions: “I want to show you the boldness, the anger, the vulnerability.”
