Adam Briggs, known by his stage name ‘Briggs’, has taken the hip-hop world by storm in recent years: from making award-winning music to establishing his own record label. Now, he adds another accolade to his many achievements.
In an interview with NITV earlier this year, Briggs talked about his snowballing success, “just stay creative and keep the output up. In our own respective careers we’ve got a lot of output, we’ve got to keep the throttle on it, so we don’t really get to stop and look at results too much, but we do hear a few things and see a few awards.”
The 31-year-old rapper from Shepparton, Victoria and hardly needs an introduction, as he is a familiar face to most most Australians. But we’ll give him one anyway:
Source: NITV
Briggs is a proud Yorta Yorta man and through his music, he has been giving Australia’s First Nations people a voice. His music has lead the national discussion around racism, Indigenous affairs and Australian identity, particularly advocating for changing the date and sentiment of Australia (Invasion) Day.
“I feel like artistically – it’s the best place to be ‘cause you just move on and make another thing.”
“I feel like artistically – it’s the best place to be ‘cause you just move on and make another thing.”
Man of Many Talents
However the music industry is not the only category this NAIDOC's 'Artist of the Year' has excelled in. Briggs is also a successful comedian, actor and writer.
On screen, Briggs is regularly seen on the ABC's The Weekly Show. He also had an ongoing role in the 8-part series Cleverman. Recently, Briggs was writer and main cast member on the second series of Black Comedy and throughout this year he has been developing a semi-autobiographical TV series as well as a documentary feature.
Briggs is also a lead writer for Get Krackin and the Katering Show, but most notably in his writing career to date, he is employed on the writing team of Matt Groening’s new Netflix series Disenchantment.
Last year, Briggs won the 2017 GQ Magazine’s Agenda Setter of the Year due to his influence through music.
Music
Briggs made triple j’s ‘Hottest 100’ in 2016 alongside fellow artist Daniel ‘Trials’ Rankine who together make up the A.B. Original rap duo, with their song featuring Dan Sultan, 'January 26'. Making number 16 on the countdown, 'January 26' also won best single at the ARIA Awards and has been performed across the country at all of the major festivals. The song talks directly to the hypocrisy of a national celebration on invasion day.
This song is known for leading the contemporary discussion of the ‘Change the Date’ topic within Australia, which ultimately resulted in triple j also changing the date of their Hottest 100 from 26 of January to the 27.
With six National Indigenous Music Awards and two Deadly Awards for his national contribution as an Aboriginal man, Briggs has paved the way for a new generation of not only Indigenous but all Australian rappers and has truly earned the Artist of the Year.
The National NAIDOC Awards 2018 broadcasts live on NITV (Ch. 34), Friday 13 July at 7.30pm and will be available after broadcast.
