Review: Kayps’ BUNUBA BABY

Kayps
BUNUBA BABY
Bad Apples Music / Universal Music Australia

Kayps doesn’t waste a second on BUNUBA BABY. In 28 minutes, the rapper and producer packs all his masterful musical ideas and dexterous lyrical flows into one compact package as he takes himself back to his origins: Fitzroy Crossing, the 765, the 45-degree heat and the red dirt under all ten toes. As a whole, the LP is a lean and masterful patchwork of musical styles, and when topped with Kayps’ impressive range of vocal deliveries, the record is a tremendous showcase of an artist intent on discovering who he truly is.

Having moved to Perth/Boorloo for education opportunities, it is Kayps’ prodigious musical talent and razor-sharp flow that have made him a standout. He first landed on the radar with the trap banger NUSIANCE!, which won him triple j’s 2021 Indigenous Initiative, before going on to drop the album BEAUTY AMONG THE CHAOS. A run of singles followed, which has allowed Kayps to explore a range of styles from house-infused club tracks and smooth R’n’B to outright rap bangers, while support slots for Sudan Archives, KNEECAP and Denzel Curry have put him in front of bigger crowds. Now, with BUNUBA BABY, he turns that range towards one subject: his home.

Opener COME HOME sets this; the first voice we hear is that of local station Wangki Radio, as jazzy synths and sax wails creep in and build before Kayps steps up to the mic. There is anger but also a sense of pride in his lyrical delivery, where he contends anything from the bitter taste of everything at the local store to the ciggie smoke drifting outside the clinic. But he will never sugarcoat or hide where he’s from because this is who he is, as he says, “It’s us.” It’s a fitting mission statement for the record.

Continuing on our tour of the north-west, CROCODILES sits on the languid side, its beat moving like someone in no hurry to leave the land. Swinging the other way, first single 765 has all the hallmarks of a modern hip-hop banger. Tension builds in the intro’s chopped-and-screwed keyboard choirs before Kayps bursts out on top with a defiant flow: a loud and proud statement for the representation of his mob.

The title track of the record is equally as impactful, but where 765 draws on DAMN.-era Kendrick, BUNUBA BABY riffs on a range of 90s influences. There’s Dre-style G-funk and NWA instrumentation, while the grimy boom-bap swing looped beats are pure East Coast. The crate-digging from the past is also notable in SONNY WALTERS with the track featuring a slippery, off-kilter bounce and squelchy 808 topped with a delivery that is every bit as agile as its Dockers cult hero’s namesake.

While Kayps’ defence of his culture runs as an undercurrent through the album, perhaps the most profound moments come from his explicit looks back at history, as on SHIPS. His unyielding chorus throws the colonial “savage” label back in the face of his mob’s oppressors, while the track’s features bring new voices that show the same history from different angles. Flewnt’s verse turns the track towards systemic change before JJ Vacant closes with a warning that the mob will neither forget nor forgive erasure.

BUNUBA BABY’s mix of reflection and rawness is what elevates it to an essential listen. Every line is measured, every reference serves a larger purpose, and the production is built with the same care. Kayps draws on two histories at once: the story of his people and the roots of hip hop itself. It’s that grounding in the past that shapes his outlook, and only by knowing where you come from can you truly build a future. In under half an hour, Kayps has laid out his own.

MICHAEL HOLLICK