Two Australian contemporary music greats together on one track? The team-up from Briggs and Thelma Plum was always going to be a fearless conversation starter.
Hip hop artist Briggs has teamed up with multi-award winning artist Thelma Plum for ‘Go To War’. It’s the second single (following ‘Extra Extra’) from his forthcoming six-track EP Always Was, out Friday August 21.
Briggs said the track was written in the studio booth with producer Jayteehazard, and is about “fearlessness”.
“After every avenue is exhausted and every word has been said, every bridge has been crossed or burnt, ‘Go To War’ is about ‘having it up to here’ and asking yourself, ‘is this where you want to be?’,” Briggs said.
“[…] I’d imagined Thelma being on the song when I was cooking it up, and we threw some ideas back and forth and knocked it out over another day. The song is about fearlessness. When you get pushed too far and you’re backed into a corner and there’s very little recourse.”
The video, directed by Tristan Edouard and Selina Miles, tells the story about Indigenous Australians having to exist in two worlds.
Watch the clip for Briggs ft. Thelma Plum, ‘Go To War’:
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Briggs said of the music video: “It talks to the idea of the ‘palatable black’ and the way Australia looks fondly at having dot paintings in their house, and ochre’d Aboriginal people dancing and practicing traditions but looks down their nose at Blackfullas in the street because they don’t fit their absurd notion of a ‘True Aboriginal’.
“You can’t reduce someone’s identity and connection to culture because they’re not wearing the suit you associate them with,” he added.
Tristan Edouard and Selina Miles enlisted an almost entirely Aboriginal cast for the clip, including the Muggera Dancers, Thelma Plum, Barkaa, Nooky, Kobie Dee, and Scottie Marsh.
Always Was will mark Briggs’ first solo work since 2014’s Sheplife. You’ll have to forgive him for taking his time between records though; Briggs’ new children’s book Our Home, Our Heartbeat topped the Best Seller’s list last month.
‘Go To War’ lyrics:
Fight of your life and for them it’s just another
Never throw shots while you living with your mother
That’s some mad stress, that’s her address
That’s collateral, That’s a bad mess
Don’t poke the bear, you’ll catch these hands
No games played, no poker here
No rewind, no freeze frame
Just focusing I’m closing in whoever’s got an issue
Bring whoever’s got a problem imma fuck ‘em all up with you
Must be twisted offa that yack, lifted offa that rack
You must’ve missed the bit when I lit the bitch
And put this all on my back consistently and that’s facts
You don’t wanna go there, you might not come back
I do not like you, you and I are not the same
Say what you want what you want
What you want won’t say it to my face
Yeah I got the answer anybody wanna call
And I got the right if anybody wanna fall
And I’m going in if anybody want a war
So don’t say a thing if you don’t wanna go to war
And we’re goin’ ay ay ay ay ay
Yeah we’re goin’ ay ay ay ay ay
Yeah I’m goin’ ay ay ay ay ay
Yeah we’re goin’ ay ay ay ay ay
Oohhh, you thought you were killin’ it?
Pass the torch? You couldn’t carry the flame
Never speak my name, that’s par for course
You couldn’t light a cigarette
Oh you thought you was bigger than
All these doors I’m kickin’ in
All these tours I’m gettin’ it
All this snivelling boring talkin’ bickerin’ sickenin’
Man I’m done with all this back and forth (back and forth)
Back to back we back on tour back on court (back on court)
And if I give the word if anybody wanna talk
Yeah I give the word if anybody wanna talk (wanna talk)
Motherfuckers mad I’m the nicest
Crosshairs, lock step, shit that I’m precise with
Yeah I might trip (oohh) who ya side with (oohh)
It’s the main event (oohh) you a side kick
I do not like you, you and I are not the same
Say what you want what you want
What you want, won’t say it to my face
Yeah I got the answer anybody wanna call
And I got the right if anybody wanna fall
And I’m going in if anybody want a war
So don’t say a thing if you don’t wanna go to war
And we’re goin’ ay ay ay ay ay
Yeah we’re goin’ ay ay ay ay ay
Yeah I’m goin’ ay ay ay ay ay
Yeah we’re goin’ ay ay ay ay ay
