Land Down Under

There’s no kookaburra laughing in the old gum tree where Yung Milla’s coming from. His
Land Down Under is less paradise, more gangsta: the urban landscape of Palmerston, south
of Darwin, is a place where violence and temptation are real and ever present. It’s ripe
territory for a hip-hop truthteller determined to right wrongs and rise.

“Land Down Under is a song about my crew, and the town where I grew up,” says
the 20-year-old Marranungu rapper. “Like a lot of places up here it’s got problems
and we get through by sticking together and staying strong, trying to make it out,
looking up rather than down.” “I really wanted the film clip to capture this aspect of
us - “We have each other's backs, for all time. I know they’ve got mine and I’ve got
theirs and that’s the way it is where I come from. Loyalty is our currency and we rich
with it.”

Land Down Under is a celebration, a proud statement of belonging woven with a killer
guitar line and a fist-pumping groove that’s fired up many a Top End gathering — not least
June’s Barunga Festival, where Yung Milla ignited a sea of 5,000 new fans with his
spectacular backflipping stage presence and sharp wordplay.

“I’m repping my city, the king of my state
Land down under Aussie got me yelling yeah mate
I tell the fam that we gone be safe
Aussie on the map I be repping my gang.”

Yung Milla’s story is not untouched by tragedy. Too many friends and relatives have been
lost to drugs or violence or the terminal cycle of ‘the System’: the overzealous and
misguided pursuit of “justice” that results in youth incarceration statistics that shame the
nation.

He credits his brother, emerging superstar J-MILLA, for the change in direction that put him
on his path of redemption. Today Yung Milla works as an Adventure Therapist and at
Saltbush accommodation centre for young Aboriginal men on bail from detention, helping
kids like him find their own paths through troubled times.

“Like the song says, I know I’m not perfect. I’m a young man trying to right my
wrongs. I’ve still got stuff to deal with, and it ain’t easy to live with that. Here in my
land down under it makes me want to head for the top and take my boys with me.
We will always look out for each other. We tight.” 

Land Down Under follows a slow-burning trilogy of potent tracks from Yung Milla: Daily,
Better Days and Used To Be. “Hot shit,” says Triple J’s Nick Findlay. His righteous path has
just begun…