DEM MOB Go Global
In February, The Note profiled Dem Mob, rising stars from the APY Lands who were storming the SA Scene with their pitjantjatjara rap and powerful messages of inclusion. Now they’re suddenly on their way to Spain to show their stuff at Primavera Sound, one of Europe’s biggest festivals. Tyler Jenke goes behind the scenes on how this remarkable development came about…
Words by Tyler Jenke
Image via @DEMMOBadl (Facebook)
Just three years ago, Dem Mob was a nascent hip hop group hailing from Pukatja (Ernabella), a town of just 465 in the APY Lands of northern South Australia. Fast forward to 2023, and the four-strong collective are headed to Spain’s Primavera Sound Festival to appear alongside the likes of Pet Shop Boys, Kendrick Lamar and Depeche Mode.
By any measure, it’s a meteoric rise. And it raises the question – how did they get so big so quickly?
Dem Mob formed as a trio in 2020 when high-school student Jontae Lawrie got together with Elisha Umuhuri and music teacher Matt Gully. Lawrie and Umuhuri rapped while Gully DJed. Inspired by Baker Boy, and with familial ties to Coloured Stone and No Fixed Address, MCs Lawrie and Umuhuri’s lyrics addressed issues facing Indigenous people, including racism and the importance of culture.
At Ernabella Anangu School, music came to Jontae Lawrie at a crucial time, providing him with a sense of purpose during a period of personal loss. Matt Gully recalls how he worked with Lawrie to utilise music as an educational tool, adding elements of hip hop to his assignments to help finish his schooling. “We’d be flying down to Adelaide to play at The Gov with Electric Fields, or doing an interview with the ABC,” he says, “and we’d be working out how to get him to use it as a learning experience.
“Now he’s the first graduate from Ernabella School to go to uni.”
Dem Mob were later joined by Basso Edwards, and quickly gained recognition for being the first rappers to perform and record in the Pitjantjatjara language. “I’ve spent years playing music, and to witness a new thing in music being invented was mind-blowing,” Gully says. Much like Yothu Yindi’s effect on culture when they introduced the Yolŋu language to mainstream music, Dem Mob’s work has been both profound and immediate. As they speak out against police injustice and effects of colonisation, their blend of Pitjantjatjara and English makes a brazen and powerful statement, inspiring new generations to engage in discourse.
In March 2020, the newly-formed Dem Mob got their break when they appeared at WOMADelaide as part of a collaboration with Elizabeth’s youth music facility, Northern Sound System. Matt Gully recalls showing the younger band members around the festival in 2020: “I remember saying, ‘Pick a stage – you guys keep doing this, and you’re gonna play on one of these stages.’”
Gully’s words proved prophetic. They went on to receive nominations for three SA Music Awards, and performed alongside the likes of BAARKA ahead of their full-circle return to WOMADelaide in March this year.
If Dem Mob thought this was as big as it was going to get, they were mistaken. In April this year, they received an out-of-the-blue invite to Spain to perform as one of only 50 international acts in Primavera Sound. The event attracts up to 100,000 people a day over five days, as well as 3500 global music industry professionals attending its associated conference, Primavera Pro.
This sudden and dramatic development in the band’s journey was brought about by Joe Hay, the General Manager of Adelaide UNESCO City of Music. In 2015, Adelaide became the only Australian city to be designated a UNESCO City of Music, and since then, the organisation has dedicated itself to celebrating and creating opportunities for South Australia’s music culture – its artists, organisations, and institutions – through the vast and highly respected UNESCO Creative Cities Network.
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In 2023, following conversations with global festival and venue directors at a UNESCO conference in South Korea, Hay brought Primavera Pro Director Elena Barreras to South Australia for some context.
“I said to Elena, ‘If you want to truly understand Adelaide, you should come during festival season to see the total festival spirit of the state,’” Hay recalls. “While she was here, we got to showcase South Australia at its best.”
During her tour, Barreras saw Dem Mob rehearsing at CASM ahead of their 2023 WOMADelaide set. She was so moved by their story that she returned to Barcelona to convince organisers to add the group to the finalised showcase list. “She felt theirs was an important story that needed to be told,” Hay says.
While Primavera Sound has existed since 2001, its conference counterpart, Primavera Pro, has been running since 2010. Analogous to Brisbane’s BIGSOUND, it showcases professionals and artists who are shaping the present and future of the industry by placing them before global industry figures.
Dem Mob are the only Australian representatives at Primavera Pro and somewhat uniquely, positioned: they’re not only bringing a new music and language to Spain, they’re also introducing issues faced by Indigenous Australians.
“When we first started Dem Mob, I thought it was a band that would do well in Australia,” says Matt Gully. “But I never thought about it going overseas. From what I understand, Spain doesn’t have a massive public discourse about their effect in colonising the Americas. Dem Mob is a group that’s quite vocal about the effects of colonisation in Australia, the ongoing impact, and how to move forward. So I think it’ll be interesting.”
Dem Mob won’t be alone in their trip to Barcelona, however. Grayson Rotumah, Co-Director of the Centre for Aboriginal Studies in Music (CASM) from the University of Adelaide’s Elder Conservatorium of Music has also been invited to attend.
Since its founding in 1972, CASM has encouraged students to connect with their own community and culture through elements of song, dance and music. “Like most successful students, Dem Mob arrived [at CASM] with a bunch of well-crafted, ready-to-go songs, and a growing list of big stages,” Rotumah explains. “They were looking for a cultural hub to tap into and breathe.”
Rotumah will be sharing the Centre’s story, its connections with artists in the APY Lands, and leading a discussion with Dem Mob on how music can cross cultural divides and change lives. “I believe they’re the next success story in a list of artists connected to CASM.”
Following Dem Mob’s 11th-hour inclusion on the festival program, Adelaide UNESCO City of Music has been working alongside Dem Mob and CASM to facilitate their upcoming trip to Spain – to the extent that Hay even helped to organise passports.
“The good thing about Adelaide, and South Australia as a whole, is that we have programs in place to support the professional development of artists,” Hay explains. He name-checks the likes of the City of Adelaide, Music Development Office, Arts South Australia, CASM and Music SA. “We’re just one part of a bigger system of support for artists in South Australia.”
Dem Mob are clearly set for big things – and thanks to Adelaide’s progressive, front-footed approach to new talent, they’re unlikely to be the last South Australian band to reach bigger, wider audiences. If artists are committed and authentic, then the likes of UNESCO, CASM and others are ready to harness their energy and foster their talent.
“All you’ve got to do is just grow,” says MC Jontae Lawrie. “Do a lot of live performances, get a crowd going – and just say everything that’s true.”
