
One of the universal qualities of hip-hop is how artists use the genre to express where they come from and the needs, fears, frustrations, and successes they experience along the way. This has set the stage for Australia's A.GIRL-real name Hinenuiterangi Tairua-a 22-year-old rapper who is putting western Sydney on the map.
Over the last two years, she has gained national recognition thanks to her raw style and distinct sing-rap mix that yields attention-grabbing moments of musical brilliance.
On the strength of tracks like We Them Boyz (featuring Jaecy)-her first to be featured on Spotify's flagship A1 hip-hop playlist-A.GIRL has enjoyed a rapid rise. She's won both the Next Big Thing award at the FBi SMAC Awards and triple j's Unearthed competition, which netted her a slot at the dance music festival Listen Out. She's even been tipped as a rising star by U.K. publication Wonderland Mag and was named one to watch by Ticketmaster. Building on this momentum, she's since joined Aussie grime icon Chillinit on his sold-out national tour, has shows coming up with the billion-stream rapper Masked Wolf, and will headline Sydney's Spilt Milk festival in September.
Most recently, Spotify's A1 playlist brought A.GIRL together with Chillinit and another homegrown hip-hop artist, Day1, to launch a limited-edition menu with BUTTER, a hybrid fried chicken, hip-hop, champagne, and sneaker venue. (Fans can indulge in the custom menu's offerings through the end of June at BUTTER's four Sydney locations.) A.GIRL's creation for this menu is the A.GIRL Nashville Sandwich, a spicy fried chicken sandwich with buttermilk ranch, a fried runny egg, and lettuce.
I had a long think about it, and I was like, what is missing from burgers that I always add when I go home? she told For the Record. Like, how do I personalize? The runny egg. I don't know if it's a Maori thing, a Pacific Islander thing, but we always put runny eggs on everything. So I was just like, chicken sandwich with a runny egg-that's a wrap!
NEXT
Photo credit: @dreamsyndicator
Her sandwich isn't the only thing she's personalizing these days-A.GIRL has big dreams to export Aussie rap to the world in her own unique way.
What is unique about the rap and hip-hop scene in Sydney? In Sydney, I think we bring our own culture to hip-hop, but it took a while for us to develop our own culture. We were sheep following America and London for a bit, but we have this whole eshay culture about us; we've got this whole brand that we can stand solid on. And it's taken us a minute to get there. But people like Chillinit, people like A1, people like ONEFOUR, 100%. Australian hip-hop is a full thing now that other people can jump on and be like, oh, I support. I can't get this anywhere else in the world but Australia. It's pretty unique how we've kind of come into our own and then we all kind of did this like 360. But you know what? Our accent is hectic, the way we dress is hectic, our tn's are cool, everything that we've done back in the day and brought back to life, times ten.
Why should people from around the world tune into the music coming out of the area? Because of American hip-hop, we know there's food stamps over in America; we know that there's Section 8 housing; we know all of those like little things from rap culture in different places. I feel like it's time for others to learn about the things that we have to deal with, Centrelink, houses-things that are in Australian culture that Australian people can relate to. But it might take the world a minute to get onto what we're saying.
Who are some of your biggest musical influences? Definitely The Weeknd. Love Him. I'm not sure if I adapt that into my own sound or music, but his demeanor, his presence, how he carries himself as an artist, for sure. Freddie Mercury, weird one, but bro, he's just him. No matter what he does-getting people to sing weird ad-libs back to him? But he's just so undeniable wherever he goes. And I think he had the whole world against him at one point. It must have felt like it, you know? And he was like, f it, you know? And I just love him for being that. Also Doja Cat. Obviously.
How did you find your voice in hip-hop? What role did music play in your upbringing? I think by pushing through the noise and just kind of disregarding everyone, even if they had something good to say about me. I was just like, for now, while I'm trying to find myself in this male-dominated hip-hop realm, I literally only should listen to me. And that's why I did songs like Vision, where I spoke about the differences in areas and area beef.
When I first started coming out as a rapper, I was touching on topics that I felt needed to be addressed. And topics that I feel like other rappers were shying away from. And I know that if I listened to anybody outside of my own brain, I would have just steered left and done some commercial sh*t, and I wouldn't have stuck to what felt true. But it took me a minute to find my voice in hip-hop, because as much as I say that I didn't listen to anybody, I did. You know, I let people get into my head and it was very f hard.
What is your biggest piece of advice to aspiring artists? Stay true to yourself. It's really easy to get caught up in all the high pressure, easy to get caught up in the hype. No one prepares you for when you get to that point. The lights and cameras are in your face. Everybody wants to know your name. Everybody wants to get a picture. Nobody ever really keeps an 100 with you about how overwhelming that can be, about how easy it is to kind of just fall into that trap of pushing everyone that's close out of the way.
So stay true to yourself, remember who your day ones are, reme
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
01/04/2026
January 4 2026, 18:00 (PST) DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION
Douyin Users Can Now Create And Share Videos With Stun...
23/03/2026
The Professional Fighters League (PFL) has renewed its multi-year partnership wi...
23/03/2026
The Snow League has named Google Cloud as its Official Cloud and AI Partner. The...
23/03/2026
Chyron has appointed Eric Wolff as Director of Venues Sales, North America. Wolff previously served as Director of Broadcast Operations & Media Production for T...
23/03/2026
Chicago Sports Network (CHSN) and Weigel Broadcasting's WCIU (The U, ch. 26.1) will simulcast 10 Chicago White Sox games during the 2026 season, the compani...
23/03/2026
Cosm has appointed Jon Werbeck as Vice President, Head of Sponsorships. He will report to Corey Breton, Head of Venues, and will focus on corporate sponsorship ...
23/03/2026
CP Communications has announced a partnership with Mark Roberts Motion Control (...
23/03/2026
NAB Show 2026, taking place April 18-22 (exhibits April 19-22) at the Las Vegas ...
23/03/2026
Bay FC and free streaming platform Victory have announced a partnership through...
23/03/2026
Gemini AI models will surface hidden context around pitches, matchups, rare stat...
23/03/2026
Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, includ...
23/03/2026
Growing from broadcast engineer to strategic planner, this Ithaca College grad h...
23/03/2026
16 Science-Focused Nonfiction Projects Selected for Funding
LOS ANGELES, CA, March 23, 2026 - The nonprofit Sundance Institute and Sandbox Films announced toda...
23/03/2026
It's been 20 years since Miley Cyrus introduced the world to Hannah Montana,...
23/03/2026
Made entirely from real natural recordings
Aimed at sound designers and editors working in film, TV and game audio, the latest release from BOOM Library com...
23/03/2026
Transcribe sheets, tabs or MIDI from audio files
Klang.io have announced the launch of a new AI-powered software tool that's capable of detecting multip...
23/03/2026
An auxiliary target has been affixed to the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage f...
23/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/03/2026
Pro8mm, the Super 8 experts, provided cameras, Super 8 movie film, and scanning services for Bruno Mars' Risk It All music video. The debut single from Br...
23/03/2026
Matthews, introduces their first aluminum grid clamp collection, engineered for the rigging needs of film, television and live production. Combining light weigh...
23/03/2026
Monday 23 March 2026
Hacks, the multi-Emmy -winning Sky Exclusive comedy, retur...
23/03/2026
Back to All News
Too Hot to Handle: Italy Reignites for a Second Season With th...
23/03/2026
Autonomous agents mark a new inflection point in AI. Systems are no longer limited to generating responses or reasoning through tasks. They can take action: Age...
23/03/2026
RT is sad today to learn of the death of legendary RT Sport broadcaster Michael Lyster, who died this morning aged 71 years.
Kevin Bakhurst, Director-General...
23/03/2026
RT Documentary On One has scooped its first ever dedicated music award. At the 2026 Icelandic Music Awards, composer lfur Eldj rn won Release of the Year in t...
23/03/2026
Inside Sport, Liveline, Morning Ireland and 2FM DRIVE will all be in Prague to bring fans to the heart of the action
Every Moment, Every GenerationRT | FIFA W...
22/03/2026
Free updates now available
VSL have just released some free updates that add some existing features to a selection of libraries in their expansive Synchron ...
22/03/2026
Back to All News
Live-Action Sins of Kujo' Premieres April 2: Main Trailer and Key Art Debut
Entertainment
22 March 2026
GlobalJapan
Link copied to cl...
21/03/2026
Presented to War Child UK's HELP(2) project
The MPG (Music Producers Guild) have announced the launch of the MPG Impact Award, a brand-new honour that w...
21/03/2026
Microtuning support for Arabic, Persian & Turkish scales
The latest release from Best Service brings together a selection of string, wind and percussion ins...
21/03/2026
New campaign from NAATI and SBS CulturalConnect highlights how we all deserve t...
21/03/2026
Statement regarding Rhoda Roberts AO
21 March, 2026
Media releases
SBS is deeply saddened by the passing of Widjabul Wia-bal woman from the Bundjalung Na...
21/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
21/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
21/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
21/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
21/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
21/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
21/03/2026
Cine Gear Connect NY, presented by Universal Production Services, is filling in the slate for a full day of panels, peers, learning the latest, and mixing it up...
21/03/2026
Studio Technologies Debuts New StudioComm System at NAB 2026
Brie Clayton March 20, 2026
0 Comments
StudioComm Model 794 Central Controller and Model ...
21/03/2026
Restoration Christian Fellowship Captures Worship Music Videos with PYXIS 12K
Brie Clayton March 20, 2026
0 Comments
PYXIS' open gate provides cre...
20/03/2026
Net Insight will introduce a JPEG XS solution for full IP environments at NAB Sh...
20/03/2026
LTN has expanded its technology partnership with Harmonic ahead of the FCC's...
20/03/2026
Solid State Logic will preview SSL Live V6.2 at NAB Show, booth C6907. The softw...
20/03/2026
FUJIFILM North America Corporation's Optical Devices Division has announced ...