
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 ...
14/11/2026
Marcelo Dai's Live Session Captured with URSA Cine Immersive
Brie Clayton November 14, 2026
0 Comments
Artist takes viewers on an immersive journe...
14/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
14/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
14/11/2026
Newest Lenses, Horizon Anamorphic Seminar & Guided Lens Character Experience Highlight Creative Possibilities
At the 2026 Toru CAMERIMAGE Film Festival, ZEISS...
14/11/2026
Sonnet Announces Black Friday Sale on Select Products
Brie Clayton November 14, 2026
0 Comments
WHAT: Sonnet Technologies is having a sale on a select...
14/11/2026
Berklee Alumni Shine at the 2026 Latin Grammy Awards This year's winners included songwriters, engineers, and performers who contributed to acclaimed reco...
13/11/2026
The UIM E1 Series wraps its third season this week with the Bombay Sapphire E1 Miami GP, Nov. 11-14, on Biscayne Bay at the Miami Seaplane Base on Watson Island...
13/11/2026
In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...
13/11/2026
Singer-songwriter Benson Boone will headline entertainment for the Discover NHL Winter Classic between the Utah Mammoth and Colorado Avalanche at Rice-Eccles St...
13/11/2026
Blackmagic Design has announced the Blackmagic Ambisonic Microphone, a 7th order ambisonic microphone array that captures spatial audio for immersive video prod...
13/11/2026
SMPTE has announced that The Studio B&H and Riedel Communications will provide the video infrastructure and communications technology for the Solutions Hub at t...
13/11/2026
The Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) has announced the theme and program focus for the 2027 HPA Tech Retreat, which takes place Feb. 14-18, 2027, in La ...
13/11/2026
Football Manager 27 Touch is available on Apple Arcade starting today. The game ...
13/11/2026
MotoGP has announced a two-year media rights agreement with ESPN covering the Un...
13/11/2026
Apple Sports, the free iPhone app, has added the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) to its lineup of supported sports, in time for Saturday's UFC 334. The...
13/11/2026
The NBA and Fanatics Studios, the joint venture between Fanatics and entertainme...
13/11/2026
ESPN held its annual EDGE Innovation Conference last night and offered up an ove...
13/11/2026
Regional sports network gives Ithaca College, SUNY Cortland students a platform to thrive
One of the biggest games in Division III college football will be pla...
13/11/2026
Studer-inspired 500-series PWM compressor unveiled
The HLabs range already includes a couple of Studer-inspired offerings in the form of the PRE169 and EQ16...
13/11/2026
Download Now!
To view the white paper, please enter the following details:
--
First Name* First Name
Company*
Country* Please select your countryA...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Blue Lucy, the workflow orchestration and integration platform for broadcasters, rights owners and localisation companies, today announced an integration with c...
13/11/2026
Krotos announces Black Friday offers on Studio Pro and Studio Max
Brie Clayton November 12, 2026
0 Comments
First-year annual plans start at US$195.99...
13/11/2026
Blackmagic Design Announces Blackmagic Ambisonic Microphone
Brie Clayton November 12, 2026
0 Comments
New 7th order ambisonic microphone with 108 MEMS...
13/11/2026
Meet the Berklee Student Setting Planetary Motion to Music With his compositional platform SoniKosmos, Javier Roqueni aims to make the universe the ultimate i...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , er...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , er...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Amagi, the media industry cloud company, today announced a partnership with Golden Times Media Technology (stock code 920021.BJ), a Beijing-based media and tech...
13/11/2026
CGI (TSX: GIB.A) (NYSE: GIB), one of the largest independent IT and business consulting services firms in the world, together with its Malaysian partner, Cedar ...
13/11/2026
SMPTE, the home for media professionals, technologists and engineers, today announced that The Studio B&H and Riedel Communications will provide the video infra...
13/11/2026
iWedia, a global leader in connected TV software solutions, will present its software-first approach to DRAM optimization at Android TV APAC Summit 2026 in Bang...
13/11/2026
Beginning today, November 13, Apple HomeView is available for purchase at Apple Store locations, on the Apple Store online, and in the Apple Store app in select...
13/11/2026
From pediatric research to smart hospitals, AI is helping care teams spend less time on routine tasks and more time with patients.
Health systems and startups...
12/11/2026
Industry leaders examine how Dynamic Media Facility, Media eXchange Layer, and c...
12/11/2026
The junior Tar Heel is embracing the technical and creative challenges of live production while emerging as a leader and mentor in the control room...
12/11/2026
Gracenote, Nielsen's content intelligence business, has released its fifth a...
12/11/2026
RTL Deutschland will bring the NHL to free-to-air TV in Germany starting Nov. 30...
12/11/2026
Clear-Com supported On Air 2026, a 24-hour student-led broadcast connecting 45 u...