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 ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
02/07/2026
Broadcast Solutions GmbH, a leading systems integrator and provider of innovative solutions for the broadcast media industry, is acquiring BFE Studio und Medien...
02/07/2026
Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has extended the ingest facility at leading Brazilian sports company LiveMode, work...
02/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/07/2026
Standalone processors acknowledged for the innovation and value they bring to Pro AV
Cobalt Digital, a leading designer and manufacturer of signal processing ...
02/07/2026
Synamedia announced today the appointment of Dr Tzvi Gerstl as Chief Executive Officer. Paul Segre, who has served as CEO for the past six years, will transitio...
02/07/2026
Screen Australia backs audience-led filmmaking with new insight-driven initiativ...
02/07/2026
Screen Australia refines guidelines for Narrative Content Development and Docume...
02/07/2026
Maxon Autograph: Introduction to working with Tables
Simon Ubsdell July 1, 2026
0 Comments
An overview of Autograph's ridiculously powerful tables...
02/07/2026
Boston Conservatory's Soir e Breaks Records to Fund Student Scholarships The event achieved 127 percent of its fundraising goal in an evening celebrating ...
02/07/2026
How Adam Rosenwach Pivoted from Music to Med Tech Without Missing a Beat What do the rehearsal room and the boardroom have in common? More than you might thin...
02/07/2026
Summer is heating up - and GeForce NOW is taking players along for the ride.
Start the month with Monopoly: Star Wars Heroes vs. Villains, bringing a galaxy fa...
01/07/2026
Broadcast Management Group (BMG) has announced the appointment of Kathy Samuels ...
01/07/2026
Shade has announced Custom Objects and Automations, a platform expansion releasing June 29, 2026, that adds database and workflow automation capabilities direct...
01/07/2026
FOR-A America has announced the addition of Jaz Wray and Fernando Cruz to its U.S. sales team. Both report to Ernie Leon, Senior VP and Head of Sales and Strate...
01/07/2026
NBC Sports will air all 15 MLB games nationally on Sunday, July 5, across NBC, P...
01/07/2026
Clear-Com has announced a wireless communications upgrade for Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune, deploying FreeSpeak II and FreeSpeak Icon systems across both prod...
01/07/2026
England's performance team will use Sony's STATSports APEX GPS tracking system to monitor player physical data in real time during FIFA World Cup 2026 m...
01/07/2026
Adder Technology has announced the appointment of Neil Hillier as Chief Executive Officer, effective July 1, 2026. Hillier succeeds Adrian Dickens, who transiti...
01/07/2026
Bitcentral, Inc. has announced a strategic transaction creating two separate companies. The Production and Playout business will continue as Bitcentral, now own...
01/07/2026
DAZN has announced results from DAZN48, its creator initiative for the FIFA World Cup 2026. Launched in April 2026, the program received thousands of applicatio...
01/07/2026
Sarah Rose, VP, global services, Daktronics (NASDAQ: DAKT), will be inducted into the Information Display and Entertainment Association (IDEA) Hall of Fame at t...
01/07/2026
Gravity Media and the World Economic Forum's production team provided broadc...
01/07/2026
Insight Productions has announced the launch of Insight Storm, a 53-foot mobile broadcast unit built for esports production. The truck is built around a Ross Vi...
01/07/2026
ESPN has announced several content initiatives marking America's 250th anniversary, as part of The Walt Disney Company's Disney Celebrates America pro...
01/07/2026
Eleven production kits, REMI workflows, and cloud distribution bring 40 World Cu...
01/07/2026
The conference also discussed the opportunities offered an industry that is endu...
01/07/2026
The Mountain West Conference has announced the launch of MW , a direct-to-consumer streaming platform powered by Kiswe. The platform will carry live Mountain We...
01/07/2026
New AI Assistant, Multi-channel Audio, ARA2 improvements & more
Tracktion's DAW software has just received its latest major update, gaining a selection ...
01/07/2026
Stammering, stuttering, strangulated tones
The Crow Hill Company's latest creation promises to be the most original sound set they've produced to d...
01/07/2026
Exclusive run of limited-edition modelling pedals
Sweetwater and Andertons M...
01/07/2026
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) is pleased to announce that the ca...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Manfrotto Introduces UNCOVER, the new premium camera bag collection for modern h...
01/07/2026
Blackmagic Design Powers Houston Tamil Sangam Literacy Competition
Brie Clayton July 1, 2026
0 Comments
Volunteers use ATEM Mini Pro, Blackmagic Desig...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
PlayBox Technology has published State of Broadcast Infrastructure 2026, an in-depth industry research report examining the technologies, operational challenges...
01/07/2026
LONDON, UK, 1 JULY Jigsaw24 has appointed Alan Henry as Head of Sales for Media and Entertainment, reinforcing its continued investment in helping broadcaster...
01/07/2026
Content Vault, the patent-pending secure content distribution platform protecting high-value media from disclosures, theft and unauthorised access, today announ...
01/07/2026
Bitcentral, Inc. a leading provider of enterprise software and digital media solutions for news, sports and entertainment broadcasters, as well as streaming pla...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
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. 
