Tasman Keith

Tasman Keith is one of those artists who feels bigger than whatever room he is in. A proud Gumbaynggirr man raised in Bowraville on NSW’s mid-north coast, he grew up watching his dad Wire MC on festival stages, then started rapping himself in youth-centre studios packed with cousins and cheap gear.

Since dropping tracks on triple j Unearthed and early EPs like Mission Famous and To Whom It May Concern, he has pushed his way into the centre of Australian hip hop on skill and intent, not cosigns. The records are heavy on storytelling about Bowraville, colonisation, pride and survival, delivered with a flow that can snap from laid-back to attack mode in a bar. Critics have been calling him part of the new vanguard for a while now, and A Colour Undone made that feel official, a full-length that moved between rage, tenderness and introspection without losing its bite.

Tasman’s catalogue carries that community weight. He has collaborated with everyone from Midnight Oil on First Nation to Jessica Mauboy and Genesis Owusu, but the centre of gravity is still his own voice, talking straight about where he is from and what that means right now.

Proud and 5FT FREESTYLE sit right in the heart of that world. Proud plays like a victory lap at double-time: short, direct, chest-out about making it out of Bowraville while still carrying it with him. 5FT FREESTYLE is the flex, all footwork and bar work, riding a tense beat while he talks money, pressure and ambition from close range. Both tracks feel like checkpoints in the story of an artist who has turned a lifetime of watching from the side of stage into total command of it.