THE LAST KINECTION is a hip hop group with an Australian heritage edge that represents thousands of years of a people's journey, suffering and emancipation. The group consists of Jacob Turier (aka DJ Jaytee) and brother and sister combo, Joel (Weno) and Naomi Wenitong. Hailing from southeast Queensland, the three members have all been in the music industry long enough to understand its strange machinations.
Speaking to the trio is an overwhelming experience. Naomi reminisces about her experience in the highly successful pop duo Shakaya and how the formation of the Last Kinection was inevitable for her in the long term scheme of things. "I felt really disconnected with just having to sing other people's songs and not writing my own in Shakaya," she explains. "The Last Kinection has given me a great opportunity to explore my heritage and my own music."
"We want to put out there any message we can. In this album there are a few issues that we wanted to talk about and I think we have achieved that," Naomi continues. "A lot of the music is also music that's about feeling good, feeling okay with yourself and your culture. The main message we wanted to get across is that being [of] mixed [race] is a good thing."
The debut album Nutches has just been released and the trio are very excited. Certain songs mean very personal things to each one of the members. "Ballooraman is one of my favourite songs," Naomi reveals, "because it helped me write in my native language again. I [also] really enjoyed writing I Can [featuring Radical Son] and performing the song. I feel like it's an affirmation, a personal mantra to me when you get up there and perform it, it's like a personal chant. No one's writing songs that motivate people like this these days. I'm glad that we wrote something positive."
The first-in-command, Joel is like the big brother of the band and is one of the MCs. Joel also partners with DJ Jaytee in critically acclaimed indigenous hip hop quartet, Local Knowledge. Joel speaks about his journey from the creation of Local Knowledge to becoming the brainchild of the Last Kinection. "Local Knowledge was a band that played mainly at indigenous festivals," he explains. "We wanted the Last Kinection to be more accessible and bring the message of reconciliation out there."
The Last Kinection trio have a sparky, vivacious energy that works well together, even in an interview situation. The production of their style of inspirational hip hop, wherever the group might be, flows easily. "We create music in many different ways. Propa Madly Deadly was written on the road whilst driving to Dubbo. It was then refined in a motel where we changed the beat. It's got some ragamuffin black fella style kinda rap and when we perform it people respond to it very positively."
The Last Kinection, being an inspired young band with talented and experienced musicians, has much to look forward to. "We're in the process of writing our second album at the moment," Joel explains, "and we hope to be on another tour around this time next year. This time in the year is a great time to tour because of NAIDOC [National Aboriginal and Islander Day Observance Committee] week. It's a great time of the year because it opens a lot more doors for us and gets out the messages over a wider scope." Let's hope these messages don't fall on deaf ears.
Catch the Last Kinection at the ANU Bar on Thursday July 30. Free entry!
