I’ve been given a fascinating tip-off ahead of my interview with proud Yorta Yorta, Dja Dja Wurrung, Kalkadoon and Yirendali woman Miss Kaninna, as she releases her new mixtape, *BLACKPRINT. * The follow-up to her 2024 self-titled debut EP, it’s executive produced by Melbourne multi-hyphenate Nikodimos – and he’s suggested I ask about her famous chicken congee.

It gets the exact reaction I was hoping for, as she lets out a huge laugh of disbelief. “I’ve just recently been trying to get in the gym, and I’ve found out that oats are not that good for you,” she says. “I think God gave his toughest soldiers the toughest of tummies, and I’m one of those girls that has IBS. I cannot eat anything in bulk without getting super bloated.

“I’m Chinese, and I was on TikTok, scrolling, and this woman was talking about how congee is the best breakfast to have when you wake up. I was like ‘bet’ because I don’t even really like oats. I don’t like sweet stuff. But congee, I can get around.”

Since emerging in 2023 with her searing debut single Blak Britney, Miss Kaninna has been a name on everyone’s lips. She’s toured relentlessly since, with the songs from BLACKPRINT starting as freestyles. To her, this tape is a chance to channel the energy of her live show into a project that lasts long after the curtain drops.

“I don’t have that much music out, and obviously, I’m a live musician, and so a lot of my focus is on the show and creating an experience for people,” she says. “This mixtape has been a while in the making, and I just want to get it out there so I can start working on my next, which I’ve already been working on.”

One of the highlights of the tape is the punk-tinged closer Stolen Wages, one of the most energetic moments in her discography to date. “I stopped making sad music because I’m so sick of looking at people just swaying. Making sad music is cool, but I want to see people jumping around, sweating their holes off,” she says.

Late last year, Irish rappers Kneecap brought her as their sole opener across a sold-out tour of the UK and Europe. “They go really hard, and I felt I needed a song that’s bigger than Pinnacle Bitch [her 2024 single and previous set closer] that we can end the set with.

“I wrote Stolen Wages in one sitting, and then I called [producer] Lucy Blomkamp, aka Perfectworld, and I was like, ‘I need you to interpolate this right now because I’m going to Europe in, like, two weeks.’ She was so quick. We took it on tour, and I was getting so much positive feedback about that one song.”

Miss Kaninna is one of the biggest and buzziest names in Australian rap, and she’s determined to pave the way for artists to follow. “There’s just not a lot of support for young rappers in Australia,” she says. “One of the first questions I get asked by anybody who’s not in the industry, when I say that I’m a rapper, is ‘Oh, do you want to go to America, or do you want to move?’

“And I’m like, ‘No!’ I very much want to be exported into international markets so that Australian music can benefit from it; it’s not like I just want to get up and leave. I think a lot of people are very focused on just getting out and leaving and not building a good foundation and a good crew here in Australia.”

‘I’m trying to reclaim my body, my space, my mouth and my sexuality, and uplift women to do the same thing.’

There’s no room for misinterpretation on BLACKPRINT. Across the project’s six tracks, Miss Kaninna holds a mirror up to white Australia, and the double standards that permeate every part of Australian culture. From the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Chat My Shit to the Kobie Dee-featuring Look at Me Now to the slower-burning Mob Ties, she sounds laser focused. While she’s shown off her singing on a couple of occasions recently – including singing backing vocals for Brisbane MC Nerve’s Like a Version cover of Justin Timberlake’s SexyBack on Triple J – she’s rapping with vivid energy across BLACKPRINT.

The title of BLACKPRINT is Miss Kaninna’s nod to how Indigenous people across the globe, including Aboriginal people, hold not just the past in their hands but the future. “I think white fragility is crazy in this country, and I think that white people really do think that black power means taking away from them,” she says.

“A lot of the stuff I say in this mixtape is very much talking the truth. It’s not like what I’m saying is crazy. What’s crazy is that the Australian government continues to have a lawless land and illegally occupies this land. Me saying ‘f--- white people’ is not crazy to me. Me saying ‘f--- the government’ or ‘f--- police’ is not crazy. That seems like a pretty normal reaction to what’s going on.”

Hailing from Lutruwita/Tasmania, Miss Kaninna’s community has always had her back. Her mother, Ruth Langford, is a prominent First Nations advocate, and she often seeks advice from elders in her community, including Uncle Jim Everett. “Two years ago, I was sitting on a trip with my uncle, and I was feeling a little bit vulnerable and a little bit, like, under a microscope,” she recalls of one such experience.

“I had been copping a lot of slack from people saying that, you know, I’m shaking my ass too much and all this stuff, and my uncle was sitting in front of me, and he said, ‘You know, Kaninna, I’m extremely proud of who you are as a woman.’

“He started getting really upset because he was like, ‘Women need to be able to make choices for themselves, and it’s not up to men to dictate what you can and cannot do with your body and your mouth. For the last 250 years, women – Aboriginal women – have been completely objectified and completely sexualised and ripped of any human status, and now you’re reclaiming that back. And however you see fit as an Aboriginal woman, we’ll support you.’

“And that’s what I’m trying to do,” says Miss Kaninna. “I’m trying to actively reclaim my body and reclaim my space and reclaim my mouth and reclaim my sexuality, and uplift women to do the same thing.”

**Miss Kaninna’s new mixtape, BLACKPRINT, is out now. Her national tour includes shows at Brisbane’s The Brightside on September 11, Sydney’s Oxford Art Factory on September 12 and 13, and Melbourne’s Northcote Theatre on September 18. **