“Every now and then, the old fellas, they send you signs,” rapper Nooky (aka Corey Webster) tells Apple Music. When he, Dallas Woods and Angus Field were working on their debut album as 3%, the First Nations artists approached the project without preconceived notions of sound and style, instead letting the songs come together organically. As Nooky tells it, they had some ancestral help. “They send you a signal. It was me, Dallas and Angus sitting there and creating in that moment with no plan, just letting the old people guide the vision. And this is what happened in that moment.” “This” is KILL THE DEAD, the trio’s powerful debut album. Composed over a handful of sessions stretching back to Woods’ and Nooky’s initial get-together on 26 January 2022, the project delivers its potent messages around reclaiming stolen land, Indigenous deaths in custody and closing the gap with a blunt-force-trauma approach to rap, while Field’s rich, soulful vocals offer a sweet melodic hit. That the record also takes in surprise elements such as pop, soul and R&B, and incorporates deeply vulnerable lyrics around family (“Higher”) and mental health (“Coming Home”), is proof of the trio’s chemistry and comfort as a unit. “Us three lads sitting in a room together, it was just Black men sitting there expressing ourselves and our lives, the good and the bad,” says Nooky. “We had some pretty vulnerable moments together. Working with Angus and Dallas brought out a side of me I’ve never really felt comfortable [showing]. It’s a testament to what happened in that moment.” Named 3% to reflect the fact that First Nations people make up only three per cent of the Australian population, the album’s title speaks to the resilience, strength and courage of First Nations people and their survival in the face of white settlement. The cover art, a Daniel Boyd dot painting of AFL player Nicky Winmar famously pointing to the colour of his skin while playing, is indicative of the Blak ’N’ Proud sentiment that fuels the album. Here, Nooky, Woods and Field take Apple Music through KILL THE DEAD, track by track. “Kids You Couldn’t Kill” Woods: “I chose it for the first track because it’s like the statement that leads on from the album title. The fact that we still exist is not only power to the fact that they couldn’t kill us, but it’s also like me, Angus and Nooky—we stand here as descendants of powerful warriors that they tried to annihilate and abolish, fighting the fight in the Western world. We are proof that they failed. This sets the tone for the whole album. We’re smacking you in the face with some truth.” “BNP” Nooky: “‘BNP’ is an extension of what Dallas said. Being the kids of the ancestors that they couldn’t kill instils a real sense of strength and pride. BNP stands for Blak ’N’ Proud—when we were kids down in Nowra, we used to write it on all our school books and on the tables. So it’s a nod to us and how we talk, our slang. It was a moment to just stand in your skin, stand in your blackness and point to your skin like Uncle Nicky Winmar does on the front cover.” “Land Back” (with Say True God? & DENNI) Nooky: “Getting our land back would be mad. We’re manifesting!” Woods: “I think the one thing we can all agree on in this country, as First Nations brothers and sisters, is just give us our fucking land back. It’s the most self-explanatory song you could ever find, I promise you that.” “Pay the Rent” Nooky: “As you progress through the album, the songs may be very different sonically, but they all tie together, whether it’s the sentiment behind it, or the messaging, the light and the dark moments, the ups and the downs.” Woods: “This land is stolen. But we’re still here hustling, and that’s the one thing you’ll never stop. We’re going to hustle until we get our land back. It’s all about empowering Mob to realise that we can do this.” Nooky: “It’s time to pay the rent.” “Invasion” Woods: “This song is about the First Fleet invasion, but done in a Star Wars setting, like this is an alien invasion. That’s what they were to us, they were aliens. The whole concept is like, we’re here, just chilling, living on our planet, and then all of a sudden, these weird-looking, bald-headed things come through, with all these wigs on, very colourful shirts, red, white and blue flag. And we’re like, what the hell’s going on? And they start shooting us. It’s trying to relate to what it would be like back in the day to see someone that you’ve never seen before, different skin colour—it would have been very alien for them.” “Blak Australia Policy” (with Marlon Motlop) Nooky: “We’re kind of looking back at the history of this country and the history that we all share. There was that White Australia Policy. All the things that they’ve done to erase our way of living. Not letting us manage the land—mismanagement of the land leads to those bushfires we have every couple of years. We were sitting in the studio and I was just like, man, what if we did go back to our way? What if we did take control and it reverted back to our way of living, and we got that harmony and that unity back? We called it the Blak Australia Policy.” “Prisoner” Field: “We feel like we’re a prisoner in our own home, our own country. We had our own beliefs, our own way of doing it, and now we can’t do what we want. We can’t do what the old people did. We can’t do what our people did for hundreds of thousands of years. We’re stuck in this way where we have to do what we’re told, and we don’t want to do what we’re told.” “Die by the Sword” Woods: “There’s a lot of people in the industry that love to take aim and take shots and act like they’re hard done by, but don’t want to get up and do the work. It’s just about, hey, if you’re going to complain, die on that hill; die by that sword. Because we’re not going out. We’re going to keep going to the top.” “Lovin’ on Me” Field: “When this song was getting made, Nooky was like, ‘Oh man, I can’t believe I’m doing this.’ 3% has brought out a different side to him. The song brings such a contrast to the album, because it’s almost a pop song. I feel like it shows we can do everything. We’ve got the hard-hitting rap tracks like ‘Invasion’, but then we’re also swinging to this pop side and showing that Blakfellas don’t just stop at one thing. We can do it all.” Woods: “It’s also a nod to our beautiful Black queens out there.” “Sleezy Steezy Cool” (with Tia Gostelow) Woods: “Being in the studio with that sis [Gostelow]; absolutely amazing talent. It was good to get in that studio and just have fun for a change. I think that sort of shows in the song. We all got to really show our personality.” Nooky: “Tia was vibing it straight away. And she goes, ‘What if we write a song about when someone’s sleazy, but they’re cool?’. Dallas is sitting next to her and he goes, ‘Yeah, and they’re steezy too.’ And then there’s the name! As Dallas said, it’s just us having fun.” “Coming Home” (feat. Calula Webster) Nooky: “There was a period in my life where substance abuse was a big thing. Mental health was a hard thing to deal with; crippling anxiety, depression, you name it, and trying to climb out of that, it’s a hard climb. I found myself in this position where I’d been clean for two years, and things were starting to go good for me. I just kept having these thoughts, telling myself I don’t deserve it. I’m not worth it. Fuck it up. Start drinking, disappear for a week. I was sitting in the studio working on some songs, and this is what was going on in my head. I was thinking about my daughters. I was like, I’ve gotta get home, but something was trying to take me away from that. But this moment in particular, I won the fucking battle. I don’t always win the battle. And I get home and my young daughter’s there, she goes to me, ‘Dad, I know what your favourite song is.’ And I said, ‘What’s that?’. And she goes, ‘Royal Telephone’ [the Jimmy Little song, which is sampled on ‘Coming Home’]. And she started singing that. It just really hit me. That was the reward for coming home. I asked, ‘Will you sing this song with Dad?’. And she sang it, and she’s on the song.” “Higher” Nooky: “‘Higher’ is also about [raising my daughters]. Everyone knew me as the wild fucking rapper from Nowra. But with this they get to see who that person protects—that persona is a part of me, but it’s not all of me. He’s a part of me that is like a fear side, the warrior who protected the vulnerable side; he wouldn’t allow it to come out. But it came out that day, and I’m fucking grateful it did.” “Won’t Stop” (with Jessica Mauboy) Field: “Having Jessica on that track is a dream come true.” Woods: “That song was always destined for Jessica Mauboy. And luckily Jess is a fan of me and Nooky through many years of being on the same stage at festivals and her just being the legend that she is, always supporting Mob. That feeling of her actually wanting to do it, and not being a forced thing, led to the song sounding the way it is.” “OUR PEOPLE” Nooky: “This was the song that launched 3% and it’s the perfect way to end the album, because this song sums up everything we said throughout the album. I was doing a workshop in one of the youth justice centres in Sydney. That day, there was an intake of kids, and there was a bunch of 10-year-olds, 11-year-olds and 12-year-olds in there. Seeing kids that young behind bars, it’s a heavy thing. I finished the workshop, I jumped in the car, and I was feeling a bit fucking heavy. There’s moments when you need to go to the studio and let shit out. This was one of the moments.”