Blak History Month🎙 Wire MC: Voice of the Street, Fire of the Mob.Closing out Blak History Month with a pioneer and a legacy in motion.

In the early 2000s, long before Blak hip-hop found its way into festival headliners and mainstream playlists, Wire MC was already on the mic — spitting truth, pain, and pride from the heart of the streets. A Gumbaynggirr man from Bowraville, Wire MC was among the first wave of Indigenous rappers who used hip-hop not just as an art form, but as a weapon — a tool of resistance, identity, and education.

Wire’s music was raw and unfiltered, grounded in lived experience. He rapped about racism, dispossession, survival, and sovereignty with an urgency that could only come from someone who knew what it meant to be pushed to the margins. But his lyrics also carried a fierce sense of love — for community, for culture, and for the next generation.

That next generation would soon rise from his own home.

Enter Tasman Keith — Wire’s son — who has rapidly become one of the most dynamic and acclaimed First Nations voices in Australian music today. With sharp lyricism, polished production, and a vision firmly rooted in both past and future, Tasman is walking the same path his father paved, but with his own swagger and sound. Where Wire MC brought the underground fire, Tasman brings the evolution — proof that the legacy is alive and shifting.

One of the most powerful moments in their shared journey came in 2015 at the One People One Voice Festival on Groote Eylandt. The event brought together Indigenous artists from across the continent, but it was the performance of Wire MC and Tasman Keith on stage together that burned into memory. It was more than music — it was a torch being passed, a father and son standing side by side, each voice carrying decades of struggle, rhythm, and power.

Today, as Tasman continues to break new ground on stages across Australia, the impact of Wire MC remains etched in the DNA of Blak music. He was a trailblazer, a truth-teller, and a mentor — not just to his son, but to a generation of Indigenous artists who saw themselves reflected in his work for the first time.

As Blak History Month draws to a close, we honour Wire MC not only for what he gave us then, but for what his voice continues to ignite today — through his son, his words, and the enduring rhythm of resistance.