Asian Australian musicians explore themes of diaspora and culture through hip hop

From reclaiming pop culture references to surviving pirates and perilous journeys, a new generation of Asian Australian hip hop artists are drawing on their culture and backgrounds as inspiration for their lyrics and drive.  Augustian Vu regularly references his Asian heritage in his music and sees hip-hop as the perfect vehicle to showcase his culture.  He’s a second-generation migrant from Vietnam based in Brisbane who uses the medium to describe his Asian Australian experience. “[My music] is very heavy, and I think it does kind of give me reminisces of like the Vietnam War and like a lot of that sort of influence,” he said. “I think Asian and hip hop go together so well.” For his music, Vu goes by ZIPPERHEAD. “My name derives from [a] racial slur … [from] Full Metal Jacket, the Stanley Kubrick movie,” he said. The film about the Vietnam War has a scene showing an American soldier posing and taking a photo with a dead Vietnamese soldier. “[An American solider] was saying, ‘Happy Birthday Zipperhead’ … I wanted to take the name and like, spin it into something that’s kind of cool,” Vu said. “Hip hop is so amazing. It’s such a versatile sort...