Briggs

Adam Briggs (born 28 August 1986), who performs as Briggs and self-describes as Senator Briggs (although not a member of the Australian Senate), is an Australian rapper, record label owner, comedy writer, actor, and author.

Briggs was born on 28 August 1986 and grew up with his family in Shepparton, a city in rural Victoria, Australia.

He is an Aboriginal Australian of the Yorta Yorta people and the tribe name is tattooed on his forearms.

His father was from Cummeragunja.

He has stated in an interview with G&T magazine that the tattoo's purpose is "so every time I rock the mic people know that I am representing."

Briggs was a student at Shepparton High School and Wanganui Park Secondary College, where he briefly played guitar in a punk band prior to his involvement with hip hop.

He also worked as a security guard at Shepparton's Yahoo Bar venue.

Briggs became well known as a "solo rapper", signing with Golden Era Records in 2009, before co-founding the hip hop duo A.B. Original in 2016.

As a solo artist, Briggs has released one EP, Homemade Bombs in 2009, and two albums, 2010's The Blacklist and 2014's Sheplife.

He has made appearances on songs with Hilltop Hoods, the Funkoars, Drapht, and The Last Kinection, as well as supporting a number of international artists.

Briggs independently released his first EP Homemade Bombs in 2009 with the support of a monetary loan from Hilltop Hoods' MC Suffa.

The recording included the song "Bad Move", for which a video clip was produced, and a collaboration with Reason that is titled "My Priority".

The Hilltop Hoods signed Briggs to their Golden Era record label and invited him to be the support act on their 2009 European tour.

Briggs accepted the tour invitation and the European trip represented the artist's first time overseas.

Briggs' debut full-length album The Blacklist was released in 2010 on Golden Era and included the single "The Wrong Brother" that was inspired by an incident in which Briggs was stopped from entering a Shepparton pub by security officers, only to be told, "Sorry mate, we got the wrong brother."

Suffa appears in the music video for the song as a record label manager.

The album also included the tracks "So Dangerous", with Trials (of Funkoars), and "I Wish".

Briggs later revealed that he "didn't expect" the public's response to the album, which included a #3 ranking on the Australian iTunes hip-hop charts that lasted a duration of four days.

In October 2010, Briggs was the seventh MC to participate in the Rapper Tag series of videos that featured Australian rappers who had been "tagged" by Newsense.

In addition to appearing on the Golden Era Mixtape 2011 and Golden Era Mixtape 2013, Briggs hosted the Golden Era Mixtape 2012.

In June 2012, Briggs was featured on the ABC Television Indigenous affairs program Message Stick.

The episode included interviews with Reason, Suffa and Trials.

Briggs released his single "Rather Be Dead" on 27 July 2012 and uploaded a corresponding film clip onto his YouTube channel "BriggsTheMilkman" the previous day—as of September 2012, the video had received over 30,000 views.

The single was added to playlists on Australian youth radio station Triple J —it was featured on the playlist of the Home and Hosed program on 26 June 2012 and then appeared on The Hip Hop Show on 2 July 2012.

Briggs initially announced the release schedule for his second album as late 2012; however, in October 2012, the artist revealed that this had changed to early 2013.

Briggs explained in a December 2013 interview that making a name for himself in Shepparton, for a range of reasons, was not difficult and the area was actually a reminder of the larger experience that was open to him and the diligence required to become involved with a music scene that was more significant.

Briggs initially became attracted to American rap music, and formed a group named Misdemeanour with schoolmate Peter Shiels.

After renaming the group "912" (a combination of their house numbers), they performed a gig in Melbourne with Australian hip hop artist Reason.

Briggs later recalled that Reason was one of the first MCs that he had heard rapping with an Australian accent.

Upon seeing the 19-year-old Briggs perform, Reason invited him to join an Obese Records record label tour to undertake a role as the established artist's "hype man" (similar to a back-up singer).

Reason explained:

I was pretty taken aback by this ... this big fella with so much energy and so much passion standing up there, proud of his ... his world of Shepp, and rapping in a way that, you know, is so comparable to some of the greats, some of the more powerful MCs, you know, that I’ve followed over the years.

And he was only 19 years of age.

Briggs then moved to the Melbourne suburb of St Kilda so that he could more easily access contacts in the local hip hop community.

While in Melbourne, he struggled to pay rent with the social security benefits that he was reliant upon − Reason stated on the Message Stick TV program that this period was beneficial, as it provided Briggs with an insight that has assisted his growth since that time.

Briggs later stated in December 2013 that sacrifice is the "cornerstone" of his career, and his time in Melbourne was greatly representative of the scant lifestyle that defined his time in the capital city.

In May 2013, Briggs and Jaytee launched a podcast available via iTunes.

On 20 May 2013, Briggs used an image from the John Hughes film Planes, Trains, and Automobiles for a promotional post for the podcast on his Facebook fan page.

In 2015, Briggs founded his own record label, Bad Apples Music, which has signed several Indigenous hip-hop artists and houses A.B. Original, a joint project with Trials from the Funkoars.

Extending his career beyond music, Briggs has appeared in several television series on ABC: as a writer and actor for the second season of the sketch comedy Black Comedy in 2016; playing the role of Maliyan in the drama series Cleverman in the same year; and becoming a regular cast member on news satire program The Weekly with Charlie Pickering in 2017.