Baker Boy: “I Want The Album To Make Everyone Feel How My Grandmother Made Me Feel”
Danzal Baker grew up in Milingimbi Island (population: approx. 1,000), which is about 400 kilometres east of Darwin.
From his beginnings, performing in the Indigenous dance troupe Djuki Mala, Danzal soon found voice through his musical moniker, Baker Boy. 2021’s Gela, Baker’s Boy’s debut album, rightfully hogged five ARIA Awards (including Album Of The Year).
Follow-up DJANDJAY ushers in a brand new era for Baker Boy: a radical evolution in both sound and messaging.
Some tracks find this former Young Australian Of The Year and beloved quadruple threat (dancer, musician, actor, artist) using his platform to build pride and resilience within the Indigenous Community (see: THICK SKIN, in particular).
The laidback, reggae-tinged LIGHTNING (featuring the genre-defying REDD.) – another DJANDJAY single – addresses the pressure Danzal feels to be the perfect role model.
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Throughout, he still peppers humble-brags (eg. “Black tie/Bare feet/Looking fresh…”) – to make us grin – and his trademark heart and soul are retained. But with the release of his second album, Baker Boy’s metamorphosis from the Fresh Prince of Arnhem Land to Global Hitmaking Superstar is complete.
Danzal says it best during the closing MUSTARD YELLOW, when he sings, “I became a dragon from a caterpillar.”
We had the extreme pleasure of Zooming Danzal the week prior to his outstanding performance as part of 2025’s AFL Grand Final pre-game entertainment.
His larger-than-life Baker Boy persona and ease in front of the camera as an incredible content creator make Danzal’s shy, reserved demeanour over Zoom somewhat surprising. He’s very thoughtful and sometimes jumbles his words when excited, which is ever-endearing.
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The Bow To The Wow
Dunno about you, but we’re still picking our jaws up off the floor after Baker Boy’s incredible performance of THICK SKIN as part of this year’s AFL Grand Final pre-game entertainment.
“Wasn't for the fame/I just needed to survive/Not a silent soldier/My pigment is my pride.”
THICK SKIN’s unlikely (but genius) marriage of punk instrumentation hit hard, as Danzal delivered his unflinching reaction to the 2023 Indigenous Voice Referendum result alongside a “Blak choir” (Emma Donovan, Thelma Plum, Kee’ahn, and Jada Weazel).
As well as the 100,022 fans who experienced the action live at the MCG, Forbes Australia reported there were 1.5 million TV viewers while 294,000 streamed it on 7plus and a further 2.4 million people tuned in online.
Later, during Snoop Dogg’s pre-game performance, Baker Boy’s yidaki playing further elevated Still D.R.E.. As if The Doggfather’s not gonna tap Baker Boy for a collab now!? Dream team alert!
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2025 wasn’t the first AFL Grand Final pre-show entertainment Baker Boy dominated, however. In 2021, he absolutely smashed the Granny pre-game at the Gabba in WA.
When asked what his preparation looked like that year, Danzal recalls, “I mean, it was still COVID times. I was in Perth for an extra two weeks, quarantined at a hotel, and so I had a lotta Zoom sessions of music rehearsals and also dance rehearsals.
“If you watch the whole YouTube [clip], you see so many dancers. Yeah, so it was hectic: coming fresh out of quarantine to that many thousands of people was kinda like, ‘What is this craziness?’ And especially COVID times when you haven't seen a lot of people in one space, like, ‘Oh, my God, what is this feeling?’ Anxious, you know? ‘There's so many people. I haven't seen this many people in a couple of months,’ you know?
“So it was surreal – I definitely enjoyed it. And the first time performing the AFL Grand Final was absolutely insane. It just happened so quick and I thought it just felt like it wasn't enough. As in, at that point, when I was performing, and then it just finished, and I was like, ‘Oh, but I just got my adrenaline rush. Now what do I do with all this?’ And then I was just like, ‘Oh, my God!’
“But then I had a lot of phone calls from my family, who were like, ‘We saw you, we saw you! Oh, my God, we saw you – that was so good! Saw you on TV,’ and all that stuff. And I was like, ‘Oh, my God, YES!’ ‘Cause I remember when I was a kid, looking at the TV and just watching all the live performances before the Grand Final was always insane.
“And I had so much fun kind of visualising that when I was talking to my family who called me from back in Community – seeing all that. But now, full circle back for this one. And I definitely feel so excited to perform again, ‘cause I 100% felt like I could do more amazing things and ‘cause that feeling was so good. I definitely wanna do it again and it's gonna happen! I'm so excited.”
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So is Danzal a Snoop fan? His face lights up. “I definitely am a Snoop fan. I grew up listening to Snoop Dogg and the whole hip-hop eras and stuff, you know, Snoop to 2Pac to N.W.A and all that. So it's definitely been a thing.
“I'm so excited to see how [Snoop]'s gonna perform at the Grand Final, you know? I've seen his Olympics one [Paris 2024’s Closing Ceremony], which was pretty crazy. And the Superbowl [2022’s Super Bowl LVI halftime show alongside Dr. Dre, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, and Kendrick Lamar] was absolutely insane. So I'm definitely excited to see what he's gonna do at the Grand Final.”
“I Come From The Biggest Mob, But I Ain’t No Italian…”
Come to think of it, DJANDJAY’s opening track, BIGGEST MOB, gives us Drop It Like It's Hot vibes! Danzal laughs heartily before enthusing, “Yeah, definitely. Definitely that sort of vibe. Yes. Yes. I was like, yes! It definitely has the percussion and the 808s in it. It definitely is that vibe.
“And, yeah, that track, BIGGEST MOB, is absolutely such a banger. It’s so fun, you know? The wordplays in it are so crazy. BIGGEST MOB talking about all the mob – and I'm not talking about mafia mob, I'm talking about the Indigenous mob.
“And, you know, even still having the Godfather references in there – it's so funny, because when I say ‘biggest mob’ people just immediately think about mafia mob. So it's always so fun to kinda have the play on words in there.
“But the people that know what I'm talking about, when I say ‘biggest mob’, I'm talking about mob. And the biggest mob of us in Australia – around Australia, there's just Indigenous mob everywhere.”
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Rumbling drums, crisp production, Baker Boy’s staccato, metrical flow – you can’t not move to DJANDJAY’s trilingual lead single PEACEKEEPER, which is delivered in English, Yolŋu Matha, and Spanish.
“Every time – even now, when I play it – you just immediately start head-bobbing, you start going, ‘Okay, I feel like I'm gonna dance. I'm gonna go crazy!’” Danzal extols. “And, yeah, it definitely makes you feel like you should dance.
“I definitely feel like making music where you can enjoy dancing as well. I grew up with a dancing background, so to have that is always so good. Because then I can incorporate it into my live shows as well. So I can dance and rap at the same time.”
“When You Dance, Music Is There. And When There's Music, You Dance”
“I grew up listening to a lot of dance music and so always danced to not only the beat, but also the lyrics,” he says.
“Plus, you know, it's been part of my body growing up. Hence, like dancing to traditional songs, you do the traditional dance but then, in the Songlines, it tells you what sort of movement you should do and all that stuff – so growing from that sort of vibe as well.
“But it [his dance background] definitely helps me write – when you wanna do live shows and have dance in it, it's gotta be so good. And it definitely helps with the flows. But, most likely, when you dance, music is there. And when there's music, you dance.”
“Rave Yidaki Would Be Insane!”
Baker Boy introduced some LA-based producers he worked with to the yidaki. “They hadn't heard the didge before,” he confirms, “so they were very fascinated with seeing the didgeridoo and then me playing it. They were like, ‘Oh my God, this is so sick!’ And so we played around with a lot of the cool ideas.
“MAD DOG starts off with the didge and goes into a crazy hip-hop vibe, and that track’s more kinda like EDM didge. ‘Cause I reckon everyone will definitely enjoy that sort of song, especially when it comes to rave-type music. And rave yidaki would be insane!”
Agreed. The impact of yidaki is second to none. No other instrument can recreate that level of vibration. It feels like awakening ancestral spirits.
Danzal looks so chuffed he could almost burst. “Yeah, 100%. Nah, 100%. Like, every time when you hear this, the vibration of it, it's just like you're immediately giving the cool stanky-looking face.” He then demonstrates a “cool stanky-looking face”, resplendent with scrunched nose, pursed lips and furrowed brows.
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Baker Boy artfully peppers old-school hip hop and pop culture references throughout DJANDJAY. “In KEEP UP, having lyrics like, ‘I really wanna dance with J.Lo,’ has a deeper meaning for me,” he explains. “Because when I was a kid, I used to just dance to J.Lo nonstop – like, all the tracks. And my aunty always blasted it, ‘cause her name's Jennifer, and she always goes, ‘Aunty J. Block in the building,’ you know? All that.
“But, yeah, so many good memories. I like to have that music in there to tell a little bit of story, of when I was a kid growing up. And, yeah, also the fun pop culture references.”
With its vibratory bottom end and flashes of funky Prince guitar, KEEP UP brings The Neptunes to mind. “I definitely grew up with The Neptunes and Timbaland sort of vibe,” Danzal shares. “Like, I grew up listening to all that music and so it was definitely that sort of era-inspired, as well.”
FREAK OUT (featuring Briggs and Haiku Hands) interpolates iconic phrases – including Chic’s “Le freak c’est chic” – and teases Grandmaster Flash’s The Message: “Don't push me, 'cause I'm close to the…”
When I share these Easter eggs with Danzal, he nods enthusiastically, “Yeah. I mean, yeah, 100%. And the more you listen to it, the more stuff you pick up that you might have missed, and you go, ‘Woah, what the heck?’ ‘Cause, like, even now that I picked up more of the producer side of it, every time I hear it, I go, ‘Oh my God, what is that part? I really enjoy that part. What is that? I didn't catch it…’
“But, yeah, for people that are listening, I definitely recommend listening to it again, ‘cause then there's parts where you might’ve missed lyrics and what it could mean. And some of them are very clever, very fun – I dunno, hidden Easter eggs, I would say.”
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THICK SKIN explores previously uncharted territory for The Fresh Prince of Arnhem Land, with Danzal himself expressing concern, via social media, as to how his evolution beyond “happy positive Baker Boy” would be received. DJANDJAY’s fourth single THICK SKIN dropped two days after the attack on Camp Sovereignty, which occurred following Melbourne’s “March for Australia”.
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“I Immediately Cried – I Had Goosebumps From Head To Toe”
Let’s hear it for the “Blak choir” – Emma Donovan, Thelma Plum, Kee’ahn, and Jada Weazel – which fortifies THICK SKIN’s conclusion. Their voices unite in perfect harmony, as if they're seeking comfort in one another. Then Donovan’s powerful vocals, world-weary but indomitable, cut through.
“You can't tear my thick skin? I know where we come from/ I fought/ So we could sing our song/ We’ll always…”
Of his Blak choir’s transforming presence on this track, Danzal enthuses, “I definitely felt so blessed to have them in there and they add so much to more. ‘Cause I felt like, when I was doing it, it was more me trying to make myself feel a lot better.
“When we started and we had all the musicians in there – they kinda made it feel like all the voices that needed to be heard from all the mob around Australia that, you know, were affected by the result of the referendum. And I wanted to make the track to make everyone feel that we're strong, we can move past it and grow as people, and to have thick skin and not let that sort of stuff make us, like, not human, you know? Make us feel human. And to be strong and bold and take back that control and the power.
“And so every time I hear it, it definitely makes me feel a lot of confidence and being proud. And definitely when I first heard this track, I immediately cried – I had goosebumps from head to toe. Especially when Emma's voice hits the spot, that’s when I go, ‘Oh, my God, what's going on? What have we done here!?’ And, yes, the craziness of the punkiness and the hip hop with the choir finishing was just chef’s kiss.”
DJANDJAY’s Visual Identity
Baker Boy has always been stylish as hell, with visual worlds utilising immaculate colour palettes and deadly overall aesthetics. Danzal’s partner Aurie Indianna is his stylist and creative director, so mad props to her. She handled all the creative and art direction for DJANDJAY, which incorporates many traditional Yolŋu details.
On the album cover, Baker Boy is surrounded by red dirt, plants and vegetation – to represent Arnhem Land, or being back home. His fit combines earthy and lux elements: black Gucci suit, bare feet and grillz.
Draped over the suit is a pandanus mat, handwoven by his family, and jewellery references the Olive Python – Danzal’s totem. He also carries a ceremonial spear, used in buŋgul (a Yolŋu ceremonial gathering for dance, song and ritual), which his father made.
WAR CRY features a shiny pop hook by Jean Deaux. DJANDJAY’s penultimate track, this one closes out with a precious video-call snippet that immortalises Djandjay’s love for Danzal.
“I received a video from my cousin, and she [grandma] was in there – you can hear her voice as well,” Danzal enlightens of said audio snippet. “And it's where she was video-calling me, and she was saying, ‘Hi Danzal, it's Grandma here. Love you.’ And it goes into the last track, MUSTARD YELLOW.
“Her name’s Djandjay and so the album is named after my late grandmother. But also Djandjay means the spiritual being in Yolŋu culture that takes the form of an octopus that guides the soul into the afterlife. And so having the album titled that is like a hats off to my late grandmother, who introduced hip hop to Arnhem Land.
“And also to my dad and my uncle, who were highly influenced by the hip-hop culture, who then became Baker Boy’s mission – famous in Arnhem Land. I grew up around that environment, so then that's when I inherited, you know? Baker Boy – the whole dance and hip hop. But also what I stand for with being the boisterous energy, the loud and proud, and always encouraging people – it's all from my late grandmother, ‘cause that's what she always did to all the mob back at home.
“She was definitely the matriarch of the family and always was the pillar of the whole community sorta vibe when it comes down to performance, dancing and bringing people together, which was so fun to grow up in. It was always so good, ‘cause if you were shamed, she would yell at you for trying to be embarrassed. So that makes you go, ‘Oh, no…’
“It's the grandma's voice, you know? As soon as you hear grandma, it’s like, ‘Oh, okay, I gotta go.’ It's always good to do the dance and stuff, and it's always just been a fun atmosphere. Yeah, so naming DJANDJAY was an amazing title for the album.”
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We can’t help but wonder whether Danzal still hears his late grandma’s voice whenever he doubts himself. “Yeah, yeah,” he admits, smiling. “Every time. And she's the most funny person that I grew up around, she was always making me laugh. And I want the album to make everyone feel how my grandmother made me feel, you know? And all that.
“[Through the] naming of DJANDJAY – spiritual figure, the tentacles guiding the souls into the afterlife – I want the album to kind of do that, but in a way guide people into Baker Boy’s new music dimension, where everyone just listens to it and goes, ‘What the heck is this?’ Where they’re in the middle of nowhere, in this dimension of just floating in the air and like, ‘What is this track!?’ – for some, like MUSTARD YELLOW and the RUNNING LOW track; that sort of vibe.”
RUNNING LOW – the final music video in DJANDJAY’s sequential five-part series, all of which was filmed at Werribee Mansion – arrives today alongside the album release.
Featuring a striking guest hook from Minnesota-born hip-hop artist Pardyalone, RUNNING LOW drops the tempo to a casual, head-bopping pace. Danzal previously revealed of this one: “I was talking about being on the road, the pressure to create – but also the sacrifice of living away from community, of missing funerals and carrying that weight.”
Baker Boy’s DJANDJAY is out today via Island Records Australia.
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