Young. Hot. Formidable. This emerging rapper has already accrued a throng of staunch fans online and on the streets of Darwin’s southern suburbs. Yung Milla is a loud and proud member of the Marranungu people, who are the traditional land owners of the Litchfield National Park in the NT. He’s a gun with his pen having written, recorded and released four songs independently all of which have gained the attention of triplej unearthed. But there’s no kookaburra laughing in the old gum tree where Yung Milla’s coming from. His Land Down Under is less paradise, more gangsta: the urban landscape of Palmerston, south of Darwin, is a place where violence and temptation are real and ever present. It’s ripe territory for a hip-hop truthteller determined to right wrongs and rise.

Yung Milla’s story is not untouched by tragedy. Too many friends and relatives have been lost to drugs or violence or the terminal cycle of ‘the System’: the overzealous and misguided pursuit of “justice” that results in youth incarceration statistics that shame the nation. He credits his brother, emerging superstar J-MILLA, for the change in direction that put him on his path of redemption. Today Yung Milla works as an Adventure Therapist and at Saltbush accommodation centre for young Aboriginal men on bail from detention, helping kids like him find their own paths through troubled times.

His latest track “Land Down Under” follows a slow-burning trilogy of potent tracks from Yung Milla: Daily, Better Days and Used To Be.