In the studio with Last Kinection

One of the country's most succesul Inidgenous hip hop crews, The Last Kinection already have 15 deadlys to their names, and recently, one member of the trio, naomi wenitong, dropped into the deadly sounds studio to chat about the groups new album - Next of Kin.

Deadly Sounds: The Last Kinection's latest album, Next of Kin features a huge number of collaborators, including Simone Stacey on the song, Are We There Yet? Tell us how this song came about Naomi?

Naomi Wenitong: I was doing a program for an assessment to get into uni when I was studying dentistry and we had to do an assignment to show we could write - it was about 'are we there yet' as a country? As blackfellas? I reckon we are almost there but there is still a long way to go.

DS: It has been such an incredible year for you guys, you have won a few awards - how has it been for you? You have had two journeys in music - one with your brother and The Last Kinection, and prior to that with Shakaya - two totally different music styles. How different was it?

NW: It was very different. Now I'm where I'm meant to be. Simone and I had a really good time and we learnt so much and we loved it, but for me personally I wanted to make music, but not in the way where we couldn't write about our own mob and where we're from and all that kind of stuff. Having creative control is the most important thing for any artist and I have that now, so it's a good feeling.

DS: This new album Next of Kin is really interesting. You have Omar Musa from Queanbeyan, who has won poetry awards and he is joining you on the song Together - how did that come about?

NW: We were doing a gig at a university in Canberra and that's where I first saw him perform and I thought he was unbelievable. I really liked the poetry slamming he does and his lyrics are so insightful. We gave him the track there and he took it home and just did it.

DS: On Next of Kin you have a lot of support artists appearing, was that intentional?

NW: I didn't even realise that we had so many guests until we printed the album cover. Everyone on the album we know well and they are really good people as well as talented. When we wrote the songs we thought, 'oh we need a verse from this dude', so it really worked out well and it was mad for them too - because we usually play a lot of the same gigs so they just jump up and do their guest verse.

DS: Have you got a lot coming up?

NW: We are doing an album launch tour now. We wanted to up the ante and have more fun on stage and make it theatrical and more of a show. If someone is going to pay, we want to put on a full show.

DS: Are you doing anything else Naomi? Because it's such a difficult thing to be a musician full-time.

NW: Yes it is so difficult. Before I was doing an entry program to go into dentistry, and before this I studied music straight out of Year 10 because I never thought uni would be an option for me until I found out about this bridging course that I could do to get into uni. It opened up this whole other world for me as well and I proved to myself that I could do more than just music. That was the same year as the car accident (Naomi and the band were involved in a serious car accident in September 2008) and because I was hit in the head so hard, I don't remember any of that stuff that I learnt or anything, so the doctor advised me that I should wait at least two years before I go back - so I will go back and do that, but at the moment I am doing full-time music. I am writing J11's new album. I am writing all the girl's parts, which is so fun. It's a great outlet for me and it's nice to write love songs as well.

DS: Every genre has love songs. For our listeners, if you get NITV do tune in because I am sure you have seen Naomi on it as one of the hosts of Move It Mob style. It is an amazing show. You can get fit while you are watching it, it makes you feel like you can sing and move - so keep an eye out for it and congratulations Naomi - it was a great show. Congratulations on the new album too. If listeners want to know more about The Last Kinection where can they go? Naomi: They can go to our website which is lastkinection.com