Beat Boxer

he worst thing about being an overly cocky cunt in a fight is that you risk looking like a total booby if you can’t back it up. Fortunately Aboriginal Muslim Anthony Mundine has managed to follow up most of his self-righteous bravado with a slew of wins, to the extent that he is now the super middle weight boxing champion of the world. None of this was as surprising to us however as the news that he’s about to release a rap album called Dreams. The first single is all about him growing up tough in Redfern and it’s actually really catchy. At the end of the video you see him burning a Union Jack and a photo of John Howard, which has garnered him more attention than the most ambitious PR agency in the world could have hoped for. Vice: What made you decide to make an album? Anthony: I’ve always dabbled in rap and I thought this would be a good opportunity to show the people who I am as far as my thoughts, and as a man. It’s kind of a rags to riches story about the underdog coming out on top. My message is that no matter what obstacles or adversities you face you can perservere and become successful. You can become something they don’t want you to be—like articulate, successful, charismatic and confident. It’s all positive messages. The whole album is about my life and my thought patterns. I get a lot of misconception and media portray me in a bad light so this is my lyrics and my words they can’t be taken out of context. How was it growing up as an aboriginal kid in Redfern with a fighter for a father? I was exposed to a lot of stuff. My dad wasn’t there for me really. He was if I really needed him but my mum was the backbone. Redfern has a bad reputation because of the media. The problems that they talk about aren’t our problems. Drugs and alcohol aren’t a part of aboriginal culture—they are the white man’s things that have been forced upon us because of our lack of mentality. This is all in my lyrics. It’s our mindset now. The government has indoctrinated our people into believing that we’re no good, that we’re criminals and worthless. I want to show them that we can be the best of the best. That we can be successful. Don’t let the infrastructure hold us back. Aboriginal people don’t even know who they are anymore. We’re not even educated. So why are you different? How have you done so much? Ever since I was four years old, I had dreams of playing football for Australia and of becoming a boxing world champion and I’ve done both. I didn’t play for too long for Australia because the politics kept me out. But you could have? Of course. I was the highest paid player. I was the best. Money talks. They wouldn’t pick me because of my off-field characteristics, which is bull crap. On the field I destroyed them all. The best of the best. We’re talking over five years too. No one ever defeated me and I outplayed them on every occasion. They were racist. They didn’t want a guy that talks the way I do playing for their country. Your introduction to boxing was really quick. It seemed like you went straight into professional boxing. I had to because I was a late starter. 25 years old. My first fight was with a guy who had already had 20 fights. I had never had a fight before but even so I’ve never had respect until right now. I had to beat the guys they thought I could never beat—Danny Green and Sam Soliman—to win the respect. Where to from now then? The world. I’ll take various titles and weight divisions and become one of the best fighters pound for pound in the world.

hy did you decide to convert to Muslim? I converted in 96 after I read the Malcom X book. It got me really interested and intrigued in Islam. I learnt about it and what it stands for and that’s when I embraced it. What religion were you before converting? We were taught Church of England. That’s what they did to our people. They sent out missionaries and tried to teach us the white way and that was Christianity. That’s why a lot of aborigines are Christians. Being an Aboriginal, we believed in one God just like the Muslims. What does converting involve? It’s very simple. All the portrayed negativity and terrorism. It’s all garbage. Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world. There’s people converting and being born into it. Has it changed your life? Definitely. It changed my whole perspective. I have to pray five times a day. What we believe is that there’s one creator and that Mohamed was the final messenger. We believe Jesus was a messenger of Allah and that the Koran is the final message. We believe in the Old Testament. I thought music was forbidden for Muslims. Music is actually forbidden but I’m using it in a way that’s spreading a positive message. Music is a good vehicle to use to get a message across in the Western world. But I pray to God to forgive me because I’m doing a good thing for other people. I always ask God for forgiveness. Why is music evil? Music can play with your emotions. You can break up with your girlfriend and play sad music. It can make you feel good or do deviant sorts of things. It’s a powerful thing. What other rappers do you like? Tupac. There was talk a while ago of you going into politics. They wanted me to go into politics but I’m too focussed on my fighting career at the moment. That stuff takes a lot of time and energy. I just want to do the best I can at this right now. One day I might consider it. What would you do to help the Aborigines if you were elected? Education is the key. That’s what we need to do to improve the situation. The aborigines need to learn about themselves first. The language and culture—they need to instil some self esteem and pride. To let them blossom and grow. They spend so much money on things that don’t matter. I’ll focus on that later. For now my philosophy is to hit and not to be hit. That’s the name of the game. I go in pretty and I come out pretty. That’s how I like to do it and, as you can see, it has worked. BRENDA WALSH