Blak List Deep Dive: A look into the origin story of 3%
Yo fam!
Blak List is your monthly journey through the exciting world of Blak music and the Blak Loud playlist on Amazon Music.
We’ve been missing our deep dive articles recently but this month with our special playlist diving into the new tracks from supergroup 3% we pulled together some key tracks from the solowork of Nooky, Dallas Woods and Angus Fields to get you fully across their style and ready for their new album to drop (anytime now fullas).
I have always been a huge fan of musical supergroups… Travelling Wilburys and their mythos is my jam. With 3% landing as the Blakfulla answer to the supergroup and their already growing list of collabs I’m trying to find a pop culture metaphor for the formation of them as a dreamteam musical group… I’m going with the comparison of the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. You’re probably thinking – this is a reach. Let me explain. Each member of the group is powerful on their own and go through their challenges then when they come together to combine their powers they form a hugely successful and cool mecha-zoid that just kicks ass. Just like 3% does.
If you haven’t listened to this month’s playlist already make sure you take this time to queue it up along with some deep dive listening notes from the Awesome Black team. A big shout out to Amazon Music Australia for their continued support of what we’re doing here with articles, curation of the playlist and new Blak music.
I reached out to the lads from 3% to get the origin story in their own words and after Nooky returned home from his recent USA trip he responded to my DMs with:
‘3% came to be when a ship from outer space landed in a derelict cave deep in the overgrown jungle of the Newtown Himalayan. Nooky, Angus and Dallas stumbled across the crash landing and a little green alien gifted the 3 with the power to both transform into animals and’ [sic] (travis added this next part in) also move our hearts with their music… Okay so whilst Nooky did mix the plot of Animorphs with the origin story of both Edward Sharp & Ziggy Stardust and I would have loved this as their conceptual origin story this was Nooky’s idea of a good joke. Aside from Nooky’s shades of humour coming across in a lot of the groups lyrics – even if we only have three tracks so far from their debut album – I wanted to really get in the depth of how 3% came together.
Before we get into that let’s have a quick look at a track where Nooky’s humour really gets to shine, here’s Sleezy Steezy Cool with Tia Gostelow.
3% Origin Story
A year or so back Nooky (Corey Webster – no relation of Nikki) and Dallas had a studio session on the 26th of January where they worked up a song. A few months later Nooky traveled down to Castlemain where Dallas lives to finish the track and they ended up making 4 more songs.
Things kept cooking from there; when Dallas went up to Sydney to finish those tracks Nooky, who had been working separately on another track with Angus pulled all three of them together into the studio while it was booked and hit Angus up to sing some parts of the other tracks. For Nooky ‘we worked on this track and it was one of those moments where there was magic’. Four tracks ended up turning in the 14 and for Nooky it brought ‘the love back to music that I haven’t [sic] felt for a while.
So far they’ve dropped 3 tracks from the album and each one has been a hit although they came out really strong with OUR PEOPLE which was the only track that didn’t get written in that original session. Each track is charged, bringing together powerful lyrics and amazing production work in the back end along with amazing collabs – and OUR PEOPLE is no different. Before we jump into their solo work let’s have a listen to it.
Nooky the Red Power Ranger
Before the power rangers can combine into an ultra-mecha-zoid style super group of 3% we need to know where they all came from, and we’re going to start with the Red Power Ranger; Corey Webster AKA Nooky.
I’ve known Nooky, the self described leader of the group, for years. We went to NAISDA together back in the day, used to hang out and muck around with music production, I danced for one of his live shows & I did some work with his community, Yuin Country, down in Nowra, where I met his mum and some of his family. I really got a feel for the solid grounding this fulla has.
Nooky has already had a huge career across the music and creative industries, with a slough of solo tracks, albums & collaborations under his belt. He is also a celebrated journalist, founded We Are Warriors, a platform designed to engage, celebrate and make a positive impact on the next generation of Indigenous youth, and received a prestigious Bronze Lion at Cannes film festival for his documentary work.
Aside from all that he was seen recently rocking up at the United Nations – I personally need to find out more about this, so stay tuned.
We could do a whole deep dive into Nooky (and I’m sure we will at some point) but for now let’s have a quick listen to a couple of the key tracks from the lad in the playlist. From the hard hitting Always Was, Always Will Be through to his Jan 26th release We Are Warriors and his most well known work: Run Dingo, a collab with I.Amsolo
Nooky is a bit of a prodigy… he has a style, a voice and a way of doing that is uniquely Nooky. He has a vision and the skills and technique to back it up. 3% couldn’t ask for a better leader.
Angus Field the Blue Power Ranger
Before I started putting this playlist together and researching this article I had no idea what Angus Field had done prior to his work as part of 3%. Angus seems to be a bit of a dark horse, or a less celebrated artist. I had to reach out to Nooky directly to get some info and after toying with me for a little while Nooky led me to Field’s band, the incredibly underrated Aya J, with Gold Coast based American drummer Sam Miller.
Aya J is a pretty interesting collab from my perspective – hearing the full range of Angus’ vocals accompanied with sparsely electronic sounds from Sam Miller is very cool. I’ve included a taster of songs in this month’s playlist including James Brown and Shine as well as their 2022 collab with German-born producer Joachim Mueller (Potbelleez, Timbaland, Timmy Trumpet).
While it probably doesn’t seem like a straightforward journey for Angus to get from the heavy vocal flexing of Aya J to 3% I’m incredibly glad they found each other. For me, Angus represents the ability 3% has to grow their sound and cross genres, something I know that the lads will be doing in the future.
Dallas Woods the Green Power Ranger
The Head of Rap at 3% headquarters, Dallas is a powerhouse all on his own. You would have likely heard his voice in a collaboration if you’ve been listening to local hip hop at all in the last 6 years. Or if you were ever a fan of Move it Mob Style on ABC Kids you would have seen him there (along with yours truly at one point).
Dallas cut his chops through the Indigenous Hip Hop Projects, which worked with dancers and musicians to run workshops with kids out in remote communities across the continent. It’s projects like that allow an artist to really spend time honing and refining their craft as well as finding their voice while sharing their skills with young people.
Dallas broke out in 2018 when he featured on the Baker Boy single Black Magic (a track featured in this month’s playlist) while also supporting Baker Boy on his national tour. Other tracks from Dallas this month include; Better Days with Baker Boy & Sampa The Great & Dallas’ Triple J Like a Version What’s Luv feat Kee’Ahn.
With 3%, Dallas brings an ability to adapt different rap techniques and styles into his own touched vibe. Across his previous work and in the 3 tracks we’ve heard so far Dallas lays down bars and I could see his vocals sitting comfortably across everything from old school or underground through to being upfront in a rap rock style song – I don’t know if we’ll ever hear that but Dallas get at me if you wanna make that track!
Collaborate and Transform
The true power of 3% isn’t just in the core of the three members – what makes 3% a true supergroup is the connections the group are bringing to the table and the collaborations they’ve already made happen (along with the ones we’ve been teased – Jess Mauboy I’m looking at you!). The lads are joined by guest power rangers pulling all of the strengths together to create something truly amazing. Instead of falling into toxic masculinity cliches of rap group the lads are bringing everyone along for the ride; with the sample from The Presets on OUR PEOPLE to working with Tia Gostelow on the standout Sleezy Steezy Cool or with Denni laying down some absolutely killer bars in Land Back we’re just scratching the surface of the 3% iceberg.
That’s it for this month’s deep dive fam. We’ll be back soon with our May playlist update. Another big thanks to Amazon Music Australia for supporting this.
As always, we’re eager to hear your thoughts and suggestions, so feel free to drop us a line at music@awesomeblack.org. Thanks for joining us for a Blak List Deep Dive.
Catch you soon.
Listen to the full playlist here.
