Homerun on the Backstreets

Wed 26th Nov ’25, 36 degree day on Gadigal and Miss Kaninna drops some more heat on us with her new single “Backstreets”.

In collaboration with composer Alexandra Shungudzo Govere and composer/producer Lucy Blomkamp, Miss Kaninna reminds us she’s a multi-faceted artist — singing rather than rapping on a track that sits at the crossroads of R’n’B, pop, rock and soul. Since her six-track 2024 EP KANINNA, we’ve been waiting to see her next move, and the Yorta Yorta, Dja Dja Wurrung, Kalkadoon and Yirendali artist doesn’t disappoint.

Backstreets opens with guitar riffs reminiscent of a prime Lil Wayne era (think Tha Carter IV) layered with a crunchy vocal mix, driven bass synths and a fat, grimy kick. The production is tight and the beat drop is a proper thrill. The steady rhythm keeps the song bubbling — sitting somewhere between a simmer and a rolling boil — holding tension like a horse ready to break into a gallop.

Vocally, Miss Kaninna pushes the gain and lets us sit closer to her vulnerable side, but don’t get it twisted. Lyrically, the song offers a window into her internal dialogue, and you can feel the exhaustion: “I’m still recovering from the last time you fucked me up.” Backstreets explores how quickly something beautiful can flip — how love can turn messy, unequal, and unsafe. And there’s emotional maturity in lines like: “I became your enemy, I hope this isn’t it for life.”

Speaking on the story behind the track, Miss Kaninna says:

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“When I was in my early 20s I had a few boyfriends that were really……really white and it was hard to communicate, we have just lived such different lives and grew up with different values and ways of being. They were also in a much higher class bracket to me so it was very dystopian  to live what seemed like double life. I was put into a lot of really vulnerable situations and had to compromise my cultural safety for the benefit of them and their families. I was conditioned for a very long time to be quiet about my experiences and to put others' needs before my own. Backstreets is a memoir of those years and how I felt. I haven’t released any music related to these experiences as I found  them quite hard to talk about until recently. I found myself clinging to a relationship I didn’t even want to be in but a mixture of manipulation and my own abandonment issues held me there. I still struggle with fear of abandonment and I'm still recovering.

A single-note melody and direct lyric in the B-section give the energy bump the track craves. The space between that section and the final chorus lets us catch our breath before the full onslaught. The last chorus lands fully formed — strong, certain, exactly where the track has been heading.

Backstreets is Blak, beautiful and deadly. Another home run for Kaninna.

Listen to Backstreets here