At the mic in a small recording studio in Melbourne’s north, Fiston Baraka is putting the finishing touches on his new single.
"It’s called Kumbuka, which means remember," said Baraka, 25.
"It is about me looking back at times people told me to stop my music, that I was wasting my time. One line says, 'remember when they said I wouldn’t make it'."
"Making it" is something the artist is incredibly proud of.
The rising hip-hop star from Geelong is among Victoria’s hottest music acts. He even performed at the Australian Open tennis tournament earlier this year.
"The Australian Open, yeah that was crazy, no way to describe it," he said. "It made me feel seen and at the same time accept that the work I am doing is not going to waste."
Fiston Baraka performing at the 2025 Australian Open. Source: Supplied / GRID Series / Mark Peterson
Known to fans as Baraka the Kid, he sings in English and Swahili, and his rap music is finding an audience worldwide.
"My biggest following is Nigeria, South Africa, and the United States," he said. "Australia sits at number four."
Cracking an $8bn industry
Baraka is proud to contribute to the expanding Australian music industry, which grew in revenue by 6 per cent year-on-year in 2024, marking six consecutive annual gains, according to industry body ARIA.
Overall, the Australian music industry generates revenues of $8.78 billion according to a recent report released by the federal government body Music Australia.
It provides the first comprehensive measure of the economic contribution of Australia’s music industry, and includes data from industry, government, and over 1,000 individuals and businesses working across the music industry.
It found that streaming dominates the market, accounting for more than 70 per cent of all revenue.
Industry growth provides opportunities for young artists, but music producer Ariel Blum said the playing field is far from level.
"There are a lot of challenges for people that don't grow up with either the economic means or the social networks to access the decision makers," Blum said.
"I have met many clients coming into the studio with a particular profile. They would typically come from privilege, economic privilege mainly, getting bills paid by mum and dad."
Fiston Baraka (left) remains in contact with co-founder Ariel Blum after his GRID Series mentoring. Source: SBS / Scott Cardwell
"GRID is actually an acronym and stands for Grassroots in Development," he said.
"Our main mission is to bring resources, access, and opportunities to artists from low socioeconomic backgrounds.
"And in Australia, typically that means living in the outer suburbs or regional areas."
Fiston Baraka is among the project’s rising stars.
Since being accepted into the project, he has received mentoring from Joel Ma, known as Joelistics, an Australian producer, multi-instrumentalist, and former member of the Melbourne-based Australian hip hop group TZU.
"When Fiston and I first met, he was really open to exploring his refugee story," said Ma.
"A lot of our conversation was about his family's story, coming from overseas and arriving in suburban Geelong, and how much of a cultural shock that was for Fiston and his family."
'I learned English by watching cartoons'
Baraka arrived in Australia in 2010 and was born in 2000 in Lubumbashi, the second-largest city in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). He later grew up in a refugee camp in Zambia.
Zambia is home to more than 100,000 refugees, asylum seekers, and other displaced people. Many are exiles from the DRC.
While Baraka has happy childhood memories of making friends there, he faced many hardships too. Food was short and illness rife.
His life changed dramatically when his parents bought a small parcel of land and started growing crops.
"Myself and my older brother were taken out of school and we started working on the farm alongside our cousins," he said.
"My parents decided the farm was more of a focus because that's what was actually bringing income," he said.
It set back his education, and when the family was finally accepted into Australia on humanitarian visas, Baraka had received limited schooling and spoke little English.
"The reading part was hard because I couldn't write and I couldn't read the words either," he said.
"So, the way I learned English was by watching cartoons on television."
Drawing on the resilience many refugees are respected for, Baraka went on to finish high school and tertiary qualifications, spent six years working in construction then started his own music business.
Fiston Baraka (right) as a child with his family in Zambia. Source: Supplied / Fiston Baraka
"It was not hard to kind of convince him to sing in Swahili," Ma said.
"We talked about whether that would alienate an Australian listening public. Our conversation got to a point of: 'well, the world is bigger than Geelong, bigger than Melbourne, bigger than Australia'.
"You can have an audience that extends to parts of Africa, America, Canada, and the UK because this story, although unique to you, is universal in so many ways."
It was a strategy that’s paid off for both artist and mentor.
"I get a huge rush of pride when I see someone like Fiston making their way in the world and having an impact and finding his audience. It is amazing," Ma said.
"I am very happy to be where I am and very proud to have [come] so far," said Baraka.
"I didn't think of music as being anything more than a hobby when I first started, but now it is a passion and something I can actually make a career out of, as well."
Chasing a dream
Baraka is among 70 participants to develop their style and their business acumen through the GRID Series.
The free six-month program is supported by Creative Victoria, City of Greater Geelong, Creative Australia, Department of Local Government Sports and Cultural Industries (WA) and City of Casey.
It includes studio time with a producer, live performances and sessions on business basics.
"Things like setting up an ABN, registering your business name, claiming all of your profiles on different platforms, and registering for APRA AMCOS. Often they will come and do an information session, too," said Blum.
However, Blum said Baraka’s motivation is also key to his success.
"Fiston is like a meteorite, a fireball of incredible energy. He is incredibly personable, incredibly talented, and insanely charismatic.
"And when you are around Fiston, you feel excited," he said.
GRID Series currently runs in three states and aims to bring more diversity into Australia’s music scene.
"I come from a part of the Australian music industry that is about telling stories and representing an Australia, which is diverse," Ma said.
"And GRID is a hotbed of stories about an Australia that I recognise.
"In the past, the Australian music industry felt very white, very male-dominated, very rock-oriented.
"Because GRID is open-minded, it supports diverse artists and genres. Their music tells stories of people coming from other countries, particularly from war-torn countries and places where life is a struggle," Ma said.
For Baraka, who quit a full-time job in construction to chase his music dream, recent success is sweet, but his goal is to touch people through his songs.
Joel Ma (right) is proud of Fiston Baraka's global success. Source: SBS / Scott Cardwell
"So, each song has a story. It is either something that I experienced or that someone close to me has experienced.
"I put that into the music and people relate, they say ‘oh wait, I've been through that too’. And so they connect.
"They also send me messages which might be little in text, but they are big in heart.
"And it makes me feel good that so many people are able to open up by hearing my words," he said.
