Hip hop is a very popular kind of music all over the world. We visit a course in Sydney where young women are being taught how to play and record their own hip-hop sounds.


NADEENA DIXON: These young women have come from all different kinds of backgrounds and they bring many different cultural elements with them.

ANGIE: My name's Angelie. I'm from Balmain and my background is Australia.

TINTA: I'm Tinta and I'm from Cook Islands.

MONICA: My name is Monica and I'm from Samoa, born in New Zealand.

TREASURY: It was in an area where I knew there would be a lot of Islander and Koori girls you know, attracted to the course so that's one of the main things that brought me to do it, yeah.

SARAH SCHOFIELD: Hip hop is a culture, a way of life for urban, disconnected young people around the world.

It's brought these young women together for the past 11 weeks.

Their family roots stretch from Europe to the Pacific Islands and Australia.

So many cultures is no coincidence.

South Sydney Youth Services wanted to engage young women from ethnic minorities.

ANTOINETTE ABBOUD: In terms of Australian hip hop that is the group that have really quite naturally found an affinity with hip-hop because it's a way for them to express their otherness within Australian society and kind of counter-mainstream Australian culture.

ANGIE: Hip hop you can do anywhere. You don't need anything. All you need is you. You know what I mean? You can do beats.

SKHAI: I love the music. I love all the elements of hip hop, which -- if you like hip hop, you like hip hop.

SARA SCHOFIELD: In 1999, the Department of Education and Training set up a program to assist disconnected young people.

It's called Helping Young People at Risk, or HYPAR and it pays for this course, which is accredited by TAFE.

MONIKAH: We learnt the music theory and what hip-hop was and how to categorise the artists and performance techniques and how to produce our CDs.

NADEENA DIXON: Some are vocalists, some are rappers and just to come in and begin to teach women that are supposed to just be starting and that are already at this highly developed level is just so exciting.

ANTOINETTE ABBOUD: It has been more than a course to these young women.

They've been able to forge really meaningful friendships as well and feel a sense of solidarity and community.