“I think scientifically they call it a clusterfuck,” says Briggs, laughing down the phone.
He’s had a fair bit of coffee, is jittery, and it’s the last in a long line of press calls for his upcoming Vivid festival show at Sydney’s Opera House – the Bad Apples House Party.
He’s describing a one-night-only show on 30 May bringing together a collective of Indigenous musicians and artists, at one of the country’s most famous venues. The ad comes with a tagline from Briggs, AKA Adam Briggs, a Yorta Yorta man from regional Victoria: “I can’t wait to move into the Opera House and sublease it out to my cousins.”
“It’s called reverse gentrification, it’s a new thing that I’ve [come up with],” elaborates the multitalented rapper, actor, comedian, writer, activist, et cetera. “It’s about taking a space that’s iconic like the Opera House and making it our space, our building for the night.”
Briggs hopes his show will bring in some Opera House regulars, alongside the Briggs show regulars. They might as well, Briggs jokes. Vivid is one of the last opportunities to have a proper night out in the infamously locked-out city.
Briggs has built a successful career as an award-winning solo rapper and one half of AB Original, a label founder, actor, comedy writer for The Simpsons’ Matt Groening, and regular contributor to ABC’s The Weekly.
“I’m from Shepparton in Victoria,” he says. “When opportunity is few and far between in places like that, you just jump at the different chances that you get.
“I just take my shots and know my strengths. In all these industries you’re never on your own. People don’t want to see you fail.”
The music and television work are highly political, and often draw ire from the sort of circles who like to speak of political correctness going mad, especially on social media.
“Back when I had time to argue with idiots on the internet, I would, and had my fun, and it was like sport,” Briggs says. “Now I’ve got too much to do … I don’t have time to argue with Darren holding a trout in his display picture.”
Briggs has spent much of his public career being what he once joked to Guardian Australia was “the go-to guy” for comment when someone says something racist.
Years on, people are still being pretty racist. It’s draining. “My quotes are getting shorter and less sophisticated, and more volatile as this stuff goes on,” he says.
Last week Briggs shared online the video for his new solo single, Life Is Incredible. The lyrics are angry and tongue-in-cheek about the benefits of living while white. The video is also tongue-in-cheek but it’s sad, too.
Set in the fictional Whitehaven retirement village, Briggs raps his way around the manicured grounds, the bowling green, sun-drenched tearooms, and the swimming pool, as his fellow young Indigenous retirees die around him, and the deaths are treated as entirely unsurprising. Because they are.
“It’s an idea I had for a while, about mortality rates of blackfellas in Australia, and the simple equation is that if we die earlier we should be retiring earlier,” he says, pausing for a short, mirthless laugh. “And that’s funny to me.
“I knew it when I did it the track needed the visuals to help. Once the video dropped the penny dropped for everybody about the satire and what I’m talking about, and the message I’m delivering.”
It’s not the only message the rapper has delivered lately. He took issue with a billboard from One Nation senator Pauline Hanson declaring she had “the guts to say to say what you’re thinking”.
In reply Briggs bought the other side of the billboard for The Weekly. “I’m thinking I can’t wait to see the back of Pauline Hanson,” it read.
Hanson’s camp hasn’t hit back and is unlikely to.
“I’ve noticed with all these politicians, they don’t engage with people who are funny,” Briggs says, adding: “If they engage with us they get torn to shreds.”
Joining Briggs on stage at the House Party will be Electric Fields, David Dallas, the Kid Laroi, Birdz, Jesswar, Nooky, Kobie Dee, Philly, Rebecca Hatch, jayteehazard, and others.
The artists hail from across Australia and, in the case of David Dallas and Jesswar respectively, New Zealand and Fiji.
“The most important thing for me about this show is the vibe, and the idea of the night is that it is a constant barrage of music, that it doesn’t stop, that it’s just relentless.”
He namechecks Kobie Dee and Rebecca Hatch as ones to watch. “This is where they start, but it definitely won’t be where they finish. They’re going to go on and be much bigger and I think they’ll be greater than all of us.”
A big part of what Briggs does in his work is to try to bring up others with him.
“Well it’s the most important part, right? Success should beget success. My success isn’t worth anything if I can’t reflect it on the people around me and the artists around me.”
• Briggs’ Bad Apples House Party is on at Sydney Opera House on 30 May as part of Vivid Live