Ziggy Ramo

Ziggy Ramo Burrmuruk Fatnowna was born to an Aboriginal and Solomon Islander father and a mother of Scottish heritage in Bellingen, New South Wales and brought up across Arnhem Land and Perth, Western Australia.[1]

Ramo moved to Perth when he was six years old and began pursuing music in his mid-teens, the social messaging of classic US hip-hop resonating with him. Black On Both Sides by Mos Def was one of his favourite albums growing up.[2] Album Charcoal Lane by Indigenous musician Archie Roach was also an early inspiration.

After graduating from school, he embarked on a Pre-Medicine degree, determined to advocate for Indigenous health, before switching back to music, aiming to represent Indigenous Australian perspectives in rap.[3]

Ziggy Ramo wears a custom variation of the Aboriginal flag while performing at Adelaide Festival 2021

In 2015, Ramo completed his debut album Black Thoughts; an album that incisively addressed colonial dispossession, systemic racism and intergenerational trauma. Yet he worried that non-Indigenous Australia wasn't ready to engage with his truth-telling, so he shelved the album. Instead, in 2016, an EP of the same name was released.[3]

The EP spawns the singles "Black Thoughts"[4] and "Black Face".[5]

Following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis on 25 May 2020, and the subsequent global Black Lives Matter protests against police brutality, Fatnowna decided to "rush release" the album saying "It was just still so relevant".[3]

In August 2020, Ramo performed the album live at Sydney Opera House as part of its From Our House to Yours weekly program.[6] In March 2021 Ramo was the headline artist at the Adelaide Festival's hip hop finale concert which featured an all-Indigenous line-up of artists. Other performers included Jimblah, JK-47 and J-Milla.

2021, saw Ramo release single "Little Things" adapted from Paul Kelly‘s 1993 single "From Little Things Big Things Grow". It charted at number 99 in the Triple J Hottest 100 of 2021.[7]

Also, in 2021, Pantera Press acquired the rights to Ramo's debut non-fiction book, HUMAN.[8][9]

In December 2022, Ramo released "Sugar Coated Lies" featuring Alice Skye from the series Black Snow, in which Ramo made his screen debut.[10] On 26 January 2023, Ramo released his second studio album.[11]

Ramo collaborated with composer Jed Palmer to produce all of the music for the 2023 TV crime drama series created by Lucas Taylor, Black Snow, and also appears in it.[12]

Ramo lists his musical influences including Lauryn Hill and Yasiin Bey and Aboriginal activists such as Charlie Perkins and Gary Foley.[1][13]