Belle Brooks is Dirt Child, sculptor, aquascapist and rapper from Mudgee in regional NSW. Her most recent sculpture of near life size copulating giraffes made from multicoloured plasticine, fiberglass and steel was exhibited at the Newcastle Art School and the Perth Institute of Contemporary Art. After 18 years in Mudgee, she moved to study at the Sydney College of The Arts
Its this artistic background, from an early age becoming interested in sculpture, with eccentric parents with their own creations on their property, to what should have been a stifling existence in Mudgee, but was somehow channeled into an artist who can express themselves in sculpture as well as in her prodigious flow, sleazy yet frenetic delivery, acerbic subject matter, and intricate strings of contextual multi-syllable rhymes.
Dirt Child knows how to bring the dirt, these are not rhymes for your kids, they may be explicit, but Dirt Child brings a humour and intelligence to her lyrics. Its hard not to smile at the obscenities, and the tonality of her voice is pleasing, although the way her voice goes up at the end of some lines does become a little distracting, just as does Lady S-O-V! Musically the beats and instrumentation are fresh, some of the freshest electronic hip hop I’ve heard for a while from an Australian act.
Funny and creative, but I’m sure Dirt Child wouldn’t care what I say, “…it doesn’t bother me I’ve got a steel vagina…”
Wayne Stronell
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