Dive Deeper: The Mixed-Race Tape
The Mixed-Race Tape isn’t just a hip hop theatre show, it’s a deeply personal, autobiographical performance that blends rap, spoken word, piano, archival footage, and intimate interviews. It’s about identity, heritage, and connection, told through the lens of one man’s life, as a son, husband, father, and artist.
Breaking Stereotypes: Hip Hop, Masculinity, and Vulnerability
This show defies what people typically expect from hip hop; there’s piano, there’s vulnerability, and there’s honesty. It explores masculinity in a world where traditional definitions are being challenged. For an artist with over 20 years in hip hop, this show marks a shift. Performer and creator, Kultar Ahluwalia doesn’t stand on stage like a superhero; he shows up as himself. A father rapping about love and family. A husband reflecting on identity. A son interviewing his mum and weaving her voice into the narrative. This kind of openness is powerful, especially in a genre often misrepresented as purely aggressive or macho.
Family, Culture, and Connection Across Generations
There’s a particular kind of vulnerability in telling your story on stage. But there’s something even more confronting about telling your family’s story. The show is rooted in personal history, not just the artist’s, but his family’s. With Sikh-Punjabi ancestry on his father’s side, Irish-Catholic ancestry on his mother’s side, and extended family overseas, the performance explores what it means to grow up between cultures, often without a clear roadmap. The emotional heart of the work lies in rediscovering family: sitting down for deep, long conversations with his mother, learning stories never told before, and reflecting on the complexity of a mixed marriage in 1970s-80s Australia. By sharing these truths, Kultar reconnects to his culture and invites audiences of all backgrounds to reflect on their own. Visuals and archival images are projected throughout, making it feel like you’re flicking through a family photo album with beats.
Why Hip Hop? A Medium for Memory and Meaning
Hip hop is the foundation because it’s the only form that could hold the weight of this story. Rap’s lyrical density allows Kultar to share stories in a single, powerful song.
From childhood memories of rewinding rap songs on VHS tapes to burning Cypress Hill CDs in Year 6, hip hop has always been part of his life. It connects the personal to the political, the cultural to the emotional. It’s loud, raw, and deeply human, just like the show itself.
The Mixed Race Tape – Book Now
Wed 6 – Fri 8 Aug
Brown’s Mart Theatre
Written for Darwin Festival by Alyson Evans
