In his new video the rapper attacks racism in Australia and gives voice to the immigrant and refugee communities who prevail in the face of adversity

If ever we needed a voice to channel the frustrations of Australia’s alienated immigrant communities, particularly of its young people, it’s now. In Get Mine, L-Fresh the Lion pulls no punches, rapping: “They tell me to go home but I come from here / I can see it their eyes, they don’t want me here.”

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In a 1,200-word essay posted to his website to accompany the Guardian Australia video premiere of Get Mine, L-Fresh plunders the delicate and often contested relationship so many immigrant Australians, or those born to immigrants, have with their nationhood. “I was born in south-west Sydney, but my experiences even have me questioning my place in Australia,” he writes.

L-Fresh spent the past year working as a youth empowerment coordinator at the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre in Melbourne. Every day the centre staff bear witness to the prolonged suffering of those who fled overseas war and persecution. “Just the other day, my colleague spoke to a man who self-harmed over 400 times during an 18-month period while in immigration-enforced detention.”

He describes Australia’s asylum seeker and refugee policies as “purposely very harsh in order to discourage people from coming here”.

Any rise in racial tension can be attributed to “the language that trickles down from the top”, he writes. Language that “condemns violence and discrimination” but carries far less conviction when denouncing racism and hatred towards ethnic and religious minorities.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest L-Fresh the Lion says any rise in racial tension can be attributed to ‘the language that trickles down from the top’. Photograph: Elefant Traks

But Get Mine, featuring the whining, ethereal strains of vocalist Parvyn Kaur Singh (Bombay Royale), glimmers with flashes of hip-hop braggadocio (“given a level playing field, I’d make it rain out here” and “I’m thankful my own kids’ll be raised here / they’ll build a dynasty with what I made here”), proving L-Fresh knows a thing or two about turning frustration into determination.

It is just as much a ferocious anthem for the underdog that prevails as it is a condemnation of racism in Australia. “The song is about smiling even when the odds are stacked against you; stylin’ on ’em, even when the game wasn’t made for you to win,” he says.