The new song from Melbourne artist Kudzai Chirunga has racked up more than 125,000 Facebook views over the past week

To understand his new song, Kudzai Chirunga says you have to wait for “the switch”. When it arrives, nearly two minutes into his lament on the “African gangs” debate absorbing Melbourne, you realise he’s right.

The neatly produced video to 4 Deep In The Suburbs – which has racked up more than 125,000 views on Facebook since it was released last week – begins with Kudzai Chirunga and his friends, dressed in all black, walking through a pristine housing estate. “Four deep in the suburbs, as soon as you fall asleep, I’m coming,” he sings over menacing shots of shadowy figures.

'It’s not safe for us': South Sudanese-Australians weather 'African gangs' storm Read more

But then the turn. First, clips of Channel Seven’s “African gangs” coverage – which has infuriated many in the African-Australian community – before a cameo from Chirunga’s collaborator and friend Papi.

“I guess, no matter what, we’re all perceived the same,” Papi raps over a gently pulsating beat. And then, “walking in stores, feeling the shame, I’m feeling nervous/walking through streets watching locals closing their curtains.”

Play Video 4:34 4 Deep in the Suburbs: Kudzai takes on 'African gangs' fear-mongering – video

Chirunga says his song is the product of feeling overwhelmed when debate about an African gangs crisis reared its ahead once again in recent weeks.

“I have a lot of friends who are South Sudanese and they were feeling a lot of pressure,” he tells Guardian Australia. “And feeling alienated by the way the media was coming at them, feeling villainised. That was weighing down on me a little bit.”

Chirunga, 25, was born in Zimbabwe, and came to Australia with his family when he was 14. He now lives in Narre Warren North, a suburb on Melbourne’s fast-growing south-eastern fringe and home to a sizeable community of African migrants. He’s the oldest of four, and his younger sister is a singer, too.



Chirunga notes that in many cases, those talking about “African gangs” in Melbourne now talk more specifically about the Sudanese community. Before, he couldn’t “understand why certain narratives have to be placed upon me, just because I’m black”.

“Most people don’t even know how to properly differentiate between what is a Sudanese person,” he says. “They just see black.”

“I feel a bit more removed because they’re now saying South Sudanese, but we stand with them,” Chirunga adds. “It is bringing us [African-Australians] together. I can see the solidarity.”

Ask Chirunga if he’s experienced racism, and he talks about being called the “N-word” on his second day of high school, something which stopped only when he explained the origins of the word to his white friends, or, more subtly, his dealings with authorities. Driving with his African-Australian mates, twice he’s had his car searched following a random breath test.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Zimbabwe-born Kudzai Chirunga remembers being called the N-word on his second day of high school in Australia. Photograph: Luke Henriques-Gomes/The Guardian

More recently, a policewoman asked if his car was his. When he replied that it was, she made a face. “It was so slight, but I saw it. I was like, ‘We’re going to check it anyway,’” Chirunga says, laughing.

They say you should never read the comments, but if you read the ones underneath the Facebook video to 4 Deep In The Suburbs, you’ll see expressions of gratitude from people from the African Australian community. Multiple people have tagged Channel Seven in the post.

'Racist fearmongering must stop', say Melbourne mayors and Sudanese community Read more

One man says he finds the lyrics hard to understand, and asks if the video is promoting crime. But another commenter explains “the switch”, pointing to the lyrical clincher: “If I see lights I’m running, even if I ain’t done nothing.”

“I want them to see a different side to being African,” Churinga says of his song, explaining why the video, made by Jamaru Digital, shows he and his friends buying food to feed the homeless. It’s something he says he’s done before.

“I’m saying, ‘We’re gangsters, we’re gangsters but we’re going shopping for homeless people,’” he says.

“It’s to force [people to see] that these images don’t match. What they’re saying and what we’re seeing don’t match, which is what we’re feeling in the African community ... It’s not cool.”