Taylah Jensen hasn’t always felt at home in a classroom.
The up-and-coming rapper, who grew up in Caboolture, dropped out of high school in Year 10 after experiencing bullying, discrimination and mental health struggles.
And while it took her a few years to make her way back to formal education, the encouragement of teachers and mentors who believed in her – combined with the right support – have helped set Taylah on the path to Bachelor of Music, and a career in the industry she loves.
The young Polynesian-Australian MC, who performs as Taylah J, started writing music at 13 “as a form of therapy” for things she was going through at the time.
“At first I used it as a journal and didn’t share my rapping with anyone,” Taylah says. “Around a year later, I started posting clips on Youtube and Instagram, and a teacher at my school encouraged me to go to a local open mic night.”
From there, Taylah attended a music workshop in Gympie for under 18s, where she met Adnyamathanha and Torres Strait Islander musician and producer Uncle Kev Starkey, with whom she would collaborate for several years.
In 2021 they released Taylah’s first single, White Lies, which uses a deconstructed sample of the Australian national anthem to offer a sharp critique of the country’s treatment of its First Nations Peoples.
The song did well on the radio and earned Taylah J a coveted spot in the 2021 Triple J Unearthed High Yearbook. It also set the tone for the strong social themes that dominate her work, including racism, discrimination, poverty and substance abuse.
“I’ve had a lot of personal experience with different social issues and oppressions, and rap has always been a way not only for me to get through it, but to also voice my opinions on issues that impact young people,” Taylah says.
After she left school and moved out of home, Uncle Kev – an Honorary Senior Fellow who helped to develop UniSC’s Bachelor of Music – encouraged Taylah to give uni a go.
As the first in her family to attend university, the experience was new, but she soon found her feet.
“I’d been out of school a couple of years, so I had a lot of things to catch up on – I struggled at first to pick up the academic side,” she says.
“But I found the environment was really supportive, which I appreciated, and it was easy to be engaged with the content because this was my passion.
“There are some subjects I’ve enjoyed because it feels like I’m just writing a song, which is what I’d be doing anyway.
"I’ve also found the production side interesting – I had some industry experience, but before this I didn’t have any knowledge in musical theory, so uni has really helped with that.”
Taylah also chose electives in sociology, which have helped her build a theoretical foundation for exploring the social issues that underpin her music.
Now halfway through her degree, Taylah is looking forward to collaborating more with other artists while she continues to establish herself as an emerging female MC, and one day hopes to work in the industry for a record label, studio or music venue.
And while the journey hasn’t always been smooth sailing – including a two-year break from study to work and focus on her mental health – Taylah says uni, and the people she’s met along the way, have helped her gain a fresh perspective on her younger self.
“Coming to the Sunny Coast to study has introduced me to a whole new demographic of people, and given me a new appreciation for uni and formal education,” she says.
“Most of the people I went to school with weren’t going on to uni or work, and when I think back to the person I was, at the time I didn’t want school or uni either.
“But I think my life experiences and what I went through during those years helped me decide who I am and what I want to do.
“Being the first in my family to make it here is really important.”
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