Author of Hip Hop & Hymns

Mawunyo Gbogbo is the author of Hip Hop & Hymns: A memoir of loving hard, falling apart and fighting back, set to an unrivalled playlist. That unrivalled playlist is available on Spotify, YouTube and Apple Music. And because you can never have too many playlists, international DJ Just Dizle has created an incredible party playlist.

Published by Penguin Random House and available in all good bookstores, online, and as an eBook and audiobook, Hip Hop & Hymns is described by Books+Publishing as "a beautiful and heart-wrenching memoir". In selecting it as their non-fiction pick of the week, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age said "This tough coming-through tale has real impact".

Mawunyo writes about growing up in the sleepy coal mining town of Muswellbrook, NSW, with her love of storytelling and budding journalism career taking her to The City That Never Sleeps: New York City, where she interns at the Bible of hip hop - the Source Magazine. Mawunyo is a brave new voice on the topic of race and identity as she shares the trials and triumphs she's endured from childhood and on each rung along the way up the media ladder.

Mawunyo is currently working on her second book and debut novel It Takes One to Know One about a psychiatrist who is crazier than his patients. It's his superpower, until it isn't.

Both books are assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body.

Mawunyo Gbogbo is a journalist specialising in popular culture for ABC News Digital. You can read some of her stories here.

There are other stories she's proud of that you won't find there including this very personal article she wrote to comfort and encourage those who suddenly found themselves unemployed during the pandemic. 

You'll hear Mawunyo's voice on the wireless from time to time. Here she interviews Breakfast TV host Karl Stefanovic, Boxer turned lawyer Lovemore Ndou, and politician Linda Burney about the music they love. You'll also see her pop up on TV doing live crosses and interviewing stars like Keith Urban.

She has worked as a music and pop culture reporter for Double J and ABC News; a journalist for ABC NewsRadio; a reporter for the flagship audio current affairs programs AM, The World Today and PM, a features reporter and producer for ABC Radio Sydney; a segment producer for the Today show on Channel Nine; and an associate producer for Insight on SBS TV, where she won a United Nations Association of Australia Media Peace Award for Increasing Awareness and Understanding of Children's Rights and Issues for the Insight program Generation XXX. She was a 2024 finalist in the Music Journalist Award category at the Australian Women in Music Awards.

Mawunyo is passionate about social justice, health and entertainment.