Two minutes was all it took to propel Matt to stardom with the rap song From My Heart dedicated to his mum Helen, which he wrote while in juvenile detention at Orana Justice Centre a decade ago.

“I have nothing but a criminal record, no education and a talent that makes people cry,” he said in Dubbo yesterday.

He credits the town of Coonabarabran of holding “every memory” of his young life where he learnt many hard lessons.

“I was a bugger of a kid, Denis the Menace. Anything to cause havoc, anything to cause trouble. Nobody told me the decisions to make and I had to learn from it. I learnt my own right and wrong,” he said.

Since that time Matt has worked hard on his craft as a rap artist through welfare payments and by the generosity of others to help develop his talent.

“I have rapped for the last 10 years of my life and recorded from local recording studio Dubbo Hot Tracks Recording Studio with Wes Thompson. All this recording we have done was from Centrelink payments and a lot of the time voluntarily recorded by the producer of the studio,” he said.

Matt said he believed the opportunity that was presented by Australia’s Got Talent wasn’t about his past wrongs but what he can do with his future.

“I hope to make every young troubled child - black, white or brindle - to have hope and a dream. If you are good at what you do it doesn’t matter what other people say,”he said.

While providing inspiration to others, Matt wants to use his new-found fame to be closer to his own inspiration, his 13-month-old daughter Alexis, who currently lives in New Zealand with her mother.

Matt hopes his career as a rap artist, which has finally started to take off, will earn him a ticket across the Tasman Sea not only to entertain but to watch his daughter grow.