New Zealand hip hop
Encyclopedia
New Zealand hip hop derives from the wider hip hop cultural movement originating amongst African American
s in the United States
. Like the parent movement, New Zealand
hip hop consists of four parts: rapping
, DJing, graffiti
art
and breakdancing. The first element of hip hop to reach New Zealand was breakdancing, which gained notoriety after the release of the 1979 movie The Warriors. The first hip hop hit single, "Rapper's Delight
" by the Sugarhill Gang, became a hit in New Zealand when it was released there in 1980, a year after it was released in the United States. By the middle of the 1980s, breakdancing and graffiti art were established in urban areas like Wellington
and Christchurch
. By the early 1990s hip hop became a part of mainstream New Zealand culture.
Hip hop music is very popular amongst Māori and Pacific Islander
s, who have also been the majority of rappers, although many of the early crews were of Pākehā
(white New Zealanders) and other ethnic groups, many of whom have enjoyed commercial and critical success. Some of the first hip hop musicians to achieve recognition combined American styles with Māori language
and traditional songs. For example, Dalvanius Prime
's 1984 "Poi E
", which some regard as the first New Zealand hip hop song to become a hit, was entirely in Māori. Upper Hutt Posse
likewise combined hip hop and Māori culture in their 1988 single "E Tu", which was arguably New Zealand's first pure hip hop single. Primative Morbid was a more underground yet powerful group. Some rappers, such as the members of Upper Hutt Posse, became known for politicized lyrics in support of tino rangatiratanga
(Maori sovereignty).
Another Maori hip hop group, Moana and the Moahunters
, who won a New Zealand Music Industry award for best Maori recording in 1992, speak out against the perceived racism they see against the Maori people in New Zealand. They cite the rarity of airtime on national radio for Maori music and the exclusion from the mainstream music industry as reflective of the wider societal problem. The awarded song is called "AEIOU (Akona Te Reo)", and translates as "Learn the Language". Its release was directed primarily at Maori youth who do not speak Maori. The song has been viewed as a plea by Moana and the Moahunters to encourage the Maori people to learn more about their culture and their traditional language. The majority of the lyrics are in English.
Early hip hop releases in New Zealand include the collection Ak89 - In Love With These Rhymes, compiled by Simon Laan and released by Auckland radio bFm in 1989 (on cassette only), and a variety of releases by Deepgrooves,Voodoo Vinyl and Southside Records, owned by Murray Cammick
. Amongst these were releases by Urban Disturbance featuring a young rapper, Zane Lowe
, now a UK radio personality, and MC OJ & Rhythm Slave.
By the late 80`s the South Auckland
and West Auckland
hip hop scenes were thriving with dozens of young acts, many promoted as part of the Voodoo Rhyme syndicate which featured acts such as the'Semi MC`s, Mc Slam & DJ Jam, Total Effect, Sisters Underground
, Enemy Productions (which featured a very young Dei Hamo
), Boy C & the BB3(which later became Three the Hard Way), the Chaingang and many more. Most of the acts that joined the Voodoo Ryhme Syndicate were discovered mainly through talent contests by Voodoo Ryhme Syndicate founder, a young DJ Andy Vann. The Voodoo Rythme Synidicate hosted the Voodoo dance parties to raise funds to record the acts and formed Voodoo vinyl in 1989. Voodoo Vinyls first release in 1989 was Enemy Productions Stop Tagging produced by Voodoo Rhyme sydicate founder Andy Vann. Other notable releases Semi MC`s Set Your Body Free & Trust Me, Mc Slam & DJ Jam Prove Me Wrong, Sisters Underground
In the Neighbourhood, Chaingang
Break the Beat & Jump all of which achieved Top 40 success in New Zealand. Many of the artists from Voodoo Vinyl featured on the compilation album Proud produced by Andy Vann, Allan Jansen and Phil Fuemana
In the 1990s, New Zealand hip hop went from strength to strength with the added input of Pacific Island musicians, creating a local variant style known as "urban Pasifika
", Proud
collection of young South Auckland rappers in 1991. The production, mixing acoustic guitars with beats, is usually regarded as one of New Zealand hip hop's trademark rhythms.the album project originally began as a compilation album of Voodoo Vinyl artists but formed a collaboration with the Manukau city council to include artists from the Otara Music centre who had been working with Phil Fuemana. The Proud album, featuring Sisters Underground
Semi Mc`s, Pacifican Descendants and OMC
, helped set the stage for the next decade of New Zealand hip hop, including the important work of producer and impresario, Phil Fuemana. Phil Fuemana is regarded as one of the fathers of New Zealand Hip Hop.
It was Fuemana's brother, Pauly, who, as OMC
with Alan Jansson, took the urban Pacific sound into the world's charts with the multi-million selling "How Bizarre
", in 1995–97
The first major New Zealand hip hop hit was "Hip Hop Holiday" by 3 The Hard Way
. Released by the Deepgrooves label thru Festival Records, it sampled the song "Dreadlock Holiday
" by 10CC
and went to number one for several weeks in 1993 and was also an Australian hit. To date, it remains the biggest selling New Zealand hip hop single in New Zealand. The song proved to be the beginning of a series of local hip hop chart hits over the next decade. They returned nine years later with another number one, "It's On
".
Despite the style's burgeoning popularity, many New Zealanders hated hip hop, and some radio stations implemented a so-called "no rap, no crap" policy. Upper Hutt Posse's DJ, DLT
, also influenced the local scene in Auckland
, including Joint Force, Che Fu
and Dam Native
. DLT also began the influential radio show True Skool Hip Hop Show, which joined Wellington's Wednesday Night Jam in promoting hip hop. Although not the first radio in Auckland to play local hip hop (Simon Grigg
& Nick D'Angelo had long been championing it on bFm) it was the first dedicated show.
Wellington's underground scene was vibrant in the late '80s, from whence arose the local supergroup Rough Opinion
and a wave of performers like The Wanderers, Temple Jones and Hamofide.
New Zealand has a population of just 4 million people, but its artists have created a stir in the hip hop world. Che Fu is one of New Zealand's most successful hip hop artists. He began his career at high school with a group of friends and they eventually formed the Low Down Dirty Blues Band, which went on to be the legendary Supergroove
. Their first album, Traction
sold triple platinum and went on to win countless awards. Che Fu's fame continued through the 90s with his involvement with DLT in the number one hit song Chains in 1996, and in 2002 he won album of the year in the New Zealand music awards.
In the 1990s and the beginning of the 21st century, Maori and Polynesian hip hop musicians grew steadily more popular, resulting in a style called Urban Pasifika
. However artists from this period were from a variety of cultures and included Che Fu
, Nesian Mystik
and Scribe
, who became the first to top both the single and album charts at the same time in 2004, and also the most famous acts associated with the biggest record producer
in the field, P-Money
and Savage
who in 2009 became the first New Zealand hip hop artist in history to have a commercial single achieve platinum certification status in the United States for selling in excess of one million units, with his single "Swing" (a remix in 2008 was released featuring American rapper Soulja Boy
), which had already been released in Australia and New Zealand in 2005, and featured in the 2007 United States film Knocked Up
. Most of these artists are signed with Dawn Raid Entertainment
, a Polynesian
-run record label based in Manukau
. Dawn Raid briefly went out of business early in 2007 after financial problems resulting from expensive production of several albums. However, investors were found and the label was resurrected.
In Wellington, K.O.S.-163, more commonly known as Kosmo, turned up the hip hop scene during the 1980s. Back from a visit from Los Angeles, California, Kosmo introduced a new type of dance called popping
that he had mastered there. Aware of their accents and other 'foreign' markers, Samoan youth in California used dancing and hip hop to assert themselves. This is because young Samoans in multicultural neighborhoods earned status and respect through mastering physical activities like dance and sports. Nearly three decades of Samoan involvement in street dance and rap music has influenced the scene in other cities such as Wellington. With two other New Zealanders, Kosmo started the hip hop group called "The Mau". The name represents Samoan independence. Samoans are a very proud group of people, so this name is very fitting. Samoans do not like to follow other cultures and believe that having their own unique identity is very important. The Samoans wanted to break free from dominant culture and assert their own culture. This hip hop group represented this Samoan pride.
in New Zealand is a prestigious honour for New Zealand songwriters. In 1999, King Kapisi
became the first hip hop artist to receive the Silver Scroll Award for his single Reverse Resistance. In 2002, Che Fu (and Godfrey de Grut) won for Misty Frequencies, Nesian Mystik in 2004 with their single For the People, and in 2004, Scribe and P-Money won with their huge hit Not Many.
through Western Samoa in the early 1980s. One can see the influence of Samoan culture in New Zealand's appropriation of breakdancing specifically through language. The term "bopping," for example, comes from a Samoan pronunciation of popping, one of the elements in breakdance, where a dancer will move in a stilted fashion, isolating their limbs robotically. After its initial period of popularity, breakdancing fell out of fashion for most of the 1990s. Late in that decade it underwent a revival, and breakdancing stages can be found at events such as the Aotearoa Hip-Hop Summit.
The nearly three decades of Samoan involvement in street dance and rap music in California has significantly impacted Samoan cultural production in other places where Samoans have settled, including New Zealand. The dancing in New Zealand is heavily influenced by American dances.
One reason break dancing became popular was that many youth saw it as a way of being recognized or a channel of identity. Maori youth that had little chance of being recognized for accomplishments in school or sport found break dancing as a new way to achieve recognition. Early on, New Zealand even sponsored a national break dancing competition for young Maori and Pacific Islanders. This helped many young breakers to realize their potential by giving them a nation audience.
Many of the Maori and Pacific Island youth found alternative possibilities to organize their daily lives. Images of street dance arriving via imported American media - such as the movies Flashdance
or Beat Street
granted a legitimacy to their efforts. This gave a boost of confidence for both Maori and the children of recent immigrants, and the American street dance forms such as popping, locking and breaking created a friendly environment for the Maori and Pacific Islander youth in order to fashion their own styles and codes.
is a Maori graffiti artist.
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
s in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Like the parent movement, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
hip hop consists of four parts: rapping
Rapping
Rapping refers to "spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics". The art form can be broken down into different components, as in the book How to Rap where it is separated into “content”, “flow” , and “delivery”...
, DJing, graffiti
Graffiti
Graffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property....
art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
and breakdancing. The first element of hip hop to reach New Zealand was breakdancing, which gained notoriety after the release of the 1979 movie The Warriors. The first hip hop hit single, "Rapper's Delight
Rapper's Delight
"Rapper's Delight" is a 1979 single by American hip hop trio The Sugarhill Gang. While it was not the first single to feature rapping, it is generally considered to be the song that first popularized hip hop in the United States and around the world. The song's opening lyric "I said a hip hop, a...
" by the Sugarhill Gang, became a hit in New Zealand when it was released there in 1980, a year after it was released in the United States. By the middle of the 1980s, breakdancing and graffiti art were established in urban areas like Wellington
Wellington
Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...
and Christchurch
Christchurch
Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area after Auckland. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of...
. By the early 1990s hip hop became a part of mainstream New Zealand culture.
Music
By the late 1980s strong hip hop scenes had developed in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch with dozens of bands and rappers performing. The first New Zealand hip hop DJ Competition was held in Auckland in 1989, with DJ Ned Roy winning.Hip hop music is very popular amongst Māori and Pacific Islander
Pacific Islander
Pacific Islander , is a geographic term to describe the indigenous inhabitants of any of the three major sub-regions of Oceania: Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia.According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, these three regions, together with their islands consist of:Polynesia:...
s, who have also been the majority of rappers, although many of the early crews were of Pākehā
Pakeha
Pākehā is a Māori language word for New Zealanders who are "of European descent". They are mostly descended from British and to a lesser extent Irish settlers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, although some Pākehā have Dutch, Scandinavian, German, Yugoslav or other ancestry...
(white New Zealanders) and other ethnic groups, many of whom have enjoyed commercial and critical success. Some of the first hip hop musicians to achieve recognition combined American styles with Māori language
Maori language
Māori or te reo Māori , commonly te reo , is the language of the indigenous population of New Zealand, the Māori. It has the status of an official language in New Zealand...
and traditional songs. For example, Dalvanius Prime
Dalvanius Prime
Maui Dalvanius Prime was a New Zealand entertainer and songwriter. His career spanned 30 years. He mentored many of New Zealand's Māori performers, and was a vocal and forthright supporter of Māori culture.-Early life:...
's 1984 "Poi E
Poi E
"Poi E" is a New Zealand 1984 number-one hit song by the group Patea Māori Club off the album of the same name. Its popularity is unique in New Zealand as Māori music rarely reaches popular status...
", which some regard as the first New Zealand hip hop song to become a hit, was entirely in Māori. Upper Hutt Posse
Upper Hutt Posse
Upper Hutt Posse is a musical band in Aotearoa/New Zealand. The progenitors of Hiphop music in the South Pacific originally formed as a four piece reggae group in 1985, the Posse emerged at the forefront of the local response to emerging rap culture...
likewise combined hip hop and Māori culture in their 1988 single "E Tu", which was arguably New Zealand's first pure hip hop single. Primative Morbid was a more underground yet powerful group. Some rappers, such as the members of Upper Hutt Posse, became known for politicized lyrics in support of tino rangatiratanga
Tino rangatiratanga
Tino rangatiratanga is a Māori term that can be interpreted as chieftainship. It is probably the most contentious phrase from the Māori version of the Treaty of Waitangi...
(Maori sovereignty).
Another Maori hip hop group, Moana and the Moahunters
Moana and the Moahunters
Moana and the Moahunters , was a Māori hip-hop and roots group from New Zealand, led by singer Moana that actively promoted Māori culture, traditions and history through their music....
, who won a New Zealand Music Industry award for best Maori recording in 1992, speak out against the perceived racism they see against the Maori people in New Zealand. They cite the rarity of airtime on national radio for Maori music and the exclusion from the mainstream music industry as reflective of the wider societal problem. The awarded song is called "AEIOU (Akona Te Reo)", and translates as "Learn the Language". Its release was directed primarily at Maori youth who do not speak Maori. The song has been viewed as a plea by Moana and the Moahunters to encourage the Maori people to learn more about their culture and their traditional language. The majority of the lyrics are in English.
Early hip hop releases in New Zealand include the collection Ak89 - In Love With These Rhymes, compiled by Simon Laan and released by Auckland radio bFm in 1989 (on cassette only), and a variety of releases by Deepgrooves,Voodoo Vinyl and Southside Records, owned by Murray Cammick
Murray Cammick
Murray Cammick is a New Zealand popular music journalist and record label founder. He has been a significant figure in New Zealand popular music since the late 1970s.-History:...
. Amongst these were releases by Urban Disturbance featuring a young rapper, Zane Lowe
Zane Lowe
Zane Lowe also known as 'Zipper', is a radio DJ and television presenter. He was born in New Zealand and grew up in Auckland, where he was a presenter on the local music station Max TV, before moving to England...
, now a UK radio personality, and MC OJ & Rhythm Slave.
By the late 80`s the South Auckland
South Auckland
South Auckland is an imprecisely defined area of Auckland, New Zealand, often stereotyped as a socio-economically disadvantaged, and sometimes rough, urban area with a relatively large Polynesian and Māori population. The name South Auckland is not an official place name but is in common use by New...
and West Auckland
West Auckland
West Auckland is a village in County Durham, in North East England. It is situated to the west of Bishop Auckland, on the A688 road.It is not known exactly when West Auckland was first inhabited, but there is evidence of Auckland West in the history of St. Cuthbert in the 11th century...
hip hop scenes were thriving with dozens of young acts, many promoted as part of the Voodoo Rhyme syndicate which featured acts such as the'Semi MC`s, Mc Slam & DJ Jam, Total Effect, Sisters Underground
Sisters Underground
Sisters Underground is a New Zealand RnB and hip hop group formed in 1994.-History:Best known for their 1994 hit In The Neighbourhood, the single spent 12 weeks in the New Zealand Top 50 Singles Chart, peaking at #6 and has more recently been used on TV2 advertisements...
, Enemy Productions (which featured a very young Dei Hamo
Dei Hamo
- Albums :- Singles :- External links :***- See also :*New Zealand hip hop...
), Boy C & the BB3(which later became Three the Hard Way), the Chaingang and many more. Most of the acts that joined the Voodoo Ryhme Syndicate were discovered mainly through talent contests by Voodoo Ryhme Syndicate founder, a young DJ Andy Vann. The Voodoo Rythme Synidicate hosted the Voodoo dance parties to raise funds to record the acts and formed Voodoo vinyl in 1989. Voodoo Vinyls first release in 1989 was Enemy Productions Stop Tagging produced by Voodoo Rhyme sydicate founder Andy Vann. Other notable releases Semi MC`s Set Your Body Free & Trust Me, Mc Slam & DJ Jam Prove Me Wrong, Sisters Underground
Sisters Underground
Sisters Underground is a New Zealand RnB and hip hop group formed in 1994.-History:Best known for their 1994 hit In The Neighbourhood, the single spent 12 weeks in the New Zealand Top 50 Singles Chart, peaking at #6 and has more recently been used on TV2 advertisements...
In the Neighbourhood, Chaingang
Chaingang
Chaingang are a female-fronted punk/rock band from Sydney, Australia.-Biography:Chaingang formed in 2007 following the dissolution of Hayley Foster and Mike Jeffery's former band Pinky Tuscadero on New Year's Eve 2006...
Break the Beat & Jump all of which achieved Top 40 success in New Zealand. Many of the artists from Voodoo Vinyl featured on the compilation album Proud produced by Andy Vann, Allan Jansen and Phil Fuemana
In the 1990s, New Zealand hip hop went from strength to strength with the added input of Pacific Island musicians, creating a local variant style known as "urban Pasifika
Urban Pasifika
Urban Pacifika Records is a sub-genre of hip hop which combines American style hip hop or R&B rhyming and beats with Pacific Island or Māori instrumentation and Pacific Island or Māori language singing/rapping....
", Proud
Proud (compilation)
Proud: An Urban Pacific Streetsoul Compilation is a New Zealand Hip Hop compilation album released in New Zealand by Second Nature Records and in Australia by Violation Records and later rereleased in New Zealand by huh! Records in 2000...
collection of young South Auckland rappers in 1991. The production, mixing acoustic guitars with beats, is usually regarded as one of New Zealand hip hop's trademark rhythms.the album project originally began as a compilation album of Voodoo Vinyl artists but formed a collaboration with the Manukau city council to include artists from the Otara Music centre who had been working with Phil Fuemana. The Proud album, featuring Sisters Underground
Sisters Underground
Sisters Underground is a New Zealand RnB and hip hop group formed in 1994.-History:Best known for their 1994 hit In The Neighbourhood, the single spent 12 weeks in the New Zealand Top 50 Singles Chart, peaking at #6 and has more recently been used on TV2 advertisements...
Semi Mc`s, Pacifican Descendants and OMC
OMC (band)
OMC, or Otara Millionaires Club, was a music group from Auckland, New Zealand best known for their 1996 hit "How Bizarre", named one of the greatest New Zealand songs of all time by the Australasian Performing Right Association...
, helped set the stage for the next decade of New Zealand hip hop, including the important work of producer and impresario, Phil Fuemana. Phil Fuemana is regarded as one of the fathers of New Zealand Hip Hop.
It was Fuemana's brother, Pauly, who, as OMC
OMC (band)
OMC, or Otara Millionaires Club, was a music group from Auckland, New Zealand best known for their 1996 hit "How Bizarre", named one of the greatest New Zealand songs of all time by the Australasian Performing Right Association...
with Alan Jansson, took the urban Pacific sound into the world's charts with the multi-million selling "How Bizarre
How Bizarre (song)
"How Bizarre" is the debut single of New Zealand musical group OMC from their debut album of the same name. It was released as a single in New Zealand in 1995 and internationally in 1996....
", in 1995–97
The first major New Zealand hip hop hit was "Hip Hop Holiday" by 3 The Hard Way
3 The Hard Way
3 The Hard Way is a New Zealand hiphop group formed in 1994.-History:3 The Hard Ways first release was Hip Hop Holiday, which was released in 1994. The song spent five weeks at the top of the New Zealand charts, selling in excess of thirty thousand copies, and became a Kiwi anthem...
. Released by the Deepgrooves label thru Festival Records, it sampled the song "Dreadlock Holiday
Dreadlock Holiday
-In popular culture:* The song is featured on the first episode, "Killeroo", of the first series of the British cult comedy The Mighty Boosh. Bob Fossil, head of the Zooniverse, dances to the first verse of the song while a confused Howard Moon looks on, before switching it off and explaining "And...
" by 10CC
10cc
10cc are an English art rock band who achieved their greatest commercial success in the 1970s. The band initially consisted of four musicians -- Graham Gouldman, Eric Stewart, Kevin Godley, and Lol Creme -- who had written and recorded together for some three years, before assuming the "10cc" name...
and went to number one for several weeks in 1993 and was also an Australian hit. To date, it remains the biggest selling New Zealand hip hop single in New Zealand. The song proved to be the beginning of a series of local hip hop chart hits over the next decade. They returned nine years later with another number one, "It's On
It's On
"It's On" was the second single released from Naughty by Nature's third album, 19 Naughty III. It was released on June 8, 1993 and was produced and written by the three members of the group. The single found decent success on the Billboard charts, making it to 74 on the Billboard Hot 100 and 48 on...
".
Despite the style's burgeoning popularity, many New Zealanders hated hip hop, and some radio stations implemented a so-called "no rap, no crap" policy. Upper Hutt Posse's DJ, DLT
DLT (musician)
DLT is a New Zealand DJ, music producer, composer & artist. Born Darryl Thompson in Maraenui, New Zealand.DLT was inspired by an article about rap and breakdancing in Life magazine when he was 16 years of age; he moved to Wellington in the '80s and established himself as a graffiti artist known as...
, also influenced the local scene in Auckland
Auckland
The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...
, including Joint Force, Che Fu
Che Fu
Che Fu MNZM is a New Zealand Hip hop/R&B and Reggae recording artist and producer. Originally one part of the band Supergroove, as a solo artist he has gone on to sell thousands of albums both in New Zealand and internationally, including in Australia and the UK.-History:Fu is one of New Zealand's...
and Dam Native
Dam Native
Dam Native is a New Zealand hip hop group formed in 1992.-History:Dam Native is a New Zealand hip hop group that was prominent during the mid to late 1990s. Its first members consisted of Danny Haimona and Bennett Pomana, now an ex-member...
. DLT also began the influential radio show True Skool Hip Hop Show, which joined Wellington's Wednesday Night Jam in promoting hip hop. Although not the first radio in Auckland to play local hip hop (Simon Grigg
Simon Grigg
Simon Grigg is a New Zealand music businessman, writer, radio host, publisher, producer, DJ and archivist. Born in Auckland, New Zealand, he attended Palmerston North Boys High, Auckland Grammar and the University of Auckland.-Punk rock:...
& Nick D'Angelo had long been championing it on bFm) it was the first dedicated show.
Wellington's underground scene was vibrant in the late '80s, from whence arose the local supergroup Rough Opinion
Rough Opinion
Rough Opinion, formerly known as The Mau, is a Samoan Hip hop group comprising MC’s Kosmo, “Khas the Fieldstyle Orator,” and DJ Rockit V...
and a wave of performers like The Wanderers, Temple Jones and Hamofide.
New Zealand has a population of just 4 million people, but its artists have created a stir in the hip hop world. Che Fu is one of New Zealand's most successful hip hop artists. He began his career at high school with a group of friends and they eventually formed the Low Down Dirty Blues Band, which went on to be the legendary Supergroove
Supergroove
Supergroove is a New Zealand funk rock music group. Their debut album Traction was released in 1994. The group disbanded in 1997 but recently reformed in 2007.- History :...
. Their first album, Traction
Traction (album)
Traction is the first album by New Zealand rock band Supergroove. It was released in 1994 by RCA Records, debuting at #1 on the National Album Charts and quickly reaching platinum status. Before the band could record their second album, creative differences forced member Che Ness to leave to...
sold triple platinum and went on to win countless awards. Che Fu's fame continued through the 90s with his involvement with DLT in the number one hit song Chains in 1996, and in 2002 he won album of the year in the New Zealand music awards.
In the 1990s and the beginning of the 21st century, Maori and Polynesian hip hop musicians grew steadily more popular, resulting in a style called Urban Pasifika
Urban Pasifika
Urban Pacifika Records is a sub-genre of hip hop which combines American style hip hop or R&B rhyming and beats with Pacific Island or Māori instrumentation and Pacific Island or Māori language singing/rapping....
. However artists from this period were from a variety of cultures and included Che Fu
Che Fu
Che Fu MNZM is a New Zealand Hip hop/R&B and Reggae recording artist and producer. Originally one part of the band Supergroove, as a solo artist he has gone on to sell thousands of albums both in New Zealand and internationally, including in Australia and the UK.-History:Fu is one of New Zealand's...
, Nesian Mystik
Nesian Mystik
Nesian Mystik was a New Zealand Hip-Hop/R&B group formed in 1999. Their cultural backgrounds unite a remarkable diversity of Polynesia by bringing together Cook Island, Tongan, Samoan and Maori ancestry...
and Scribe
Scribe (rapper)
Malo Luafutu better known by his stage name Scribe, is a New Zealand hip hop rapper and recording artist of Samoan descent...
, who became the first to top both the single and album charts at the same time in 2004, and also the most famous acts associated with the biggest record producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
in the field, P-Money
P-Money
-Albums:-Singles:-External links:* - News, video clips, downloads* - Information, photos, and video clips...
and Savage
Savage (rapper)
- Studio albums :-Singles:-Featured singles:- External links :*****...
who in 2009 became the first New Zealand hip hop artist in history to have a commercial single achieve platinum certification status in the United States for selling in excess of one million units, with his single "Swing" (a remix in 2008 was released featuring American rapper Soulja Boy
Soulja Boy
DeAndre Cortez Way , better known by his stage name Soulja Boy Tell 'Em, or simply Soulja Boy, is an American rapper, record producer, actor, entrepreneur, and internet personality....
), which had already been released in Australia and New Zealand in 2005, and featured in the 2007 United States film Knocked Up
Knocked Up
Knocked Up is a 2007 American romantic comedy drama film co-produced, written, and directed by Judd Apatow. Starring Seth Rogen, Katherine Heigl, Paul Rudd, and Leslie Mann, the film follows the repercussions of a drunken one-night stand between Rogen's slacker character and Heigl's just-promoted...
. Most of these artists are signed with Dawn Raid Entertainment
Dawn Raid Entertainment
Dawn Raid Entertainment is a record label based in Papatoetoe, South Auckland, in New Zealand. It has signed many New Zealand Hip-hop and R&B artists such as Savage, Adeaze, Aaradhna, The Deceptikonz, Devolo and Ill Semantics....
, a Polynesian
Polynesians
The Polynesian peoples is a grouping of various ethnic groups that speak Polynesian languages, a branch of the Oceanic languages within the Austronesian languages, and inhabit Polynesia. They number approximately 1,500,000 people...
-run record label based in Manukau
South Auckland
South Auckland is an imprecisely defined area of Auckland, New Zealand, often stereotyped as a socio-economically disadvantaged, and sometimes rough, urban area with a relatively large Polynesian and Māori population. The name South Auckland is not an official place name but is in common use by New...
. Dawn Raid briefly went out of business early in 2007 after financial problems resulting from expensive production of several albums. However, investors were found and the label was resurrected.
In Wellington, K.O.S.-163, more commonly known as Kosmo, turned up the hip hop scene during the 1980s. Back from a visit from Los Angeles, California, Kosmo introduced a new type of dance called popping
Popping
Popping is a street dance and one of the original funk styles that came from California during the 1960s-70s. It is based on the technique of quickly contracting and relaxing muscles to cause a jerk in the dancer's body, referred to as a pop or a hit...
that he had mastered there. Aware of their accents and other 'foreign' markers, Samoan youth in California used dancing and hip hop to assert themselves. This is because young Samoans in multicultural neighborhoods earned status and respect through mastering physical activities like dance and sports. Nearly three decades of Samoan involvement in street dance and rap music has influenced the scene in other cities such as Wellington. With two other New Zealanders, Kosmo started the hip hop group called "The Mau". The name represents Samoan independence. Samoans are a very proud group of people, so this name is very fitting. Samoans do not like to follow other cultures and believe that having their own unique identity is very important. The Samoans wanted to break free from dominant culture and assert their own culture. This hip hop group represented this Samoan pride.
APRA Silver Scroll Award
The annual APRA AwardsAPRA Awards
The APRA Music Awards are several award ceremonies run in Australia and New Zealand by Australasian Performing Right Association to recognise songwriting skills, sales and airplay performance by its members annually....
in New Zealand is a prestigious honour for New Zealand songwriters. In 1999, King Kapisi
King Kapisi
King Kapisi is a New Zealand Hip hop recording artist. He was the first Hip hop artist in New Zealand to receive the prestigious Silver Scroll Award at the APRA Awards for Songwriter of the Year for his single Reverse Resistance in 1999, which followed on the popular release of his debut single...
became the first hip hop artist to receive the Silver Scroll Award for his single Reverse Resistance. In 2002, Che Fu (and Godfrey de Grut) won for Misty Frequencies, Nesian Mystik in 2004 with their single For the People, and in 2004, Scribe and P-Money won with their huge hit Not Many.
Notable artists
- Young SidYoung SidSidney Diamond , best known by his stage name Young Sid, is a New Zealand rapper and member of hip-hop group Smashproof. His 2007 debut album, The Truth, was named the Urban Album of the Year at the 2008 Māori Music Awards....
- Barnzy
- ScribeScribe (rapper)Malo Luafutu better known by his stage name Scribe, is a New Zealand hip hop rapper and recording artist of Samoan descent...
- P-MoneyP-Money-Albums:-Singles:-External links:* - News, video clips, downloads* - Information, photos, and video clips...
- PNCPNC (rapper)Sam Hansen better known by his stage name PNC is a New Zealand Hip hop rapper.The name PNC is an acronym for Palmerston North CityHe went to Awatapu College. PNC first gained underground notoriety performing alongside Breaking Wreckwordz. His unofficial single "Day in the Life" stayed at number one...
- Semi Mc`s
- Che FuChe FuChe Fu MNZM is a New Zealand Hip hop/R&B and Reggae recording artist and producer. Originally one part of the band Supergroove, as a solo artist he has gone on to sell thousands of albums both in New Zealand and internationally, including in Australia and the UK.-History:Fu is one of New Zealand's...
- MC Slam & DJ Jam
- King KapisiKing KapisiKing Kapisi is a New Zealand Hip hop recording artist. He was the first Hip hop artist in New Zealand to receive the prestigious Silver Scroll Award at the APRA Awards for Songwriter of the Year for his single Reverse Resistance in 1999, which followed on the popular release of his debut single...
- Sisters UndergroundSisters UndergroundSisters Underground is a New Zealand RnB and hip hop group formed in 1994.-History:Best known for their 1994 hit In The Neighbourhood, the single spent 12 weeks in the New Zealand Top 50 Singles Chart, peaking at #6 and has more recently been used on TV2 advertisements...
- 3 The Hard Way3 The Hard Way3 The Hard Way is a New Zealand hiphop group formed in 1994.-History:3 The Hard Ways first release was Hip Hop Holiday, which was released in 1994. The song spent five weeks at the top of the New Zealand charts, selling in excess of thirty thousand copies, and became a Kiwi anthem...
- OMCOMC (band)OMC, or Otara Millionaires Club, was a music group from Auckland, New Zealand best known for their 1996 hit "How Bizarre", named one of the greatest New Zealand songs of all time by the Australasian Performing Right Association...
- FrontlineFrontline (band)-History:The New Zealand hip hop group known as 'Frontline' is a two man hip hop team: Samoan-European MC David Dallas and producer and DJ Nick Maclaren DJ 41:30...
- David DallasDavid DallasDavid Dallas is a New Zealand hip-hop artist of Samoan/European descent. Formerly known as Con Psy as part of the rap duo Frontline.- Career :...
aka Con Psy - Kryptic
- Home Brew CrewHome Brew CrewHome Brew is a New Zealand hip hop group.In 2010 they were shortlisted for the New Zealand Music Awards Critics Choice Prize. In 2010 they also played at the Big Day Out....
- Tourettes
- Nesian MystikNesian MystikNesian Mystik was a New Zealand Hip-Hop/R&B group formed in 1999. Their cultural backgrounds unite a remarkable diversity of Polynesia by bringing together Cook Island, Tongan, Samoan and Maori ancestry...
- DeceptikonzDeceptikonzThe Deceptikonz is a New Zealand Hip hop group formed in the South Auckland suburb of Manurewa in 1996 and consists of Savage, Devolo, Alphrisk and Mareko. Their debut album was Elimination released in 2002.- History :...
- SavageSavage (rapper)- Studio albums :-Singles:-Featured singles:- External links :*****...
- MarekoMarekoMark Sagapolutele , best known by his stage name Mareko, is a New Zealand rapper and hip hop artist of Samoan descent from South Auckland.- Career :...
- DLTDLT (musician)DLT is a New Zealand DJ, music producer, composer & artist. Born Darryl Thompson in Maraenui, New Zealand.DLT was inspired by an article about rap and breakdancing in Life magazine when he was 16 years of age; he moved to Wellington in the '80s and established himself as a graffiti artist known as...
- Tommy IllTommy IllTommy Ill is a Wellington, New Zealand based hip hop artist. Tommy Ill is one man, Tom Young, though the live band has three members: Kelvin Neal, Buck Beauchamp and Brian Hainsworth. Tommy's music has a reputation for being quirky, witty and eclectic...
- Rapture RuckusRapture RuckusRapture Ruckus is a Christian Hip Hop/Rock Band from Wellington New Zealand signed to BEC Recordings. They have released four Albums - "Rapture Ruckus" in 2002, "I Believe" in 2006, Rapture Ruckus Live at World's End in 2008, and Rapture Ruckus in 2010 as debut album with BEC Recordings...
- SIKEONE
Breakdancing
Breakdancing first came to New Zealand via American SamoaAmerican Samoa
American Samoa is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of the sovereign state of Samoa...
through Western Samoa in the early 1980s. One can see the influence of Samoan culture in New Zealand's appropriation of breakdancing specifically through language. The term "bopping," for example, comes from a Samoan pronunciation of popping, one of the elements in breakdance, where a dancer will move in a stilted fashion, isolating their limbs robotically. After its initial period of popularity, breakdancing fell out of fashion for most of the 1990s. Late in that decade it underwent a revival, and breakdancing stages can be found at events such as the Aotearoa Hip-Hop Summit.
The nearly three decades of Samoan involvement in street dance and rap music in California has significantly impacted Samoan cultural production in other places where Samoans have settled, including New Zealand. The dancing in New Zealand is heavily influenced by American dances.
One reason break dancing became popular was that many youth saw it as a way of being recognized or a channel of identity. Maori youth that had little chance of being recognized for accomplishments in school or sport found break dancing as a new way to achieve recognition. Early on, New Zealand even sponsored a national break dancing competition for young Maori and Pacific Islanders. This helped many young breakers to realize their potential by giving them a nation audience.
Many of the Maori and Pacific Island youth found alternative possibilities to organize their daily lives. Images of street dance arriving via imported American media - such as the movies Flashdance
Flashdance
Another song used in the film, "Maniac", was also nominated for an Academy Award. It was written by Michael Sembello and Dennis Matkosky, and was inspired by the 1980 horror film Maniac. The lyrics about a killer on the loose were rewritten so that it could be used in Flashdance...
or Beat Street
Beat Street
Beat Street is a 1984 drama film, following Wild Style in featuring New York City hip hop culture of the early 1980s; breakdancing, DJing, and graffiti.-Plot:...
granted a legitimacy to their efforts. This gave a boost of confidence for both Maori and the children of recent immigrants, and the American street dance forms such as popping, locking and breaking created a friendly environment for the Maori and Pacific Islander youth in order to fashion their own styles and codes.
Notable crews
- Primative Morbid
- Evil Mule
- Illuminartistry
- Down Side Up
- Respect Quick Clique
- QWIK N EZY - NZ Legendary Bboy Crew
- Fleshmaze
- Infinite Style Crew
- Common Ground
- Mighty Blackout Crew
- Lokomotion
Graffiti art
As elsewhere, New Zealand graffiti art takes two forms: bombing (usually large scale and multi-coloured, using paint and generally requiring some artistic skill) and tagging (stylised writing of the tagger's 'tag' name). Both are fairly underground, although some bombers have achieved some positive recognition. In terms of style both are very similar to overseas models, although a Māori or Pacific influence can sometimes be detected. DLTDLT (musician)
DLT is a New Zealand DJ, music producer, composer & artist. Born Darryl Thompson in Maraenui, New Zealand.DLT was inspired by an article about rap and breakdancing in Life magazine when he was 16 years of age; he moved to Wellington in the '80s and established himself as a graffiti artist known as...
is a Maori graffiti artist.
External links
- The Next An Impression of Hip Hop Expression A web-based resource that looks at hip hop as a global movement, with a particular focus on Aotearoa NZ and indigenous hip hop.