New Zealand hip hop

New Zealand hip hop derives from the wider hip hop cultural movement originating amongst African Americans 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 gangster 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.

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 traditionally very popular amongst Māori or Pacific Islanders, who are 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 the what some regard as the first New Zealand hip hop song to become a hit was Dalvinius Prime's Poi E, from 1985, which was entirely in Te Reo Māori (the Māori language). 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 Moa Hunters, 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 Moa Hunters to encourage the Maori people to learn more about their culture and their traditional language. The majority of the lyrics are in English .

Another claimant to the first Hip Hop single in New Zealand was The Chain Gang's Jump from 1988, produced by Alan Jansson, it featured Chris Ma'ia'i who would later turn up as the rapper in 3 The Hard Way.

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 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 1990 the South Auckland and West Auckland hip hop scenes were thriving with dozens of young acts, many promoted by Voodoo Entertainment in dances and clubs with large local followings.

The first major New Zealand hip hop hit was Hip Hop Holiday by 3 The Hard Way which went to number one for several weeks in 1993 and was also an Australian hit. To date, it remains the biggest selling NZ 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 a decade later with another number one, It's On.

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, a term first coined by producer Alan Jansson for his influential Proud collection of young South Auckland rappers in 1994. His production, mixing acoustic guitars with beats, is usually regarded as one of NZ hip hop's trademark rhythms. The Proud album, featuring Sisters Underground and OMC, helped set the stage for the next decade of NZ hip hop, including the important work of producer and impresario, Phil Fuemana. Regarded as the father figure of Auckland hip hop, Fuemana signed or tutored many of the names who came to dominate NZ hip hop in the 2st Century.

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.

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 only has a population of 4 million people, but their artists have created a stir in the hip hop world.. Che Fu is one of New Zealand's most successful hip hop artists. He actually began his career at high school with a group of friends. 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 90's 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 Savage, Korza, 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. 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 1980's. 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 accent's and other 'foreign' markers, Samoan youth in California used dancing and hip hop to assert themselves. This is because young Samoan's in multicultural neighborhoods earned status and respect through mastering physical physical activities like dance and sports. Nearly three decades of Somoan 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 prideful 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.

Notable Artists

• Scribe
• P-Money
• PNC
• Che Fu
• Young Sid
• Sisters Underground
• 3 The Hard Way
• OMC
• Frontline
• David Dallas
• Nesian Mystik
• Deceptikonz
• Savage
• Mareko
• Tyree
• Ill Semantics
• R.E.S.
• Cyphanetik
• DLT

Too much about samoan rappers

Breakdancing

Breakdancing first came to New Zealand via American 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[1].

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.

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.

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 particualar focus on Aotearoa NZ and Indigenous Hip Hop.