NZ hip-hop cannot be stopped! (Pity)
Remember when Scribe burst on to the scene with his chants of "we can't be stopped" with his double single (a clever way of releasing essentially the same song) Stand Up/Not Many? I say burst on to the scene, but this was 2003 and the man born Malo Luafutu was already known to New Zealand hip-hop fans for his contributions on P-Money's debut album, Big Things. But he made a mainstream audience from singing the same song twice.
Big things were indeed promised by Scribe, and apparently expected. And the success of his album - a rather embarrassing collection of clichés wrapped in tinny, garden-shed productions (a shame, because P-Money is a clever chap but his production for that album is awful) - became a reason for people to celebrate an apparent genre: New Zealand Hip-Hop. Not just hip-hop that comes from this part of the world; the name of the country was in the title of the genre as if it was an ingredient. That's a worry.
It wasn't just Scribe though. Around this time, a couple of years either side of The Crusader, we had Auckland crew The Deceptikonz, and from that group, most famously, we would hear from Savage and then Mareko (and then, depending on how much of a sucker for punishment you are/were, Devolvo).
In Wellington there were The Foot Souljahs - probably better than The Deceptikonz (certainly to begin with) but unfortunate to not be walking distance from the Dawn Raid label.
New Zealand's hip-hop scene really took off because it was marketed at the easiest target - impressionable (and clueless) teens and tweens - and because it was reduced to knuckle-scraping, lowest-common-denominator big beats and lazy grunts.
P-Money's Big Things was clever, his Big Things Instrumentals was even better, showing that there was talent and technique, a method to creating the breaks and beats. But since then he's taken the safe route with his releases, dumbed down and disappointing for Scribe's Crusader record and for the subsequent P-Money releases.
The biggest problem with these artists is that they have nothing to say.
Take Savage's song Swing. The sell-job for doting fans is that this song has done well. It was in the movie Knocked Up - so it must be good, right? So good that it's been remade and placed on the new album. I know they are trying to break him internationally - and follow up on hype - but when an artist's biggest hit from his first album is there again for all to see (and sadly hear) on the second album, all I think is this artist has nothing to say. Their career is over.
Scribe's follow-up, Rhyme B
ook, was even more facile than The Crusader; at least that album had hits - even if Not Many was a terrible Eminem rip.
Now, I know a lot of people who read this blog do not like hip-hop - I've heard the arguments before and those people must be pleased to note that I have kept coverage of the genre to a minimum. But this is not even about being a fan of the wider genre - this is about false advertising.
What we are being sold (if we buy it and buy in to it) is New Zealand Hip-Hop. And what is that exactly?
Well it sounds almost exactly like American hip-hop, just a) not as good, b) cheaply produced, c) with faltering, wavering accents (often American accents are still attempted), and d) with utterly unbelievable stories about how tough it is on the streets of Auckland.
The latest, awful example is Smashproof. We were told to be impressed because their song, Brother, had set a record. It has now, mercifully, been bumped down the list but it held the top spot longer than Sailing Away - by All of Us. So many people have talked about checking it out because of the hype, only to feel disappointed. Well people: the clue to how stunningly average Brother would be is surely in the fact that its competition was Sailing Away!
Meanwhile, Jody Lloyd has, under the names Dark Tower, Trillion and most recently as Jody O. Lloyd, been releasing clever cut'n'paste amalgams of dance music, indie pop, hip-hop and electronica. He sings about New Zealand (and not about how tough it is on the streets) capturing the boredom (or ennui, if you prefer the arty sound of that word) and he uses his own voice: a true Kiwi accent, twanging his way through the lines. He has a body of work that has been largely ignored. It's made all the more tragic by the fact that he has also released the work of other under-appreciated artists under his She'll Be Right imprint and has recently relocated across the ditch. Maybe we'll claim him as our own when he finds success in Australia?
I think of Lloyd as a Kiwi folk musician, a practitioner of a true indigenous music, bending the ideal of hip-hop to suit his own ideas. That's what I would call New Zealand Hip-Hop (check out his latest, Loops of Love, it's been on high rotate for me; I can't get enough of it).
But Lloyd will never get the recognition he deserves here because the sound cannot be packaged up by Telecom or Vodafone and sold to people who only want to like a song that they can download as a ring-tone or bop along to in a packaged/branded music showcase where it's a see-and-be-seen exercise for the kids.
Hip-hop is an American music - in terms of the rap music that first found its way on to stereos on the 1980s coming from the 1970s disco and soul movements. But there are many different global variants. Unfortunately New Zealand's version is often lazy, riddled with obviousness and lacking in anything to make it feel distinctive.
So, I'd like New Zealand Hip-Hop to sit down for a while and come back when it's ready to admit that it's a sad facsimile of an established sound. And if we boil it down, it should be the easiest form of music to compete with internationally: it's just a guy spinning a record, stealing tunes while someone makes up rhymes over the top, right?
And the record companies need to accept a huge portion of the blame for being lazy and obvious in their selections here too.
What do you think? Would you like to see New Zealand Hip-Hop stopped?
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Oh dear Simon I can hear the knives being sharpened already! And if Scribe's reaction to the Real Grooves editor's review is anything to go by, I'd be checking underneath my car from now on.
I wouldn't really know if NZ hip-hop is a half-baked facsimile of the American genre because I'm one of those people you mentioned who doesn't like hip-hop, whether it's NZ or American. And why? Because it seems to me that most of the purveyors of this genre are self-important, egotistical little wa*nks, and I really don't like the message so many of them attempt to portray. I find the genre, by its very nature, arrogant. And for the most part, completely useless. It contributes nothing. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Diddly-squat. It's puffed up for no good reason.
While it will probably pale in comparison to the reaction your blog is going to get, I know that my comments are going to upset fans of the genre. I'm waiting for the tirade. Which is fine, because (as I've said over and over in my comments on this blog) everyone is entitled to their opinion. I'll just be laughing if this provokes a vitriolic response because with each self-righteous and outraged syllable, you'll be proving my point.
Thank you, drive through.
I liked King Kapisi's Savage Thoughts, which didn't all sound the same, had some thoughtful lyrics and one outstanding track, Screems from the Old Plantation. The rest of NZ hip hop leaves me as cold as the antics of the brain-dead sh*theads who buy into it and wear their trousers around their knees while pretending to be tough street crews in Pap2toes. Frankly it's a bit of an evolutionary dead end, isn't it?
Shun the non-believer! shuuuunnnn... First FFD, now this. If you continue to massacre all our sacred cows, I may have to change my name to Iknowwhereyoureburied.
I am no fan of hip hop, or rap, or whatever they keep deciding to change its name too. However, if something interesting and different comes along, i can listen to it. I loved The first Beastie Boys album when it came out many years ago, as it was novel i guess. It was funny, had some great riffs, and good "beats" for want of a better term. I loved Eminem for the same reason. It wasn't just rapping, it had some great grooves and basslines. It was "musical" I guess. Most other hip hop (including NZ hip hop) is more concerned with words than music. At least, that is the impression I get. But then, i am not really a fan. I love Rage Against the Machine, but once again, its more for the musicality of it than that "rap". I have no idea what the point was i was making, but what the hell, there is my 2 cents worth! haha.
Face it Simon, this is more about how YOU don't like Hip Hop, not about discrediting our version of the artform. What, you don't think loads of other genres are mere carbon copies of what has already been done? You think Midnight Youth have reinvented the wheel? No, but they are successful. Emos, Punks, Metalheads, Country artists...you should go in on the lot bro, cos thats what they are, copies - just with a NZ twist.
This is about YOUR dislike and thats fine. Ultimately though, the fact that 'Brother' broke a record is not about beating the lame 'Sailing Away' track, its about the PUBLIC stating THEY like it. Further, people weren't SOLD NZ Hip Hop, they chose to consume it, just years earlier us brownies were the laughing stock of the industry - that came from the inherent racism in this country that lingered from the 60's and 70's, not becos of a US genre we suddenly tried out and the 'powers that be' decided it was easy to sell, we were already making music before they attempted that.
Please continue chest beating however, youre entitled to it. Mean. Phil
Well I'm not a huge fan of the genre (hip-hop that is) but have always enjoyed the work put out by Jody - he's got to be one of the hardest working muso's in New Zealand.
I tend to agree that NZ hip-hop does feel like a knock off of american culture - but people like Jody show that we could have an actual NZ hip-hop scene which reflects NZ society - which is what hip-hop and rap are supposed to do (be a reflection of a community - exactley the same as punk and country).
Hi there Simon - long time reader and commentator. And, generally we seem to agree but not here, not here.
And, to be honest, you're really not doing anything to discourage the people who think you're down on any music made by brown musicians, aren't you?
What is wrong - honestly, what is wrong - with pumped up party music, that gets the pulse racing and the dance moves flowing. Music like that is hardly ever original, but isn't it a positive thing that these are kids from New Zealand doing it, having fun with it, entertaining other kids with it? Sure, it may be low-fi - but, hey, most of it's listeners will be listening to it on crappy stereos or low-quality MP3s and when it's pumped up loud on a Friday night it's still got the bass, hasn't it?
One doesn't have to like it - It's not my listening choice, that's for sure. But it's existance, the obvious pride it creates in it's fans, and the fact it does what it sets out to do - those are all worthwhile things, aren't they?
Simon there's a typo in your headline: "NZ hip-hop cannot be stopped! (Pity)"
Should read: "NZ music cannot be stopped! (Pity)"
Hip-hop is just one genre of music that NZ makes so godawfully it's embarrassing. 98% of NZ music sounds like what it is - cheaply made, barely talented rip-offs of Austrlian and US artists.
Occassionally we get some really good artists - but they move on (like all NZ talent) to Australia pretty quickly.
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i have been put through the ringer for owning canterbury drafts, and for still listening to it, but it kicks scribe's arse! gotta get over the cultural cringe though...but at least it's got an identity of it's own!