Overwhelmed (and overjoyed)
Thanks for all the kind messages and support over the last week.
Oh man. Where to start and where to end? I’m not going to be beat around the bush, the last week has been beautiful but overwhelming. On Thursday night, we surprise launched our new documentary podcast, Aotearoa Hip-Hop: The Music, The People, The History. From that moment, it’s been a whirlwind. First off all, thank you to everyone who lived - and continues to live - the story of Hip-Hop in New Zealand. Your contributions, posts, comments and messages have been incredible. We can’t thank you enough.
Secondly, an equal thanks to everyone overseas who has been talking about, sharing, and supporting the podcast. I wasn’t really expecting this project to get much interest outside of New Zealand, so you’ve made a very tired Martyn feel very happy. No photographs from yours truly this week, maybe next week. And with that said, let us proceed.
AOTEAROA HIP-HOP PODCAST COVERAGE RECAP #1
A big thank you to Patrick Hinton and Aneesa Ahmed at Mixmag, at staff at DJ Mag, Andrew Mason at Wax Poetics, Todd L Burns at Music Journalism Insider, Chris Cudby at Under The Radar, Laura McInnes at Sniffers, George Fenwick at Stuff, and 95bfm.
I also want to highlight a tweet.
Lani, I’d expect no less, but you really fucking got it. Thank you.
WHAT I’VE BEEN DOING:
To support the podcast, I’m writing a series of six features for Audio Culture | Iwi Waiata - The Noisy Library of New Zealand Music | Te pātaka korihi o ngā puoro o Aotearoa. The first one is a wide-angle profile of Wellington’s 1980s hip-hop pioneer DJ Tee Pee. It’s a story that traces a line from Sydney, Australia’s 1960s drag clubs to the 70s disco scene in Wellington, before arriving in hip-hop in the eighties. Side plots include US Basketball players bringing hip-hop mixtapes to New Zealand, the early days of local radio and TV paying attention to the genre, benders in Los Angeles, and a night spent partying with Stevie Wonder.
On Friday, they’re publishing the second feature in the series, the story of Samoan beatboxer, DJ, rapper and producer Jeremy Toomata. Jeremy grew up in Auckland, entered the industry through a pop-rap duo, Double J & Twice The T, before vanishing into the underground with his cult groups Radio Backstab & DJ Pay Back and Overdose. It’s a really cool story with a twist ending.
WHAT I’VE BEEN READING:
Katie Thomas on Atlanta club DJ/producer Nikki Nair, for DJ Mag’s Recognise Series [includes a DJ mix]
Roseann V. Warren on Los Angeles’ Real to Real, the Leon Sylvers/Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis mentored boogie group who almost did, for Wax Poetics.
Maria Barrios on the legendary Bolivian singer-songwriter Luzmila Carpio’s Yuyay Jap’ina Tapes, for Bandcamp.
Elisa Gonzalez on how alienation became her superpower, for The New York Times.
A TWEET
I had to. Sorry Joshua.
BONUS:
Rare footage of Susumu Yokota performing live as Ebi (Shrimp). Some of you will already be across this, but thank you to In Sheep’s Clothing Hifi for highlighting the Susumu Yokota clips I’ve been sharing on Twitter.
Five Steez’s new album Quietude is out now. Congrats bro!
Tony Stamp rummages through Tori Amos' nature-inspired sixteenth album, guitar-pop wunderkind Snail Mail's second, and an electronic tribute to a lost friend by Tāmaki producer Skymning for RNZ.
SHERELLE’s Fabric compilation is coming out on Friday.
Cult dance mag Jockey Slut is crowdfunding to relaunch as Disco Pogo.
ONE MORE TWEET
How good?!
FIN.