Dub dot dash

P Money does some arse kicking.
I went to the Aotearoa Hiphop Summit at the weekend, saw some wicked graffiti art including some cars getting painted (nice work, Sparrow!), some good hiphop and some not so good hiphop. There are a lot of local hiphop albums dropping in the next month - for example, RES, Alphrisk and The Feelstyle all release their albums Oct 11. Grant Smithies noted in the Sunday Star Times yesterday that...

Lately there have been substantially more local hip-hop records on the radio, video clips on TV and CDs being sold than ever before. "Behold the long-awaited flowering of Aotearoa's hip-hop underground!" cry the grateful multitudes, including me. Virtually every recorded utterance by a local rapper is declared not just socially relevant but witty, wise and original beyond measure. Lift up the hoodie of any passing local rapper and you'll find big bruises from too much back-patting. Well, P Money isn't among those doing the patting....
"Look, nobody could doubt that I love New Zealand hip-hop, but it doesn't help the music to just say everything that's made here is great. A lot of mediocre local songs are currently getting thrashed on the radio. We need to stop being stoked just because NZ rap songs are finally on the radio, and start trying to get better rap songs on it. Everyone needs to push themselves harder." A big sigh billows down the phone, followed by a phrase you'd expect from a frowning grandad: "I mean, where's the work ethic?"

Read more here, or here (if the SST has hidden it behind their stupid archive).