Hip Hop Music of New Zealand

The beginning of the New Zealand hip hop started with emergence of the hip pop culture in the United States. Many of the New Zeland’s first hip hop artists like Dalvanius Prime, whose Poi E was a main hit, were Maori. Poi E had no rapping, but apparently a change from reggae and funk favored by Maori artists.

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The first whole album of the locally released hip hop was Upper Hutt Posse’s E Tu EP from 1988. E Tu was partly in Maori and partly in English and the lyrics were politically charged.

The first main New Zealand hip hop song was Hip Hop Holiday by 3 The Hard Way. Showing the song Dreadlock Holiday by 10CC, it became one number for several weeks in early 1994 and also an Australian hit.

In the 90s, the New Zealand hip hop scene was increased with the added input of the Pacific Island artists, making a local variants pattern called Urban Pasifika, a word was first originated by producer Alan Jansson for the powerful proud collection in 1994. That compilation features OMC and Sister Underground that helped the setting of the stage for their next period of New Zealand hip hop. Protest content was still present, but the musical and lyrical importance had largely changed into a more chart-friendly sound.

In the year 2005, Savage, a New Zealand Samon hip hop musician had back-to-back became the number one hits with Swing and Moonshine and later feature the United States musician Akon. Swing was used in the 2007 film Knocked Up and also sold more than 1.8 billion copies in the United States which make it to have a double platinum. The song also emerged on the United States compilation.