Blog posts
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Mar 20, 05:53 PMSmashproof Brother.
Music Blogs > Rap It Up > Smashproof Brother.Smashproof Brother.
Posted 34 minutes ago by James Castady in Rap It Up
Acclaimed South Auckland Hip-Hop stars Tyree, Young Sid and Deach burst on the scene in 2005 as Smashproof when they featured in the explosive Juse debut single Ride Til' I Die.
Smashproof have re-united after a hiatus while Tyree and Young Sid pushed their solo careers to put together their debut album, which is ready to drop in the next couple of days.
Their first single Brother, featuring New Zealand songstress Gin Wigmore has been at the top of the charts for 5 weeks, proving that Smashproof are the new Kings of NZ Hip Hop.
Smashproof have hit on a winning formula with Brother, a tale of the hardships of the hood in South Auckland. Gin Wigmore lends her quirky trade mark tone to the chorus giving an alternative slant to the song and greatly broadening the appeal of Brother beyond the Hip Hop market.
"The title of the song is a metaphor for South Auckland and all the bullsh*t that's been happening in the area", Young Sid reveals. "Our approach to a song like this is to open up the minds of those that live in a society below the average socio-economic standard, and to tell them that crime and violence is not your only option."
The video features a scene based on 2008's controversial media story of a South Auckland youth who was stabbed to death by a disgruntled homeowner after catching the youth in the act of spraying graffiti on his fence. The video hasn't suffered in anyway from its portrayal and has greatly benefited from the controversy, lending to the momentum that helped it reach number one.
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Mar 15, 08:02 PM'Nytmare' NZ's Premier "Femcee"Music Blogs > Rap It Up > 'Nytmare' NZ's Premier "Femcee"'Nytmare' NZ's Premier "Femcee"
Posted Mon 16 Mar 2009 1:49PM NZDT by James Castady in Rap It Up
Nytmare aka Hera Tamati is a Tauranga based "Femcee" who has been putting out great material for a long time and in my opinion is one of New Zealands premiere female rappers. There aren't too many females in the NZ rap game making a name for them selves which is what makes Nytemare so unique. She has an appealing presence that allows her to get gritty and real while remaining gracefully feminine.
Nytmare is influenced by artists like Alicia Keys, Swv, En Vouge, TLC, Salt and Pepper. But also sites her life partner producer and MC Jayse Gardiner as a huge influence on her music.
The couple toured through America's West Coast in 2006 and experienced first hand the realities of ghetto life. After a show they invited my group JCK to back in 2008, Hera and Jayse told me a tale of being held up by gun point by a crazed gunman simply for not being recognised in the neighbourhood they were in. Fortunately Jayse Gardiners quick wit and calm got them out of that very sticky situation. Now that's commitment.
They also host a radio show on Tauranga's Tahu Fm that exposes NZ's up and coming Hip Hop talent. If you're in the area tune into TAHU FM 90.5 on your FM dial.
In 2005 Nytmare was the worthy recipient of a NZ on Air Grant for her single Ghetto Princess, a touching gritty song about growing up in an abusive environment. Superbly produced, the video and single sent shock waves through the local Bay of Plenty Hip Hop scene and throughout New Zealand.
Nytmare is back with Jayse Gardiner with a brand new single and video clip for 2009 for her new single Tga to Mount Beach. A song about a place I know so well, my home town Tauranga. I'm feeling this one. "If you love the mount beach throw your hands up"....... My hands are thrown!
Nytmare has an album coming out soon, so keep your eyes pealed for that bad boy.
You can see more of Nytmare on Myspace. http://www.myspace.com/nytmaremusic
And Bebo http://www.bebo.com/officialnytmare
Nytmare has done Tauranga proud. Watch out for this one she's gonna be huge.
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Mar 05, 04:19 PMKolabKolab
Posted Thu 5 Mar 2009 1:51PM NZDT by James Castady in Rap It Up
Kolab are a hip-hop group hailing from Auckland, New Zealand. They describe their sound as liquid Hip-Hop; A conscious jazz inspired sound, with a twist of funk.
The group's musical influences include the likes of De La Soul, Common, A Tribe Called Quest, J Dilla, The Pharcyde, and Outkast.
The members of the group are J Brown, aka James Brown (producer/turntablist),Scottie B, aka Scott Bibby (producer/vocals) and MC Speak Easy, aka Tom Everett (Vocals).
Kolab have put in some serious hours on the grind and have toured Japan and Australia as well as playing a constant stream of live shows in New Zealand and scoring a spot at the 2009 Big Day Out.
Kolab have also achieved the number one spot on 95 bfm's Safari Lounge top 10. Their track So Deep held on to the number one spot for five weeks, while staying in the top 10 for over two months. Their release with Bfm, Inner Beat achieved number three on the top 10 and number seven on the New Zealand Alternative Charts. In total Kolab have released six tracks on 95 Bfm over the past two years, with five of the six achieving a top 10 ranking. Thats a pretty impressive achievement for any group.
Other releases include the single So deep on Remix Magazines Chill Out 06 compilation. Their EP Things To Come and their debut album What Comes Next.
The release of What Comes Next has seen the trio get picked up by iTunes in the USA and featured on the US iStore's front page under What's Hot and the New Releases sections. This is a notable achievement by the group, as only a select few Kiwi bands have ever done this.
Kolab have also provided Sony Computer Entertainment with their track ‘So Deep' as part of a PlayStation 3 educational video released with REMIX in Dec 2007.
The band has released two music videos to date, for their tracks Sideways & Inner Beat which have gained exposure on a number of significant music television channels.
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Feb 22, 07:57 PMDane Rumble aka 'Kid Deft' from 'Fast Crew' goes solo.Dane Rumble aka 'Kid Deft' from 'Fast Crew' goes solo.
Posted 50 minutes ago by James Castady in Rap It Up
After 10 years in The Fast Crew, Dane Rumble or as he is better known Kid Deft has taken a break from his hip-hop group to spend time in the studio developing a new sound.
Dane draws inspiration from artists like Rage against the Machine, Midnight Oil, Led Zeppelin, The Roots, K-os and Muse. He's switched up his production technique's and decided to pick up the guitar, which has lead him in a whole new musical direction.
You may have caught the New Zealand On Air funded song Always be here on rotation on C4. The song is a blend of rap, rock and pop and has a flawless rap flow that borders on singing then breaks into a catchy pop rock chorus. A touching love song with superb songwriting & delivery.
When I first saw it on TV I thought "wow C4 is really pushing the pop regime lately" and I just presumed that the artist was some Euro trash pop sensation. Although I did notice the mash up of different styles and that's what got me interested. As Dane puts it "Music is my passion, style and genre is a minor technicality." "I really wanted to write something new and fresh. Something which combined Rock, hip-hop and pop.. but in a new way. I'm tired of being boxed into a genre, I find writing so much more enjoyable when there are no bounds!"
The next time I heard the song, I noticed a line in the song about "Stand with a brand New Zealand sound". And then my interest was absolutely primed. "Is this a Kiwi?" Not recognising the name Dane Rumble or his new updated image. It wasn't untill I did a bit of research on the song that the pieces of the puzzle came together.
Dane stepped into York street studio's and Beaver Studio's in July '08 and working closely with Jonathan Campbell came up with his first solo offering Always Be Here which generated a buzz and led to a major label signing. The song, production and video are absolutely world class, and Dane has obviously learned a lot over his 10 years in Fast Crew.
On a whole I find New Zealanders are almost allergic to pop music made by Kiwi's and prefer all things underground, quirky and low key from their humble neglected NZ musicians. An attitude I've never respected. But Dane is from the Fast Crew and they are pretty accustomed to holding their heads high in the face of misconception "Tall Poppy Syndrome" and plane old "haterism" So it will be interesting to see how the NZ public takes it. I give it a massive thumbs up and wish him congatulations and the best of luck.
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Feb 16, 12:04 AMHoly shizzle it's The Shades!Holy shizzle it's The Shades!
Posted 56 minutes ago by James Castady in Rap It Up
This Sunday at Albert Park in Auckland City, I was very happy to have witnessed The Shades at one of the bfm Music In The Park events. The Shades are a 7-piece group from Auckland and consists of members from One Million Dollars, The Hot Grits and Ddub.
As I'm always looking for fresh talent to expose on my blog, I was all ears as soon as I heard the first rapper spit.
I went in for a closer look. "What an interesting bunch" I thought. They had that classic look of Kiwi scallywag musicians to them. A mish mash of boys and girls all very talented and passionate and in the moment, lost in the music.
The Shades gifted the sweaty sun beaten crowd a heady blend of Jazzy, Hip Hop laden Soul. I particularly enjoyed the compelling and stand out vocal melodies from singer Mimsy Cable. The two rappers who I gather are MC Jellphonic and guest, also held my interest with their skilled rhythmical word play.
Another notable attribute to the band was the female bassist Cass Fresh who's layed back wiggle and shake accompanied her tight bass playing. A friend of mine I spoke to in the audience, declared he had fallen in love with her at first site. I may be mistaken, but I believe I've seen her play in a live band for big name New Zealand Rap group ‘Fast Crew'.
The Jazzed up Trumpet/Keyboard styling of Finn Scholes addedimmensely to the instrumentation as well and the whole band was as tight as a fat chick's waist band.
I like what I saw and heard and obviously bfm have them tagged as up-and-comers so as usual, go check em out. They don't have any music videos for me to post at this stage, but they have a couple of nice tunes on their myspace site.
Check out The Shades on Myspace here.
http://www.myspace.com/theshadescrew
And if you like as much as I do you can buy their self titled 2008 5 track EP release here.
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Feb 03, 05:48 PMSo how does a musician get a music videoA music video is a short film or video that accompanies a complete piece of music, most commonly a pop or rock music song with lyrics. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. Although the origins of music videos go back much further, they came into their own in the 1980s, when MTV based their format around the medium, and later with the launch of VH1. The term "music video" first came into popular usage in the early 1980s. Prior to that time, these works were described by various terms including "filmed insert", "promotional (promo) film", "promotional (promo) clip" or "film clip". In Chinese entertainment, music videos are simply known as MTVs because the network was responsible for bringing music videos to its popularity.
Music videos use a wide range of styles of filmmaking techniques, including animation, live action filming, documentaries, and non-narrative approaches such as abstract film. Some music videos blend different styles, such as animation and live action and the use of stock footage.
Music videos are a very important medium because TV in this day and age is the new Radio. People watch music TV more then ever and probably more then they listen to Radio. In my opinion with the advent of I pods and the increased ability for people to make their own playlists, Radio is becoming obsolete.
So how does a musician get a music video?
Firstly you need to make music, but for arguments sake I will presume we can all take that as an obvious conclusion. Anyway I've had direct experience in three methods of obtaining music videos and I will share what I have learned over the years of being a songwriter and performer.
In the traditional sense an artist or band will be signed to a record label. A record label will organise a production company to make the music video for the artist or band. But here's the catch. Every penny that a record label spends on an artist has to be recouped through album sales before the artist or band gets a penny.
In New Zealand we have a funding department called New Zealand On Air. NZ On Air's mission is to reflect and foster the development of New Zealand culture and identity through broadcasting. An artist can apply to New Zealand On Air for funding to record a single and also to make a music video.
This is the main way a New Zealand band is able to find the resources to make a music video. However the amount received of 5K, although a huge help, is only a drop in the bucket towards the price of a good music video.
Check out Freak In The Club
Freak in the club is an example of the traditional way of obtaining a music video. My group JCK were successful in receiving NZ on air funding for a song of ours called Truly Mine, we were given 5k to record the song and also a further 5K to make the video. We recorded the song but fell into the trap of trying too hard to make it better and in the process lost the magic we had captured in the original demo recording. So we decided to go with another song we were working on called Freak in the club.
So we had 5k to spend on a video. Great we thought. Well not so great because after approaching several production companies we couldn't find one who could work with such a small budget. They wanted at least 8k just to even consider talking to us. Small problem. We don't have 5 bucks let alone an additional 3k. But fortunately at the time we were signed to a small independent label called Pagan/Antenna recordings. The director coincidently met a producer one night through a mutual friend and mentioned they had an act that needed a music video. Hey presto we have the hook ups.
A couple months later we flew down to Wellington to shoot the video for Freak in the club. Being our first video we had no Idea what to expect. The director had a vision of what he wanted and we had absolutely no say. So we were dressed in the clothes prepared and told where to stand and what to do. A cast of extras were there and we pretty much felt like we were extras as well. So after 15 hours on the set shooting footage and about 4 months of editing we had our first music video. The whole process took just under a year.
The video was received well by the music stations, but completely misrepresented who we were as a group. Oh well we were lucky to have anything so we will chalk that one up to experience.
Now our second music video was just as frustrating and took even longer. But these things are like a woman carrying to full term and giving birth. They seem to take for ever, they are painful, stressful and they make you sick. But when they finally arrive they are a bundle of joy.
See Spirit X
The second method of getting a music video is to find a film maker who needs a show real or who wants to enter a competition or wants to be associated with your music because they like it and believe in it.
That's how Spirit X happened for us. One of the guys who worked on Freak in the club had some Ideas for music videos that he was gagging to try out. So one day he messaged us on Bebo about it. We were over the moon with excitement. We sent him songs we were considering for the album and he chose Spirit X as the song he would like to make a video for. So about 4 months later we flew to Wellington and shot footage for 2 days. This time we had a say and managed to get most of ideas implemented in the video. About 6 months later we received the first edit. Straight away we could see some very obvious flaws and that was fine since this was just the first edit.
So we asked for what we wanted changed and we waited for the next edit. We waited and waited and waited. What's going on we thought? We got in contact with them and they promised us they would get on to it ASAP. This went on like this for a whole frustrating soul destroying year. We were very angry and pissed off after being mucked around lead on and told lies to for so long. But we still had a reasonable video and all it cost us was huge emotional anguish, 2 years of our lives and the price of 3 return flights to Wellington.
But there is a happy ending to this story. Spirit X will be playing on Juice TV from February the 6th 2009 and C4, MTV and Alt TV will soon follow. So watch out for it.
Method 3 and by far the easiest and most fun is shooting the video yourself. Or collaborating with someone who shoots their own videos. In this case I am very fortunate to be friends with The Robba a prolific song writer and low budget music video producer.
See Once you went to the Moon
This was actually fun to make. A couple of weeks ago we took a handy cam and filmed for the day. The Robba took the footage home and edited it on his PC. So much fun and no stress at all to make. But because of the low fi nature of the videos they are pretty much doomed to being relocated to Youtube and maybe if your really lucky a one off play on C4 homegrown and Alt TV. But they can still be a very useful marketing tool for your myspace and you tube profiles. It's very important for an artist or band to have at least one video so people have an Idea who you are and what you're about.
Here's another video called like a virus.
This vid was mainly shot on our The Odd Get Even tour back in 2006. It got a couple plays on C4 Homegrown as well as Alt TV and has had a couple thousand views. It cost us nothing to make and was a lot of fun -
Feb 01, 06:35 PMThe (White) Rapper Show..... Racist?Music Blogs > Rap It Up > The (White) Rapper Show..... Racist?The (White) Rapper Show..... Racist?
Posted 1 minute ago by James Castady in Rap It Up
Ego Trips The (White) Rapper Show is an American reality TV Show series that screened on the VH1 cable network back in 2006. In the show, ten white rappers compete with each other for the chance at a $100,000 grand prize. The show is based in the South Bronx with MC Serch (from the group 3rd Bass) serving as the host.At the end of each show, one rapper is eliminated. Each episode follows a different theme in Hip Hop culture and music, evolving the contestants from wanna-be white rappers to full-fledged and multi-faceted hip hop acts.
In New Zealand you can catch The (White) Rapper Show Saturday nights on C4.
The show is mostly a farce, poking fun at the stereotypical white rap scene.The rappers themselves are mostly incompetent artists, though a few of the cast (including the finalists) are actually legitimate lyricists.
I cringed the moment I saw the add on C4, picking up the derogatory undertones through out it. I watched it for the first time last night and It was indeed very derogative towards white rappers.
The whole show seemed to be based around torturing these poor white rappers, who seemed to be chosen for their average abilities and stereo typical Hip Hop posturing. I guess for the sole reasons that without them being average musically, the premise of poking fun at them wouldn't actually work.
In this particular episode the white rappers were taken to a black Hip Hop station to free-style. The moment they walked in the room they were made fun of for being white and given the most disparaging looks by the black folks at the station. They then proceeded to do an abysmal job at free-styling. It was however pretty amusing in a cringe worthy, slightly uncomfortable way. One particular hilarity was MC Shamrocks catch phrase, "Hallelujah Holler back", which he repeated every 5 seconds or so.
Shamrock ended up taking out the top prize of 100k.
I wonder how Ego Trips, The (Black) Punk Rock Singer Show would go down. Say after the success of such black rock bands as Bad Brains, Seven Dust and Skunk Anancie. Where people poked fun at black wanna-be rockers. I'm certain there would be cries of racism and discrimination.
As a white rapper myself, I don't quite understand why the contestants were so loyal to a culture that hates even their mere presence. Show no love to those who show you no love, I say. Even though I have respect for Hip Hop culture, I realise that I can never be African American and will never be able to sound like one either. Personally, I don't fully embrace Hip Hop culture. I'm a musician who raps over a plethora of genres. Drum N Bass MC's don't have the same absurd problems with racism, so you can have Hip Hop, JCK is 'Haberdash Rap'.
I think the way forward for us white rappers is to take the influence of the music that we love and do something unique with it, instead of trying to be what we are obviously not.
That is of course how modern Rock and Roll came about. There was a time when Rock N Roll was strictly black music. It was classed as "Race Music" by the white American culture and was ignored by them. There was a time when white artists such as Jerry Lee-Lewis were scorned mocked and made fun of, for participating in black music. But after Elvis and after the English got their hands on Rock N Roll, with acts such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. It developed into what we now know and consider the staple musical diet of white kids everywhere. And I guess with rap music the process is just taking its natural course. There will be a time when rap will just be music with no race barriers. I think it's well on its way, but not there yet.
I myself would love to see more black rock acts, because I love music, and all genres of popular music in essence are very similar and the rest is fashion and BS.
So down with fashion and BS, good music is good music. Bad Brains made mean punk music, UB40 made great Reggae, Eminem made sweet Hip Hop and Charley Pride made great Country music. So please world, get over the colour thing. And hopefully next time, we can just have The Rapper Show, instead of The (White) Rapper Show.
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Jan 30, 04:22 PMMaitreya. A Hip Hop dream comes true.Maitreya. A Hip Hop dream comes true.
Posted Fri 30 Jan 2009 12:54PM NZDT by James Castady in Rap It Up
Maitreya aka Jamie Greenslade is one of those rappers who seem like they've been around for ever. He has a success story that most MC's only dream about.Maitreya burst on the scene in the summer of 1999-2000 with the singles "Baggy Trousers" and "The New Outlook" ft. Dave Dobbyn as part of Christchurch crew Dark Tower. In 2001 he began recording under the guidance of DLT who then gave him the moniker Maitreya meaning a 'Future Teacher'. 2001-2003 were spent working at Auckland radio station Mai FM and recording his demo "Comin 2 Amerika" in anticipation of an August 2003 move to New York City.
For the next two years Maitreya immersed himself in New York's Open Mic scene and in 2005 he released and sold over 500 copies of 'ILLEGAL ALIEN', a mixtape style album hosted by The Game's DJ, Kris-Stylez. He also secured an internship at Roc-a-Fella Records (Jay-Z) as a member of the 'Street Team' and in 2006 began his own live show, 'ILLEGAL', which he continues to perform in and around the Lower East Side and Brooklyn,
In November of 2006 Maitreya signed up to the online music site SellaBand.com and became an immediate sensation. The challenge was to raise $50,000 from fans on the site to be used to record an album with top of the line producers and production facilities. Maitreya became the first Hip Hop artist ever to raise the 50K on June 2nd 2007 and began recording his debut solo album "Close To Home" in New York and London with The Silence (UK).
Maitreya really comes into his own in his single Waitaha, where he combined the power of Maori vocals with Hip Hop. Waitaha was nominated at the 2008 Silver Scrolls for the APRA Maioha Award for Contemporary Maori Song Writing.
Maitreya has just released his second single Lotaluv accompanied by a video shot in Mon Kok, Hong Kong... the most densely populated square mile in the world!
And if you feel so inclined go to the lotaluv website..
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Jan 26, 03:15 PMWho down with OPC yeah you know meWho down with OPC yeah you know me.
Posted Fri 23 Jan 2009 4:08PM NZDT by James Castady in Rap It Up
Today was an interesting day. My friend The Robba and I took a video camera to the streets to shoot some footage for a collaboration we did for a song called Once you went to the moon from his debut self titled album.
Anyway The Robba had an interview on Kiwi FM tonight and I tagged along to film. While we were there Fleur Jack, radio host and singer for kick ass rock band The Twitch showed us some interesting stuff on Youtube.
Otahuhu Pimping Crew was one of the videos she showed us. I'd seen these guys on myspace but I didn't realise they did music. I thought they were a comedy act or something. And I wasn't too far off. So I was checking them out tonight on youtube and I have to say they're very amusing. They're pretty tight MC's too and I'm a fan of having a laugh so I can sincerely say OPC is good value.
I'm listening to their song Huston 5000 Marathon F**kfest and I'm laughing my ass off. I can't repeat any of the lyrics but I strongly suggest you have a listen especially if you love rap & comedy.
www.myspace.com/otahupimpincrew
These guys are severely taking the piss and that's the appeal. Simply because they're pretty good hip hop songs too. Highly creative, skilled and funny as.
Shout out to Sims Z (the weedman) Weed who I had no Idea was in OPC or had anything to do with rap music. If you didn't know now you know!
Also to those of you who have never listened to my favourite radio station Kiwi FM. There frequency can be found on Auckland 102.2 Wellington 102.1 and Canterbury 102.5 FM. New Zealand music is really interesting and Kiwi FM is a refreshing change from all the commercial stations that play the same 10 songs over and over and over again. Give it a try I promise it's the shizzzzzz.
Peace
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Jan 15, 02:51 PMRhythm & Vines. The best of times, The worst of timesRhythm & Vines is a three day music festival held at Waiohika Estate in Gisborne from the 29th of December to the 1st of January. With six stages nestled amongst grape vines and a plethora of musical acts, Rhythm & Vines was an intense experience to say the least.
My friends and I showed up on the 28th to settle into our camp site. After a very long and tiresome journey from Auckland we weren't expecting to have to haul our heavy camping equipment hundreds of meters to our camp site. Even though the Rhythm & Vines website promised farm bikes with trailers to take your gear, we found on our arrival that it hadn't been organised. It must have been about 30 degrees that day and the first thing we noticed was the complete lack of shade in the barren sun scorched hills of Waiohika Estate.
After spending all morning and most of the afternoon setting up, I found myself with a nasty case of sun stroke. Welcome to Rhythm & Vines I thought to myself. After swallowing almost a whole box of Nurofen and drinking about 6 liters of Powerade, I felt comfortable enough to have a few beers with the boys and settle into the evening with a bit of guitar and drunken revelry. I ended up playing the guitar until the sun came up.
We awoke on the first day of the festival to heavy rain and hangovers, so we hit the Warehouse in Gisborne to by some beach umbrellas. We spent the morning and early afternoon drinking beer and sheltering from the rain so we didn't have to buy all our drinks in the venue. After we felt sufficiently drunk and soggy we made our way into the festival through security, where my stoner mate suddenly realised that he had his weed in his raincoat pocket. This was immediately confiscated by security, no doubt to be consumed by them later on that night.
We made it in finally and hit the beer stand, had a look around at the stages and got our bearings. With my beach umbrella in hand I was making friends with lots of friendly drunk girls who wanted to use me for my shelter. I didn't mind at all.
One of the highlights of the day was watching one big boned lass hoof it down a water slide in the nude, while the cops tried not to notice her indecent exposure.
The music on the first day was great, with headlining acts, Hip-hop punk rock act Santogold, The Kooks and Franz Ferdinand keeping the masses locked to the main stage for most of the night. The Kooks were by far my favorite. I enjoyed their relaxed energetic brilliance and even though Santogold is alternative rap I didn't think she was anything special. In fact I was down right bored with her music and her complete lack of sex appeal. I managed to catch Liam Finns set and thought he was totally amazing. Except he had that Nancy boy Conan Mockasin mincing around on stage with him. He doesn't appeal to me to say the least. I can’t believe he got his own spot at R&V.
Day two was another scorcher, but we were able to get relief in a swimming pool set up for water volley ball for those that camped at the vine yard. We heard rumors of another camp site in Gisborne called Baywatch where masses of drunken teenagers wreaked havoc on each other. Baywatch was active from the 27th December with heaps of entertainment and warm-up parties running each day and night right through to January 2nd. The Baywatch campers had to bus to-and-fro from the camp site to the venue, whilst we had simply to walk over a field and up a hill, so we were quite happy to be camped at the winery and not at Baywatch.
Public Enemy were the highlight of day two, they performed their seminal 1988 album It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back from beginning to end. Flavor Flav couldn't stop talking smack the whole set. Some unintentional humour came about in the introduction of their song Mind terrorist, with Flavor Flav warning the crowd of the dangers of the terrorists in your head, you know the "mind terrorists". The song kicked in and the lyrics were very enlightened and deep. Ha! I'm being sarcastic. The only lyric in the song were "Turn it up" repeated over and over again. WTF? Flavor Flav you crack head. It took them about three songs to warm into the set, but it ended up being a humdinger. I found it amusing, considering that a lot of the people there wouldn't have even been born when this album was released. It would have been like a brand new sound to them.
DJ Numark and Antiform rocked the stage next and Kiwi songstress Ladyhawke also collected a big crowd over at the picturesque Vines stage. My new friends in the neighboring tent were raving about DJ Numark. Although I missed his show.
I pulled another all nighter and was feeling like a mindless sleep deprived Zombie the following day. I tried to sleep in my tent but the intense heat put an end to such fanciful thinking. There was nothing to do but to beat the heat by wrapping myself in a wet towel, (which we had named a "Dampon" to the amusement of our surrounding campers) and keep drinking.
It was New Years Eve and hot as hell. The boys and I adorned our finest garments and loaded on Chanel 'Egoist' cologne, but for some reason the many fine looking young hot woman were not as friendly on day two and three as they were on day one. It didn't look like any girls were in the mood for a New Years fling. We blamed the heat.
We didn't show up until almost nightfall as by that stage we were exhausted by the heat and didn't want to spend anytime out of the shade. We all adorned our glow sticks , took a party pill and headed off to watch the Black Seeds. I lost my friends almost straight away as the 20,000 strong crowd swarmed around the main stage. I had a mighty thirst so I headed back to the camp to drink water. I bumped into our camping neighbors and hung with them for most the night.
As Shihad walked off stage at 11.45pm, trapeze artists and flame throwers worked their magic. The count down had begun. It was New Years, The night sky light up with fireworks, and no kisses where being exchanged anywhere. "This is Lame" I thought to my self. I turned around and saw a beautiful young girl standing there, "screw it" I thought. I walked up said "you look like you need a kiss", grabbed her by the waist and kissed her on the lips. By this stage my party pill was in effect and that kiss felt pretty darn good. The girl sunk back into the crowd and I watched the rest of the fireworks. I watched Carl Cox for a bout half an hour, but got bored with his old school joints. So I went back to camp and found my mates. We wished each other Happy New Year over a few liters of water and went back to rock our glow sticks to the various Techno, Hard House, Breaks and Drum and Bass that filled the air of the brand new year.
We headed to the Cellar stage at about 3am and were lucky enough to catch an awesome Ausy act called Vinyl Slingers. These guys were kick ass. They had a percussionist and a didgeridoo player jamming over the DJ's break beats and the sickest Drum & Bass MC I've had the pleasure to witness. These guys were off the hook.
My third all nighter and we were all exhausted. We packed up and drove to the nearest backpackers to sleep. We had a long drive ahead of us the next day. So we broke it up into two days, stopping to camp in Opotiki for a night.
There was so much to see and do and I only experienced a minute portion of the huge line up, but I tell you what. It will be a long time before I feel like camping again. And as for Rhythm And Vines? If there is a next time? It will have to be in a campervan with a bed a kitchen and a toilet.
