Nesian's sign new deal and premier first single artwork off new album

Ok let’s skip across my belated updates with a swift “sorry about that” & bask in the many eventful things which have been going down in Nesiandom (you know like Maoridom, yes you read right).

On the label front, we’ve inked a new deal under our record label Arch Dynasty which has signed a distribution deal for NZ with Warner music. From this very exciting venture will flower both Nesian crew cuts as well as some exciting solo projects which are already bubbling away in the pipeline. Along with the announcement comes the realisation of the first Nesian record on our label Arch Dynasty. Hot off the press of the signing comes the first glimpse of the first single "Sacrifices" video photo's and art work, done by Lionel from the "Bay" his little girl was in our Mr mista clip.

Earlier in the year we hinted to what was to come collaborating with Japanese Hip hop star wise from the chart topping Japanese group Teriyaki boyz, who amongst others have worked with Kanye West, Pharrel, Busta Rhymes, JD, Timberland & currently have in the pipelines a track with Jay-Z....so needless to say Aotearoa hip hop is elevating things internationally. Wise was awesome, flew down here to NZ and was blown away by how passionate and active our local scene was. We hosted him around town and even made it out to the release of Tyson Tyler’s album launch (which is a tight album) via Breaknwreckwords posse. We fly over to Japan thanks to export NZ beginning of Nov so look for updates round then bout Wise and his crew.

These photos were taken from the shoot for the first single called “Sacrifice” featuring wise. First time we’ve recorded a track and shot the video in the same week....definite experience. Shout out to Bunker media and our director Luke Sharp who as always handled all the antics us Nesian’s throw at him, plus made a record for earliest shoot wrap in any Nesian video ever.....which incidentally now seats at 14. Thanks to NZ on Air that came through with supporting the video and also our stylist Tarsh who came through big time.

Sadly as everyone has spoken about for last month or so the Tsunami which struck Samoa affected many but thankfully the spirit of the nation and the support from NZ has been awesome to see. My Village lost 11 people so this hit home to be big time and alot of our communities. Part of assisting back in Sa is the financial aid & alongside the biggest names in NZ music we performed at Vector arena to over 10,000 Kiwi’s and collaboratively raised around a quarter of a million. To be a part of that was really satisfying and encouraging not to mention an historic occasion for a real cross field of nz music from past to present. Thanks must go out to Scribe, Teresa Patterson, Dawn Raid, Pacific music awards committee and so many others that made the event happen.

On another note the NZ music awards 09 just went down, a massive night had by all. It was good to catch up with heaps of old friends and funny to see people you don’t have a clue of how their connected to the music industry. If i was honest i didn’t think the overall performances were of a great quality but i was proud to see Smash Proof and savage picking up a number of the major awards.

Well consider yourself updated......we’re in oz next week for performances in Brizzy, Gold coast & Sydney but start the whole trip max’n & Relax’n in Melbourne. Also mid Nov we hit New York City, on all accounts it’s the Mecca of Hip hop and has been a place I’ve wanted to go since I started rhyming when I was a kid. Photos galore will be hitting this page & we have not forgotten about the last few free tracks we promised on our 10 track down load which celebrated our tenth top 10 single “RSVP”. If you are reading this from around the world our last album “Elevator Musiq” has now become available globally on iTunes so hook it up.
Peace S out

sheding a little light on the track

What's good people?

Just a real brief post today as i'm away in Hawks bay having a bit of breather which doesn't happen to often.

The new track for free download is a bit of blast from the past, we wrote this track about how Aucklanders audiences are spoiled for choice when it comes to gets and can be less than enthusiastic at a gig. It's sad to admit but personally Welly and Dunedin are probably my favourite spots to perform as the crowd's know how to have a good time. We are snobs in Auckland when it comes to getting out and supporting concerts and shows so this track was inspired by the epthony that the best crowds generally are out of town from your local haunt. On that note if your trying to book us to play in your town email our booking agent on : vaevae@nm-audio.com .

We were going through a funny phase when writing this track, still kind of caught up in thinking to much rather than just writing. It's actually one of my favourite tracks cause for the first time we started to explore a bit of funk, as well as begin to play around with recording techniques hence the BV's are way active.

Just a reminder these free tracks are just our way of saying thank you to all the people that have had a part in helping us get through the past few years and enabled to create history with the 10 top 10 singles. If you enjoy the tracks....check out our album "Elevator musiq".....it's a quality album if we do say so ourselves.

Before i go a few congrats are in order

*Firstly to J Williams, our RnB prince at the moment breaking that exclusive top 5 in the album charts. Last night me and Oldwun attended his launch which was a dope night with your usual suspects PNC, King Kapisi, Smash Proof, Dawn raid and of course the Illegal Musik team.

*Secondly P Money, it may come as a shock to most of you (dedicated nesian bloggers) but there are other blogs other than my own one of which is money. Next to Kirks MTC blog I really enjoy watching moneys blog as it's an awesome insight in to the hectic business the man runs well. After having really successful progress in the U.K Money announced he's doing the big move there. So from the nesian fam we wish him all the best and know it's another house to crash on the floor when we're in the U.K. Aotearoa hip hop's small but we're good like that expanding and bringing the team through.

Well til next time Peace and give me your feedback on what you think of this track.

P.S- Before any one points it out, yes i know the title is the o-ficial spelling of the word but it's hip hop there are no spelling rules, in fact we are encouraged in the new school to spell incorrectly for effect......keeps the street creed flowin.

West coast funk meets some disappointed nesians traveling the country and realising their home crowd ain't as good as else where :( produced by DMON.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/zhztnzxjkzw/Eluminate (MASTER).mp3

Nesian & OZ collaboration download free

Sup peepz

Sorry been a bit of a gap in the addition of tracks but we're close to finalising things for the first single off the new album so bare with me. The track this week is a collaboration with an OZ crew the turnstyle puppets....good dudes, they flew over a while back to jam with us and we knocked out 2 tracks in one day.

The track "school up", started with the beat produced by Dmon. In the nesian volts are hundreds of beats we've never used, most of the time their not even cause their bad it's just not the mood when in for writing at the time or we don't have a strong concept. This was one of those times, me and dmon opened the volt of beats and had a listen through and came across this one. Straight away i was feeling it, so me and Dmon started jamming different hooks....the eventual hook being a mash of a few of those options. The tracks basically about style and schooling the competition with our own kind of swagger if you will.

The Turnstyle bro's are top blokes, who had a real appreciation of aotearoa hip hop and don't tell no body but they seemed like kiwi's on the inside. We're hoping to bridge the tasman gap even more this year and are looking to do more oz collab's, so keep an ear out. There should be another track up shortly care of Notiq......

Shout out's to grey mouth where we performed last week.....cool people. Also massive congrats and kudos to J williams and the whole illegal musik team hitting not only top 5 with his debut album "young love" in it's first week but also the extremely big hit "Stand with you" feautring his big sis Lavina debuting at 13 on the singles chart. My good mate N.O.X does the production for J so i got to hear the track at the begining of the year and I was convinced then that "Stand with you" would be huge and cross J to mainstream stardom. On a side note Lavina Williams was in a group called Mavelle and Nesian's very own Oldwun was their biggest fan, i kid you not. So to see Lavina return to the charts is real dope as it was once us watching her career as fans. Aotearoa hip hop's going to have quite a year to finish......by the way my cuz st. Janera is also on the horizon of breaking through with his debut single "shine" and when it drops you'll be the first to hear it right here.

Peace S

http://www.mediafire.com/file/dwowtznmzyg/School Up.mp3

Nesian and Turnstyle Puppets. Holla!

The Fresh boyz saga begins.....new free download up

Hey my Cyber peepz

Well true my word we're back with the 4th piece of this 10 track installment. We're starting dialogue for our first video off the new album called "Fresh Boyz", which will be the finale of our record creating celebration with a snippet of "Fresh Boyz" being the 11 track put up. The track has a special guest feature but mum's the word on that until further notice.

Last thursday me and the boyz went out to Papakura high for a fundraising game of b-ball with your local ballers teamed up with all your favourite M.C's.....shout out to Alprisk, Mareko, Sid who along with the Nesians helped raise money for Canteen which supports youth with cancer. It was cool to see our community (Hip hop) can get together for more than simply ourselves promoting our albums. It was a good laugh had by all with a few dope moves from every body mixed in with some terrible air balls, but like Dr Dre said in the movie the show "It's just all entertainment".

4DG remember the name, they are NZ's answer to Jagged edge and put on a real show for their launch. Hands down this would have to be the best NZ album launch i'd been to, minus the sound. They put it on real big held on Krd Studio, the name of their albums "Arrival" and the brothers had air hostess, pilots....the line up for the gig was the departure timetable. I've learnt alot of this game is creating the environment for success, so if people feel blown away when you walk in about the effort that's gone in and you can back it up......then your half way there to having them on your side. It was good night had by all.....we've done a Fresh Boyz remix for the
their song "remember" click here to hear it.

Lastly we performed at Maori in the city at logan campbell centre and i have to say i was impressed. Firstly that we made it to the gig cause our call time was 9am and we performed for 4DG at 2.30am. Secondly that there was actually a decent sized crowd when we went on at 10am. I love when you feel like you have some commonality with an audience cause it makes the talking in between songs that much easier. Talking in between tracks is an art in it self and hands down the jordan for that artform is Dei Hamo. Actually I just saw his new clip "Lyk a teen" it's cool i really like it......even has a cameo from my nesian bro Oldwun what a video pimp lol. To check out that vid click here , the guy who directed it has been on a rampage lately releasing no less than 5 videos recently (Taye williams, J williams, Erykah, Dane Rumble to name a few).

The track we've selected this week is called Sweet sorrow. It's got a sweet yet gritty feel which i think reflects the theme. Dmon produced it and was going through his funny sounds stage as you may hear in the background of the track. Keep it locked right here for our next installment which will feature a collboration with some ozzy cats. Chur S

Sweet Sorrow

http://www.mediafire.com/file/gwzltegdjoj/Sweet Sorrow.mp3

Free tracks to download....it's a celebration

To help celebrate the history we made this week (if you don't know already read my previous blog) me and the brothers wanted to celebrate by gifting 10 free tracks to represent the 10 tracks you guys supported us with. We havn't forgotten if it wasn't for the people that made it possible for us to achieve this.......you, we would have nothing to celebrate.

We will be releasing a new track each week right here exclusively on this blog leading up to the release of our first single "Fresh Boyz" off the yet untitled next album. We thought to start with we'd triple the love to celebrate this historic occasion. So spread the word and keep your eyes and ears right here. The first 3 tracks give you a taste of everything from hip hop to some rnb, special shout out to emerhn Aotearoa hip hop legend.


We appreciate your support which has made a huge difference to us being able to continue to do what we love. Our album Elevator Musiq which features 4 of our top 10 tracks is in a store near you, if your feeling the tracks we're making available for free we would really appreciate it if you could get our album Elevator Musiq.

To download tracks, copy the link and paste it where you'd normally put a website, sorry to state the obvious but just in case :P


1) Stick to your guns produced by Dmon featuring Ermehn

This Westcoast styled track speaks about artist sticking by their creative vision and not compromising to the point of losing control of their music.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/mn4enzg1z0w/Stick To Your Guns.mp3

2) Polytek produced by Dmon

This track came about from a jam and the name was a play on poly(nesian) Technique style as well as the obvious polytech schooling people up.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/tztj2dfzkwt/Polytec.mp3

3) Prime Time produced by tha Notiq

Probably one of my favourite tracks we've ever made. This was about the hardtimes trying to continue to be a musician even when your not in the spotlight anymore. Artist at different times in their career get judged as either "So hot right now" or "Remember that group what ever happened to them" and we've experienced that so this was talking about that in real honesty.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/zjfnxmlmqvm/Prime Time.mp3

Check back in soon for the next installment. If there's a particular style of song you would like to hear than let us a comment and i'll see if i can find something. Thanks once again for supporting us and spread the word.

shout out to Notiq for uploading all this music for my untech-coordinated self.

Peace

S

Who has the most top 10 records in NZ History ;)

Sorry had to give our own pat on the back. Self congrats as you get more of the opposite in this game.

I know it's been forever since i last posted but by no means have things been quiet. This is just a quick note I'll fill you guys in with way more later. RSVP hit 9 on the charts yesterday making it the 4th consecutive top 10 from Elevator Musiq and becoming our 10th top 10 giving us the most top 10 records in NZ history, which is a dope achievement when you consider the hit makers like dave dobbyn, neil finn etc. Me and the brothers are celebrating tonight.....as something i learnt is these moments not happen alot so when they do you best believe were going to enjoy them. I also think this is a recognition of where NZ hip hop has come in this industry, there are many barriers being put up to try change that but the people let the industry know what's up. 

So to celebrate i'm going to be adding a few songs to download for free in the next 2 days and it will happen this time i assure you as I've got the tech dude DJ Notiq on the case. We're negotiating our guest feature on our NEW album which may not mean much to fans here in NZ but in Japan is pretty huge so fingers crossed it comes through and we take Aotearoa hip hop to another level as that was the aim this year. Shout out to Bounce records as this was our last single with them and Dean worked bloody hard over the past year to keep every one aware of Elevator Musiq.......despite some industry B-S. 

We're gearing up for a huge year in terms of Nesian projects keep your ears and eyes locked right here because it's going to start heating up real soon......thats for sure. 

Peace

S

Happy b'day scribe

Well it's scribe's b'day tomorrow

but that was unbeknown to most who came out to throw him a surprise b'day party on tuesday nite. It was mad cool and a bit of a mini hip hop summit with most usual suspects there, of course the dirty crew....dawn raid...illegal musik....sirvere...Arch Dynasty (Nesian label)...Che and a whole host of nz rock legends like Jon toogood (I reckon that names to awesome to be real) from shihad and Boh Runga etc. But more importantly his family Ladi, Tyra, Bonnie, his uncle Vic and some aunties....and lots of cousins. It was mad fun & shout out to YDNA the milli-man shouting the brothers....when we hit that milli it shall flow freely back my bro lol

It was all set up by his manager as a surprise with the help of his fams. So we all arrived early to try get in before he came, problem was we were all having so much fun we didn't see him walk in and after a delayed reaction the surprise call went up about 10 seconds after he entered. Me and Malo go back to 94-95,I've seen where he started his music career from and where it's heading which has been an exciting journey to watch and anticipate. So from the nesians and my famz happy b'day oldskol.......if you didn't already know hes started work on the new album which is after initial material listening session is sounding more a balance between the 2 last records. I'm looking forward to future projects with nesian and him ;) peace

P.S- I know i said that track will be available today and hopefully it should be up like cinderella before the clock strikes midnite :)

S out

How meki? tu meki! PI awards bling to the power of 4

It was a stellar evening last night; we took home 4 awards including a tui for best pacific album. I over use this term but seriously “stoked”, warm fuzzes all round. I don’t want to bore you with a sob story of the hard times but it’s up lifting for your music to be recognised by your peers and community. As I spoke about in my last blog we were up for 4 awards and astonishingly we walked away with all 4. We had a lot of family present with no word of a lie more than 40 people in the audience probably closer to 50 which added to the atmosphere as you can imagine.

There were more than 4 awards presented on the night so I need to make a special mention of life time achievement award presented to Tigi ness (yes che-fu’s dad), for anyone growing up around grey Lynn you would have heard his music at all the festivals. Tigi is the man, the first person to put his hand up to support community events and has always been behind us.

Ladi 6 took home best female artist and Devolo took best male which was well deserved as they were 2 of the biggest success stories last year, to be honest I thought Ladi was going to get album of the year. Ladi’s parents accepted the award and their speech was a crack up with Uncle Vic pulling out his line from the anti violence campaign “it’s not ok”. Snap....I just remembered David Tua was in the house presenting an award and the brother busted out a verse rhyming which had the crowd in frenzy.

Savage got a standing ovation for his international breakthrough award and was a real touching moment; it was one of those historical occasions where new ground was recognised as being broken by one of the brothers.....a moment I put up there with King Kapisi in 1999 wining the prestigious Apra silver scroll award. There some memorable performances with the stand out being the tribute Che and the Krates did for his dad....one of those wooww moments.

The dirty records crew brought out their number hit everything featuring the whole roster Vince Harder, David Dallas, PNC & Scribe. Which brings me to that promotional time, our boys PNC has his new album dropping beginning of next month keep an out for it and now that I think about it all of those artist on dirty I mentioned have albums dropping this year including the name I forgot to mention which heads the crew P money.

Illegal musik came out swinging with their showcase featuring visual effects and a nice a ray of new talent all produced by my man Nox so shout out to my boy....by the way still waiting for some beats bro. J Williams held it down for his crew as the first artist off the Illegal musik roster but I’ve also got to show love for our Nesian affiliate Erika who sung on one of our tracks on elevator musiq “I don’t usually” she’s just released her first single last week and next in line after J to pop off for Illegal Musik. Her man funnily enough plays keys for our live band “the elevators” which closed the night doing Mr Mista for the first time with Che-fu & Cydel it was crazy way to finish the night.

I could go on forever if you couldn’t tell it was a mean night, my special highlight was being presented an award by my first MC mentor Scribe that was special. Forever I’ve looked up to that dude and to receive the award he got the year before was something awesome. That track i promised is on it's way just being mixed....check in 4 days and I should have it for your exclusive ears only.

Chur S out

It's the return

I know it’s the nature of the blog beast that sometimes we lose momentum but in my defence I have written two blogs which in the middle of loading them up my computer froze and I hadn’t saved them, hard lesson learnt indeed. But hey like Ma$e welcome back.....

We’ve been busy finishing the video shoot for RSVP featuring PNC which is probably the most fun shoot I think we’ve ever had. It’s a one take video which took 15 takes to actually nail, as effortless as the vid looks it was a lot of mayhem outside the view of the camera at all times trust me.

On the recording front I think we’ve officially finished the next album but after thinking we’d got the title it’s once again all back up in the air. We had a writing retreat about a month ago which saw the last few additions to the album added. Now’s the real task of trying to cull down the tracks, all up we’ve written around 40 something songs but we’re aiming to have 15 on the record.

Over the years we’ve learnt the lesson of being lesser friendly as some times to much of a good thing sadly makes it a bad thing...you feel me. Some of my favourite artist have produced albums which feel like a marathon to listen to and end up being very disconnected, there are exceptions like 2pac’s “all eyes on me” & Notorious “life after death” but straight up those were 2 legends arguably in their peak at that point. On the flip side some people bring out albums which a more like EPs, so finding the right balance is everything. There’s definitely an art to creating an album opposed to just releasing individual songs as singles.

You can expect the first track off the album to drop late August at least that’s the plan, which is not far away at all considering we’re almost in the middle of the year. While writing this blog I’ve also decided I’ll drop one track a month in the build up to the first single. As I’m not tech savvy that should be an interesting promise to try keep but spread the word. The first one should be up next week, keep your ear out.

We’re up for the P.I music awards next week which should be a cool night. Yes it’s not the glitz of the nz music awards but that’s the beauty of it, it’s really about the music and the people. My dad’s the chairman of the board for the awards so I know a lot about the effort that goes in preparing the occasion. While I’m on the subject I heard some stink comments recently regarding us making 4 of the categories for the awards as being rigged due to my old man’s position, to clear it up there is a judging panel made up of artist who select the finalist and have nothing to do with the board. On that note we’re performing at the awards with our live band “the elevators” which will be awesome as it’ll be the first time we’ve performed with some of the featuring artist.

On the performance tip we performed at the gourmet Hangi put on by Hinewehi’s music therapy fundraiser. It was awesome day and the food wasn’t too bad either, the line up read like a who’s who of maori music with a few exceptions missing. It’s those kinds of events which really remind you the real reason you do music aside from the general benefits it’s the ability for music to bring people together. It was mean and the highlight for me was Dave Dobbyn dukes a legend and an amazing song writer but it was even more unbelievable when you see him with just a guitar. Funny being the only rappers when your performing to a room of 700 full of people whose average age is 50.

Lastly I was walking with my daughter this morning and this dude stopped me. I admit it’s not uncommon for people to do the double take and say “aeoow aren’t you that fulla from nesian?” and that’s what initially happen this time. But then the guy went on to thank me for telling real stories he could relate to and that he was proud of us, he even “went and bought the latest album bro no burns”. This little moment kind of made me think of how I can easily get caught up in playing industry looking at units sold, marketing plans, new promotional angles etc and I felt really humbled. I found myself looking at the times I’ve been disappointed with sales or a turn out for a gig and I was reminded of how the fact that any one gets in to what you do and supports it is a massive privilege and thrill. Enough of the doctor phil moments get ready to be excited about your life lol.

Peace signing out S

MTV award over the moon

Hey cyber famz

Fresh from our journeys cross the ditch.......and a few to many late nights gigging and celebrating. If you didn't already hear we took out the award for best kiwi act at the mtv awards in sydney in the weekend. It looked rigged as hell because non of the other finalist in our category turned up but i swear we had no idea, we just lived by our new motto of making the most of each chance to celebrate hence why we paid our way over and had a great time. Shout out to the local ozzy acts bliss n esso, jessica mouboy (sorry probably wrong spelling) and last but not less vanilla ice. For real Vanilla Ice was in the building and i have to be honest DJ Notiq spotted him straight away. We thought he was gassing us but true to his word the man "glowed".

Serenaded by a whole heap of rock "so in right now" bands i know of but really don't follow like "killers", "kings of leon" & "Wolfmother" it was cool to bump in to a few familiar faces shout out to rhys darby from flight of the concords as well as the brown faces who came up and made us feel welcome. Stoked to win the moon man despite talk of it being token if you know this industry you learn to appreciate every little bit of momentum you can get. On that note shout outs to the MTC with the smashproof album debuting 3 in the chart. To put that in to perspective thats the first hip hop album since scribes hugely anticipated "rhymebook" which dropped like almost 2 years ago now. To further the point the globe trotting brothers "Evermore" debuted 2 places down from them, in a heavily rock favoured industry as it looks at the moment that is huge. Congrats to the MTC fam again.....if you fellas keep this up this is starting to turn in to an MTC blog lol but thats for the good with aotearoa hip hop coming through. As long as the tunes coming out are reflective of our people then power to it......preach....preach...lol

We're preping the last single of "Elevator musiq" at the mo.....i know i said that like 2 months ago but its true, we shoot the vid in 2 and half weeks and should be an interesting shoot. Props also should go out to my bros at illegal musik who have another hit on their hands with "ghetto flower" J williams hitting the top 30 chart......

Back to OZ we had a dope time in brizzy looked after well by the broz and the crowd were mad receptive. Shout out to the crew at Trans RNB bar for hosting the after party.

We're got practice now so i'm a dash but keep your eyes locked for the new Vince harder clip just shot last weekend and also keep your ear out for the new nesian mixtape with all unreleased material.....if your interested and coping it email us contacts on www.nesian-mystik.com

S out

Nesian hit oz

It's been a minute since i last blogged.....but i didn't really want to blog for the hell of it with out having anything Bananaz to report on.

Me and the brothers are hitting oz over the next 3 weekends. We're performing in melbourne friday night 20th and in Logan 28th followed by cairns on the 4th. Sorry Sydney despite being in your neck of the woods for the mtv awards (can u feel a plug coming on) yes you can vote for us on www.mtv.co.nz/win/326/ , unfortunately were not performing there yet....hopefully very shortly though.

Saw David dallas clip it's mean......the tracks hot too so hopefully this translates in to some movement for duke cause you can't deny the talent he has. Marketed right David cause blow up mainstream big, fingers crossed the collab with devolo brings a few new ears to attention.

We had practice last nite for our live band i've personally call " the elevators" but its going to be like an interchangable name what ever the album of the time is called the band will receive a piece of. For example the next album is called "Tropical penguins" so maybe "the elevators" will be called the "penguins" what ever the name i really like "the" in the title :). Alot of the baddest bands have it the...... eagles, beetles, rolling stones, red hot chilli peppers etc you catch my drift.

On another note were planing the next shoot for rsvp.....for any one thats heard the track would love to hear you ideas about possible video concepts. If you havn't heard it (feel it coming on) go to http://www.nesian-mystik.com/ where you can listen to a sampler of the track. I personally want a one shot vid but couldn't think of one apart from goodshirt sophie which is one of my favourites, then i thought of that miami clip by will smith....ddddaaaaaammmmm.....that video is bad.....i hate to think how much they spent on the vid.....i heard it was really expensive.....thats not a one shot vid cause of the effects it kind of looks it but the whole walking on going shot is what i'm going for....if any one can think of a better reference hola......also checked out the old favourite pharcyde "drop" love that vid....probably my all time next to bad boys for life and Outkasts (B.O.B).

N e ways look forward to creating more music shortly.....got a special guest dropping on our first single which is a forfillment of one of my career goals to collab with this artist and its crazy we took this long to do it. So yes we're back in the studio this sunday straight after playing in north shore for the dragon boating event.

If you are coming to Pasifika make sure you check out a band called chook pea, their rockers and will be on just before us. Half their band make up the nesian band and they'll be on just before us on the main stage....check it out.

S out

Bring out gold disc number 8

Yes i know....it's been a week since i lasted blog my bad.....but hey i've returned with some pretty dan neat alrite kind of news......firstly chur chur we got our 8th gold record with Mr mista this week. Pretty awesome feeling when your music gets embraced and reaches those milestones that aren't important until you hit them and then you kind of take notice of them.

It's kind of bitter sweet and this is what i love about blog world cyber space from your screen to mine...... i can be real. Our track going gold hitting top 3 was dope, we were number one most played on urban radio for 5 weeks straight i think that's even challenging nesian 101 but i guess the hard part is despite all that great news we were unable to get the support of the mainstream stations....basically the ones which target audience are almost the opposite demographic to our group :). All i'm say is mainstream radio held back the gates on this one and i can only imagine what we could have achieved if we'd got the support. Lol don't think we're not going to have another charge at the gate though.

I also need to send a massive shout out to the features on the track....che..pele...kimbra, this is the first time we've ever released a single thats featured people.....ok bar if it's cool.

We had mad fun playing massey university albany to a packed audience along side 2 top blokes sirvere and P money. Fun times were had by all around and it was actuallys moneys b'day to tip of the hat to the veteran lol, thats hustle working on your b'day.

My other awesome news is we have been nominated for the Australian MTV awards. You can vote on the mtv website http://www.mtv.com.au cheers. Lastly but definitley not less massive props out to the MTC fam for hitting that ever elusive number one spot. Savage's new album dropped this week congrats to my bro he hit 8 this week brother deserves all the praise for his hard work and props to Dawnraid fam. Is it me or is time for a aotearoa hip hop renassiance on the charts :P

Back in the booth

It's official we had our first recordings for the new album today, we're hitting it over the weekend. Plenty of laughs, agruments of whats working and stuff ups. Nothing ever comes out the way you think when there's 5 dudes behind the boards direct the plays when your on the mic.

Junz just got back from oz so the 6 nesians are officially in the building. We're actually off to oz next month so keep your eyes locked...melbourne...and possibly brizzy and cairns.

This albums a strange one as it's really random songs, i think we just might have the track of summer come xmas this year.....u heard it here 1st almost 10 months out from it getting released. Good news today we got video grant for RSVP the last single off Elevator musiq so make sure you start getting ready people coz this is definitly something we're looking forward to hooking you up with. For alot of the boys it's their favourite track off the album....don't forget our boy PNC is preparing to release his album and is featured on our next single...funny that (good hustle).

If only you could see our studio antics it's straight kindagarden steez, yet somehow we still manage to get stuff done....don't know how but we do. We're on to our 4th album so the process tends to just flow by....but were really just trying to get what comes easiest out and then begin to really challenge ourselves to dig deep and try come out with something we haven't done before. This album has no limits and goes everywhere from new york hip hop to pacific reggae blah blah blah just wait til you hear i guess lol. hours locked in the studio with these eggs can be hell but thats the very nesian factor which i guess makes us come up with stuff nobody else can be bothered trying.....crazy....crazy...zaney. This post is the fruit of too much time in the studio.

Chur S out

Smash proof sit on verge of hitting top spot

Smash proof sit on verge of hitting top spot and with it i think we maybe seeing the dawn of the next generation of Aotearoa hip hop. Do i don't mean to sound ancient but me and the boys have been going at it for almost 10 years now releasing music and personally i've been waiting for the next batch to pop through....how wise and reasonable of me i'm sure your thinking...lol

I don't mean to sound like i told you so but if you look back at the last smashproof article i did point out they were blowing up and that the track had alot of room to move up. It would take something like Souljah boy or Eminem to hold them out considering radio's not even fully all over them yet. The fact that their initial tracks didn't blow to this extent 3 years ago but they kept working at is dope and i don't mean to sound like i'm jumping on the band wagon but hey i can't remember seeing a relatively young crew come through and get this high in charts rapping since.....hmmmm.....haha isn't it amazing how i can take a congradulatory talk about another group and still bring it back to Nesian.....nah seriously cool that Hip Hop is flying the flag.

On a side note any body watch the new money vid: Seriously he got the whole disturbing thing going on. I wasn't blown away by the acting but it's a trippy vid which would have marketing and promotion agencies licking their lips with delight. I'm a own the beats not my cup of tea but hey i'm looking forward to seeing how industry embrace this one.

Oh yeah other side note.....me and the boys started on the new album in the weekend down in T-town and had such fun writing tracks. We got 7 tracks done which all had their own flava.

Chur chur

S out

When do you know you've made it?

Howzit peeps

I found out a little bit of info which brough a smile to dial today which highlighted an interesting question, when as an artist do you know you've made it? We get smiliar questions thrown at us all the time like, how does it feel now you've made it? The question still puzzles me today like what have we really made? Music....memories.....sales milestones....awards, what really defines making it? If i was bluntly honest i don't think we've made it becuase i havn't arrived at my final destination i'm seeking. In fact i would go as far as saying once you've made it you no longer have passion to pursue it because it's finished. So in some strange way i hope i never "make it" because if i do i won't have anything left to achieve.

Don't get me wrong i can still remember the first time i saw our debut single nesian style on the charts. I got the biggest thrill of my life because i never thought stuff like that could ever happen for this bedroom m.c growing up in grey lynn attending a school that didn't even have a music class. Going from a dude that use to hijack shows and hustle just to get heard to being asked to perform was a big deal and yeah i felt kind of appreciated which was dope. I remember alot of people use to give me a hard time because doing music wasn't seen as cool at school it was try hard american etc and those same people i met later would go out of there way to come and talk to me.....seeing how people change at times depending on how they percieve you is trippy.

I also remember getting my first gold record, then platnium etc etc all that was exciting and the overseas touring was such a big thrill as well. But never at any point did i feel like i'd done all i came to do, it's like at every achievement i turn a new corner and see a new race i've got to win.

"Made it" is such a general kind of a statement and in this country made it normally is also followed by a large serving of "made it hate" which takes a bit of getting use to.

Any who....getting to what made me think about the issue, before i explain i don't mean to build you up with anticipation because it really ain't anything huge but....awa forwarded me an email from one of his mates talking about when you know you've made it and attached was a break down on a horse from southland which won four races straight (easily apparently) over a distance of 2400 metres and low in behold it was named after us "Nesian Mystic" and yes it was mispelled with a c instead of a K not the first or last time that's happened. It just cracks me up that somewhere in the world a creature was born and some person had the kahuna's or the humour to name it after us. Ok that was quite a build up to a rather nothing kind of a story but just in case you don't believe me click on link http://www.southlandharness.co.nz/

Is it happy or merry Waitangi or straight chur a holiday....any way were performing on channel one tomorrow for their waitangi special performing nesian 101 and then we're beginning the writing process for the fourth album down in Taurunga. We roll Taurunga for writing retreats, also late hours and phat tunes. The place where were wearing our old skol koro hat's in Mr mista is actually where we write the tunes.

Chur S out

Nesians ripping it up #9 ghost writing in Japan itunes

Howdi

Dam 3 updates in one day, i bet your counting your lucky stars or maybe you just know its going to be a couple of days until i update....not even eoowww. 

We remixed a track and wrote verses for an artist in Japan called miss Monday. Our track was released as the B side to her single yet somehow has begun charting on Japanese itunes. The A side of her cd features some of the biggest artists in Japan so we knew it would get a bit of attention but for our track to chart is darn marvelous. We done it over a year ago and kind of forgot about it, it was soon after our japanese tour when we were flooded by request to write tracks and beats for a lot of the Japanese artists. 

So shout out to "miss monday" doing her thing and ultimately getting us some good chart positioning and publishing. Oh chur chur

S out

welcome Smash proof to the top 10 fam

Shout outs to the smash proof crew who just today joined a small crew of nz hip hop top 10's. 

Not since the days of Scribe, Che-fu, Savage, Fast crew, Dei Hamo, Aradhna & Adeaze when top 10's for hip hop releases seemed a weekly occurrence have we seen such a healthy top 10 list. In the last year i can give off 7 Aotearoa hip hop top 10 singles:

*Devolo "To shy"

*Horsemen family "Feels like magic"

*Nesian "Nesian 101, Dance floor, Mr mista"

*Scribe "My sh**"

*P-money "everything"

Special mention must go out for J williams who i think was just outside the top 10 but hey i maybe wrong and that would make 8. Then add Smash Proof with "Brothers" and a high debut entry at 29 this week for Savage and i'm a say we back (at least for understanding the chart game). It took us a while to get this digital game down but Aotearoa hip hop is now most definitley in the building. In fact we Nesians learnt this lesson the hard way with our 2nd album singles not being available at all digitally and "Robin hood heroes" which i put as one of our biggest singles ever not to have an opportunity to be sold. Fortunately shout out to our label "Bounce records" which heard us out and eventually put our first single on digital format Nesian 101 which gave us our first number one single.  

But enough about Nesian this is a welcome to the club party for Smash Proof and all the hard work their've put in keeping in mind their album comes out in March. The run is far from over considering they ain't even close to reaching peak in their urban play spins and only just starting to edge in to vodafone sales despite killing it on itunes. I remember a time i would have been competative as hell that someone else was coming up when everyone was popping off, maybe its age but i'm actually really excited when new Aotearoa hip hop tracks come through now. I guess i appreciate hustle and all the work behind the scenes as well as getting over all the anti hip hop sentiments which played apart in the recession of hip hop releases. 

Ok i'm a shout up and stop analyzing things and just celebrate....

FYI.....were number 3 again 

P.S- Yes my pics are random but in a way thats exactly the continuity i'm looking for :)

S out 

Money or the bag

Top of the afternoon to ya

Once again me and the nesian broz are on the hustle sorting out the paper pushing part all musicians fall asleep on. Next to creating music, paper work is right up there for being daily rituals which make the difference between this being a fun hobby and this being a forfilling career. 

I don't think anybody really likes counting pennys especially when theres so few to count and filling out mountains of forms with no certainty of hitting the funding jackpot but after a chance meeting with a oversea's artist i was set straight. 

Head in any direction off these beautiful shores as a musician for a new start and you'll soon learn the sobering reality that we here in NZ are fortunate. Yes for all the obvious reasons you hear quoted by every 2 bid artist trying to kiss butt and hopeful sell a few more CD's and maybe some merch but i'm talking about funding. 

So many are quick to bag the funding powers at be for small budgets, picking crap music and being seen as looking to pat their own back to protect themselves. Lets face it there is some shocking picks with regards to music funding but after speaking with artist from the states, Japan even Australia they are amazed at the amount of funding made available for musicians hear and i'm not just talking about nz on air. 

We Nesian have been extremely fortunate to have the support of  NZ on air since day one and with out agencies like them we would not have been able to get our music out of the garage let alone get it on the radio and then get to the point of having our own recording gear etc. 

When i see talented artist still talking about not having the funds to release their music it really frustrates me, make no mistakes about it if your driven and use a bit of initiative and common sense with your application then you should be able to get your music A) recorded and B) have a music video. We need to spot providing excuses and start providing options with a game play people. Ok i'm going to get down from my high horse now.....

To be honest i hate filling out applications but then again do i hate receiving money to pursue my dreams. We are fortunate despite what ever we may think. 

Peace

S out

3rd times a charm

Sup cyber peeps....... all 2 of you lol

Well firstly the news all artist like to hear...we are number one on urban radio with mr mista for the 2nd consecutive week. It's awesome to celebrate those small milestones which help in the bigger picture. So often you get caught up trying to win the elections and miss out on realising your being given the chance to say something and people actually listen (excuse my obama moment) thats the cool part. Now i've got that out the way shout out to vodafone whom we're number one for sales this week on, their've put us as the feature "artist" of the week so chur chur.

I want to send a big and sincere shout out to my MTC fam who are seriously carving it up on itunes & c4, Smash proof were added to edge which i dont need to tell you is huge for a crew of rappers you feel me. I like MTC's hustle, not neccesarily all their music but dam the cross over i've seen and watching the reaction of that trend demographic who shall remain nameless so the racism card and sexism card don't get played lol is massive. Alot people don't realise the behind the scenes which go in to creating momentum & went a play works to perfection there's no better feeling than busking in a well delivered and thought out strategy. Unfortuantely if you want to stay at the top of the game busking doesn't really last more than a night....ok maybe a weekend in the case of the nesians lol. Shout out to Kirk & Juse, i'm watching and taking notes brothers.

Ok humour me as i'm on a feel good pat aotearoa hip hop on the back moment. After all the bulls*** the movement (i call it a movement because theres a cause) has been through in the last 4-5 years i'm proud to say we're sitting on possibly the next wave of hip hop attacks. I mean if we as a community keep spreading our wings like Savage, Scribe, Sid, Nesians, P money etc and expanding our territories it would not be an exaggeration to say we are NZ biggest musical export in years to come.

Speaking of local music check out a remix me, Junz, Old one done with Vince Harder for his debut single strobe lights. I'm still trying to get tech savy so you'll need to click on the link below and it'll take you to you tube :)

http://nz.youtube.com/watch?v=8fTs47z1U6Q

We had an awesome weekend down in the bay Hawks that is.....shout out to Levi the baller who looked after us like kings (obviously saw the potential hahaha). Also went to Tainui country and performed at tribal vibes which felt like a brown peoples big day out....and what a big day it was. Nothing but love in the sun, meke tunes and good company catching up with all the crews. Speaking of which if you ever play ardijah in b'ball be aware they tape the game for analysis and a few laughs afterwards which is all good unless your me and unco to the days hahaha.

P.S if your wondering what the photo up top is, i'm writing on my cousins computer and as is custom i needed a pic for this update and well these are the photos i found so Natty and Age if your reading this then I'm dead :)

Til next time......how much.......2 much

Sab out

andre "3 stakes" 3000 fashion line in jepody of huge loses

Anyone who knows me is well aware andre 3000 is my all time favourite bestest MC. So goes without saying I like his style speaking of which Andre has his fingers in many pies including a cartoon series, acting, art but the most recent has been his fashion label "Benjamin Bixby Line".

Shortly after Andre's label was nominated for the GQ magazines best new menswear designer he was hit by news of a huge loss in sales. So much so that his line has been halved in price and looks now in a rather dangerous position of being another victim of the dreaded "recession". Bitter sweet, he's recognised as having an amazing fashion label and no bodies buying it. Come on people i know the cost of his gears more than 2 weeks rent but dam yet another rapper entreprenur hits a speed bump.

If you had a fashion label what would you call it?

On that note if you go to http://www.nesian-mystik.com/ you can check out our exclusive tee's lol i know it's late for xmas but there's always b'days and waitangi days a good gift giving day so I heard from a pakeha friend :)

The raptor hits a quarter century

Kudos to the b'day boy PNC.....the bro hosted his buddies for a house party which was dope catching up and hanging with the usual suspects i.e: dirty squad, nesians etc. My only complaint don't let PNC dj your party if you like listening to whole songs rather than when he gets bored half way through a track and cuts it off to look for his next track that tickles his fancy.

I got mad time for PNC, firstly he reps Palmerston north city and for those that don't know (you better ask somebody) i'm a palmy born boy. Secondly if that wasn't enough we hold it down for the half kast samoans, he loves melodic grove based music which is nothing short of being a long lost nesian brother. Lastly he's a top bloke who's a dope rapper and his brownie points went through the roof for me when i found out he was another huge Outkast fan like me & DJ notiq.

Fun was had by all.....thank you to the birthday boy hosting us and singing all awa's b.v's to "It's on"....hahaha... make sure you get ready to check out his new album spicyly (don't know if that's even a word) titled "Bazooka kid". Coincidently the next Nesian single RSVP will feature the birthday boy himself going 16 bars with your local neighbour fresh boyz....so keep an eye out we'll be shooting the clip shortly.

Big day out Freshboyz style

Round 2.....fight

Back so soon you say.....well wanted to keep you in the loop with where you can catch us at big day out. This year we're doing alot of promotional comps and interviews but to catch up with us for the general public your best bet is the signing tent....we'll be there from 2-2.30pm.

The real deal u need to check is our live band. Alot of people try hype the whole live band thing when they transition from the dj but most i can safely say are no roots. Ok were not the roots either since we've only been praticing 6 weeks but i tell ya we have some of the best muso's involved. I know i've heard people claim good muso's and still sound their uncles rsa band but these guys are awesome at what they do and are really an extension of the nesian family both musically and even more so in their humour which is probably the numba 1 requirement in our crew.

Enough about how "super nice" our band is the proof is in the koko i mean pudding. You can check us out on the green stage from 4-445pm. Actually your in for a bit of treat as Ladi 6 is on just before us.

Other than Lupe i'm not sure who else i want to see. Horsemen are on late which should be good. P Moneys flying the hip hop flag in the boiler room which raises the point, has hip hop done that well that we're all infilitrating different stages other than the local stage they always had us on or are we that slack that we don't have our own stage and we're just shared out because there's not enough of us doing things (your guess is as good as mine).

I had the honour of checking out lupe last time and dudes live performance is dope, in fact i remember me and Mareko having a bit of disagreement about who was the biggest breakthrough artist out of lupe and lil wayne......well i guess i was wrong based on what waynes acheived but don't tell rex that because i'll just denie it lol. My only gripe bout Lupe's set was that it was created to appeal to non hip hop fans which it accomplished but those of his core fans there was no mains only entrees with all his best songs ( in my humble opinion) being overlooked for his crossover stuff.

Well til next time.....for all those wondering where notiq's best of 2008 is at it will be hitting your screens shortly.....no pressure....which leads me to my thought of the day, i'm still trying to figure if it's cool in a blog to text spell words or just straight keep it the grammar official like awa's motueka jacket (inside joke sory).


Who you looking forward to checking out at this years big day out?

It's official cuz

So it's my first blogpost ooowwwweeeeee put it in the air....lol

but seriously what do you say in these, especially the first one.......

How bout i start with selling you...... that this is the be all and end all of internet, that the world has now officially evolved hahaha.

Everyone knows i'll be updating you with the inside word on the nesians, since this is my blog spare me a moment to pedal a bit of propaganda......the nesians this week got our 9th top 10 single with mr mista entering the top 10 at 7#. Also that makes the 3rd track off our amazingly criticial acclaimed by our parents latest album elevator musiq possibly unbiasly the most successful local record of the year......now thats a big claim i hear you saying.....then i'll put it this way name another record with just 2 top 20's.....as i said this is our blog so a bit of king kong chest beating is allowed.....heck it may be the last time anything happens i could quote to you so yes were celebrating. Now that I've got that out of my system back to reality.

Big shot out to Motueka our 1st gig of the new year, people were awesome hosts and treated us like fam so big ups much appreciated. Had a real good time with our friends ardijah, Motueka hospitality was beautiful and the brothers had a mean time out with the locals.

Since my blogs missed 08 allow me a bit buffer time to reflect in my next blog....hearing what songs i've loved would be i'm sure life changing for you all but on the next blog i'm a let dj notiq a man who listened to a hell of a lot more tunes in 08 then me hit you with his picks.

I can't wait to fill you in on all the local music popping off as well coz i'm a have my finger on the pulse u best believe.....signing out Sab