Week 5: Live Life

-



       "Welcome all with the warm pacific greetings" 

This week, I will be speaking about the inspiration behind the track, Live Life.

South Auckland, Polynesian stereotypes, my upbringing and skate parks! All things that inspired me to write this song. As mentioned in a earlier post, "New-Zealand is racist as f**k"-Taika Waititi. Wither I agree or not with the statement, would let to a rant and take focus away from the post. So I wont make comment yet. (My thesis coming soon).

However, Taika went on to speak about the profiling that happens towards Polynesians , and especially the medias painting of South Auckland. That old joke Im always hearing with the, "hey, I just saw your cousin on police ten 7". My reply? a cheeky giggle. This particular moment happened at one point, when I was in the process of writing this song.Henceforth, Live life was born.

Verse 1 of live life

"Welcome all with the warm pacific greetings, im reporting live from broken homes with the broken english, the broke bottles that broke bones in the beatings, this is also home of the brave and break and entries, home of the skate parks, and bike pedalling, many mics fiddling, with many men representing it. Billboards of politics, posted on fences, saying vote for this, and hope for that, im hopeful for that, my home adapts, to the rapid change, I check my pockets for the dude who smell like piss, and looked like someone, kicked, his tooth for some loose change, you cant duck a goose my uce, we run the same, though you may be lost, we got navigation, in our veins, and you sailing in the waves, and im sailing in the pages of my rhyme book, I wear my heart on every bar, and on my sleeve, so dont forget your dreams, like..." 

This verse alone took me the longest in my short and upcoming career to write. One month in case you were wondering. I felt that I compacted many social issues into one writing. Broken families, language barriers, abuse, crime, politics, homelessness and empowerment of the youth.

The aim of this song was to tell the story from a South Auckland natives perspective. A sort of report, as if speaking into the lens of a TV3 camera. But a real encounter.

This is my art for the world, representing my hometown, and my breaking down of barriers.

Comments

  1. Unknown13 June 2018 at 02:15

    I think you have done an amazing job at contrasting the South Auckland that the media portrays and the South Auckland that the people that live here call home. I think you would have noticed that whenever a suburb in South Auckland is mentioned in the news, the media just has to mention that it is in SOUTH AUCKLAND, like the only place in the world that something bad happens is here.

    You have an amazing way at wording things. The way you have described your experience allows someone to very easily picture what you are talking about even if they haven't experienced it before. That is something super hard to do. I think what you are doing is amazing and I hope that one day you make it big.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 3: Confessions of a broke rapper

-
Image
I saw a Facebook post the other day, the author shared a screen shot of a musician boasting about their worldly possessions. He commented that people shouldn't make a public post on social media every time they make money, just get on with the rewards of their hard work, and be quiet with it.  He must see a lot of it or something, because that post triggered him to write in caps lock. I understood what he meant. I know of a couple people who post about making "money moves", but they honestly do it for the gram. You know the ones, depending off of government benefits? Or the one who think that their financial status will reflect their social status amongst friends and families? Their image is so important, they use making money as a means to "flex" or a way to get back at people whom did them wrong in the past. Growing up in a pacific island household and surrounded by Polynesians for majority of my life, Ive noted that Money is a blessing and curs...
Read more

Week 4: Open Mic Night

-
Image
WEEK 4: Open Mic Night 🎤   This was the week I was both excited and scared about. Performing is something that I have done all throughout primary school, college and also for gigs. However at this point, it had been a few months since the last time I performed and I was nervous about not being able to impress people at the Otara music arts centres open mic nights, hosted by one of my rap idols, King Kapisi.  The hall was dimly lit. I signed my life away on the performers list. Then, As I began rapping, I was soaking in all the nerves and gave what I thought was my heart, on the microphone. When I performed I was considering my next three steps, beside the limited time to get out a clear message. I also have to be ready in case I forget my lyrics, and then how I will quickly adapt to overcome and fix the changes, in case I may need to freestyle. The first song I performed was a Son of Polynesia. This was where I was most nervous as this was the openi...
Read more

Mid reflection post

-
So far for my brief two portfolio assessment, I have been posting weekly blogs about certain aspects and inspirations that is helping shape my music project, A Son of Polynesia EP. I currently have posted five blogs on Blogger.com, with week one speaking about not expecting hand outs on brand promotion or support from fellow artists. Week two, on Taika Waititi's comments on racism in New-Zealand and other kiwi rappers whom inspired me to write and release my intro track, A Son of Polynesia. Week three, touched on the egotistic persona some people put on social media, when they have money and how that pushed me to speak on the effects its had on my family,friends, and the pacific community, composing the second track on my EP, Confessions of a broke rapper. My nervous experience at an open mic night in my week four posting and finally week five, what inspired me to write track number three of the EP, Live life. I have been discussing with my mentors and fellow students in my music...
Read more