Hip hop producer DLT, aka Darryl Thomson Photo: The Down Low Concept / RNZ
The cultural phenomenon known as hip-hop is celebrating its 50th birthday his month.
Darryl Leigh Thomson (DLT) – the man known as the 'Godfather of New Zealand Hip-Hop' – reflects on its emergence here in the 1980s.
In 1988, Upper Hutt Posse (the group Darryl co-founded with Dean Hapeta, aka Te Kupu) released what is now considered to be Aotearoa's first-ever hip-hop track.
The young Wellington group didn't consider the significance of their historic debut single 'E Tū' but were "busy being in the moment" Darryl tells Kim Hill.
Breakdancing was the first aspect of hip-hop culture to take off in Aotearoa, Darryl says, and his background in Kapa Haka gave him the confidence to try out moves in front of other kids.
At the time, hip-hop seemed like a "cure" for kids who'd previously roamed the streets of Upper Hutt, bored, he says.
After the success of 'E Tū', Upper Hutt Posse relocated to Auckland in 1989. Darryl says to a young Wellingtonian the city felt "scary".
"Auckland seemed to be like a place where nothing was real. It was all shiny and light. Whereas [in] Welly it wasn't about fame, it was about getting your point across… Auckland was like LA. You went there to sell your stuff and yourself."
Upper Hutt Posse, DLT's first group Photo: c/o Audioculture
In 1996, DLT shot to fame with the hit single 'Chains' – a collaboration with rapper Che Fu from his first solo album The True School.
The lyrics of 'Chains' indirectly reference the French nuclear weapons testing carried out in French Polynesia between 1966 and 1996, he says.
"At that time we needed to build a Polynesian nation back… Someone called our relations 'Pasifika' when we're all Polynesians, we're actually all Polynesian.
"'Chains' was using the nuclear-free Pacific thing as a glue to bind us together … I'm not into this Pasifika and Māori thing, not into it."
- Related: DLT on 'Chains': 'It was just heavenly stuff'
After the massive success of 'Chains', Darryl says he felt anxious about "going from public enemy number one to everyone's best friend".
"I had to go inside and do some self-reflection so that I would stop being afraid."
A couple of days after Darryl asked for divine help during meditation, he says the NZ Music Commission invited him to tour Aotearoa with two Tibetan Buddhist monks.
Spending four weeks in a van with a pair of monks changed his life.
"I think most people who have expressive have anxieties, you know. That's how we try and deal with it – force yourself to go out into the world.
"I was a bit anxious and I went to ground zero in myself and found some gold ... I got all the affirmations I needed and I'll never forget those two people for the rest of my life."
Darryl says he left the music business in 2000 after his record label at the time asked him to find a teenage girl to write songs for. He doesn't miss performing and has no regrets about stepping away when he did.
"I want to be remembered for having grace and style… not 'go out on top' but just go out quietly. There's no retirement plan for being a performer. You just feel it and leave."
DLT played:
'Rapper's Delight' by the Sugarhill Gang (1979)
'E Tū'. by Upper Hutt Posse (1988)
The Message by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five (1982)
'Chains' by DLT and Che Fu (1996)
'Fine' by Melodownz (2023)
'Silver & Gold' by Ermehn ft Cydel (2005)
'Kupe' by Tipene Harmer (2023)
