E Tū (Te Reo Māori Remix)

Upper Hutt Posse , Music Video – 2004

from the single Te Reo: Remixes (2002)

Album Te Reo: Remixes (2002) refashioned earlier Upper Hutt Posse tracks into te reo, after UHP co-founder Dean Hapeta (aka Te Kupu) studied Māori at Te Wānanga o Raukawa in Ōtaki in the late 1990s. The original 'E Tū' burst into Kiwi consciousness in 1988, a rallying cry of Māori self-determination and pride set to beats and inspiring a homegrown hip hop scene. The video keeps it simple: Te Kupu and his brother Matt (MC Wiya) are upfront and personal, delivering their polemic straight to camera. Behind them images of Māori resistance and activism play. In 2016 the original song won the NZ Classic Record Award.

It is an indictment of Aotearoa’s music industry and our society as a whole that music in te reo Māori does not generally get noticed or played... But to produce te reo Māori music is a political act in itself, which fits Te Kupu and Upper Hutt Posse’s kaupapa of mana motuhake.
– Writer Ariana Tikao, in her Audioculture profile of Upper Hutt Posse, 7 December 2016