Hip Hop New Zealand

I'm not making it for middle class New Zealand. I'm making it for people like myself. This is my shot at life, putting out this album, putting out the next album so I can make legit money, if people go out there and buy my CDs. Instead of me standing on corners or dark carparks hustling and dealing whatever, y'know. That's what I'd rather be doing: selling CDs than selling drugs.

– Ermehn

See when hip hop was transported out of New York to the world a lot of us picked up on tracks like "The Message", "Don't Push Me I'm Close to the Edge" and the sociopolitical messages coming out of the music. We took that and really embraced that. I did myself personally and through the music Upper Hutt Posse brings out, we're on that political shit. I don't care.

– Dean Hapeta

The Pakeha people that liked it were all from working class homes because it spoke to you. It was about community. It was about community fighting back. It was about community being powerful. It was about you being powerful within a powerless world.

– Kerry Buchanan (on early NZ hip hop)