Interview: King Kapisi

Radio BurgerFuel (RBF): You’ve just come back from playing Homegrown in Wellington with Che-Fu, and it’s the final one there - so how was it?

King Kapisi (KK): I’ve played it a couple of times over the years, I'm a Welly boy, so it being the end of the era, you know, being able to play at that last one for me in my hometown was something incredible. I'm sad to see it go but I'm hoping that at some stage you know it's going to definitely materialise in some other place.

Also being able to play with Che and the Krates was an amazing experience as well. The boys had it sounding tight in my tracks. Me and Che play together as Hedlok all the time. So we're pretty used to playing with each other and we rocked the house. I mean, two artists that are both front men. Both DJs, and know each others harmonies and raps. And I think we're probably the only duo that actually does that maybe.

RBF: So I guess we need to watch this space to see if there’s a 2.0?

KK: Yeah, I was asking questions. I was like, ‘Hey, is it here? Is it here?’ But no one spilled the details. A bit gutted. But it was a great festival, bro. And it was just a good vibe to be home.

RBF: It's pretty special to have an opportunity like that to get together and celebrate music in Aotearoa.

KK: I mean, who else celebrates us? Really. There's festivals with a lot of artists and you don't really notice until you go back to Homegrown. This is a whole festival of just us, and you know that they're supporting home. I think sometimes a lot of other festivals should take the lead from that and actually support us because you know from when I started there's heaps more. There's at least 100, or 200 more artists than back from when I started. And the other thing too, if other people don't support local, how are the new artists gonna be able to come up and get gigs as well.

RBF: Obviously it's a bit different now from 25 years ago when you were making it. Do you think it would be easier or better if you were just starting out now, or just kind of different?

KK: Yes. I think the opportunities for bands now is that there's the social media and more platforms to get on. Where back in the day, we just had the record companies and that was it. If you weren’t signed to a major or a smaller label, you couldn't really get your music out there. 

Yeah. And one of the things that helped me along the road was that I toured with Salmonella Dub a lot. And because the boys and Andrew Penman helped me out. I don't think I would be as well known if I didn't get the chance to be able to get the support from them so shout out Salmonella Dub for just helping me out because you know they always had an opening act that was a little bit leftfield, and I think at that time I was pretty leftfield. A Samoan rapper, just representing rap music as hard as I could.

RBF: There are so many other things outside, or adjacent to music you're involved with, is that how you keep your creative juices flowing?

KK: Yeah. Well, one thing on the creativity buzz is that sometimes you can still be active in the music scene, but not creating. And I think that over the years I've always kept busy with gigs, but sometimes I haven't been writing songs. But in the next month or so before the tour, the next three weeks, I'm hoping to release the first single in a while, called ‘Sunshine’.

I actually shot the video 10 years ago, and I got so busy just doing other stuff - events and all that sort of thing that I wasn't really releasing music. I wasn't really focusing on that. But now I thought I might as well have a single to go out and promote when I'm on the road.

RBF: So even though it has roots from 10 years ago. Have you just finished it off?

KK: No, it's just been sitting there, because I've got maybe 6, 7, 8 songs that I've never actually finished. Sometimes as an artist, you can sort of lose belief in yourself. I mean, I always knew that I was dope, but sometimes also it comes down to money too. Do I have the money to be able to finish that particular project.

I never really focused on it because I had money coming in from other places. But I think I've got two drum n bass tracks just sitting here. I've already written the choruses and I've just got to write verses.

I'm a heavy drum n bass guy, I've released maybe 3 or 4 tracks over the last 5 years. And when I go DJ it’s drum n bass. I don't play hip hop all the time. Now I just play dance music, or RnB there's really no spots where you can just play hardcore hip hop anymore. I might dedicate 15, 20 minutes to it out of a 2 hour set to say, hey guys, I've played you what I think you wanna hear and dance to, but this is what I listen to.

RBF: Is it kind of normal for people to listen to drum n bass, and rock, and hip hop these days? 

KK: Well, I think New Zealand is a little bit more open minded than overseas. I guess in years past people would just listen to one or two genres, but New Zealand has always been open to drum and bass and always been open to jungle. And so I think with the world changing and music being more accessible, you know there's a lot of festivals around the country. But if feel if you don't play dance, then you get left behind.

And the difference is with me, I can still jump up and play dance or multiple genres. But then rock the mic at the same time. And that's my point of difference where I can go and play my own music for an hour if I have to. But if I don't have to, I can just DJ because there’s not many, probably other than Che-Fu, P-Digggs and Tiki, that are MC's, rappers that can sing as a vocalist. 

RBF: So what’s the plan for the rest of the year then?

KK: My mission is this year is to get out all the old stuff and then move on to some of the new stuff. Hopefully we have a ‘Savage Thoughts’ vinyl release at some stage during the year, but obviously that will get the profile back out there a little bit more. But I'd also like to release it in Australia and some other places. I think I'm pretty lucky that me and probably Che have become like heritage artists where we can still go do gigs without having to have singles.

RBF: A vinyl release for 25 years of Savage Thoughts is cool, that makes sense. But apart from that, do you ever spend much time looking backwards?

KK: The only time is when I had to do a Savage Thoughts tour. And I had to relearn all the songs and some of those songs that I didn't actually perform at that time because I thought that it was a little bit hard. But because there was a Savage Thoughts album celebration. Yeah, I had to learn all the songs and perform all those songs again. It was pretty difficult, but we got the original team back on to come and perform with me and so that was all interesting.

And I love it, but outside that me and my consortium have just put in a bid for a NRL team, so we're looking forward to that in case we get the bid. And if we do, we've gotta have three rugby league teams ready to go into the NRL leagues over in Australia and New Zealand. So that's happening.

With the charitable stuff going, I've got an incredible team and now we have the capacity to do gigs from July and just keep on going through the rest of the year. So with the basketball tournaments and then with the Awhi Project where we take kids snowboarding and doing different sorts of activities that they normally wouldn't do. 

RBF: But first. You tour?

KK: Yeah, I’m definitely doing this tour with Supergroove where we go right around the North and South Islands, and then we go over to Australia in May to do a couple of gigs over there. 

So I can just promote my single while I'm still on the road and tour with Troy Kingi - that guy's a genius, and Rubi Du - Samoan and Jamaican. Love her. She's the bomb. And you know I'm just looking forward to being on the road with Supergroove, but also releasing dope music in the future. And Doing more good stuff with Hoops and Life and the Awhi Project around the country as well.