Adam | Royal Oak, Auckland

“My brave story is moving to Auckland not long after Level 4 Lockdown. Auckland’s New Zealand’s largest city, so the opportunities here might have been a bit tight.

No-one really knew what was going to happen after Lockdown, but since arriving three months ago, there’s just been many doors open. Many wonderful people. So, the bravery paid off.

I spent time in Palmerston North, and gain probably another brave story preceding this one, is that I recorded a lot of music from right across every corner of the town, many genres, many people, calling it, like community-based music, and that was quite well-received beyond Palmerston North. People couldn’t believe that I got these musical styles together, and coming to Palmerston North has just extended that. 

So, following on from that, I’ve been appointed the New Zealand Director of a group called Generation Hip-Hop Global. That’s in 66 countries around the world, and it’s led by Ndaba Mandela, Nelson Mandela’s grandson. The whole theme of Generation Hip Hop Global is empowerment, how music, art and dance empowers communities, empowers people, and incredibly, my friend is the manager of the Wesley Market here, and also, the Wesley Community Centre just over from where we’re filming was the site of recordings by church and AP, largely recognised now as New Zealand’s top hip hop act. 

Hip Hop follows from the idea of community-based music, and I’ve had to catch up. I didn’t even know who Akon was. As another interest, I’ve signed an agreement with UNESCO in Africa, and one of the people on my steering committee is Akon’s business partner. Akon’s a big Hip Hop star, and I had to ask people who he was. This is how much I’m catching up, but coming back to it, John Lennon once said, say what you believe, make it rhyme and put a beat to it, when describing song-writing, and that pretty much goes into every genre, and Hip Hop is very much about that. What I’ve learned is it’s the language of empowerment. It’s the language of speaking truth, the power. It’s the language of helping people get through whatever challenges that they’re facing, whether they’re migrants, whether they’re disenfranchised, whether they’ve had addiction issues, or whatever. Music is a great healer as I’ve recently and happily discovered, Hip Hop is also a great healer, too.

One of the big things that I’ve learned is how much cultural diversity there is in Auckland, and although I studied anthropology at university, which is the study of humanity, and although my music’s introduced me to a lot of people, I’m always learning about other cultures. The food they eat, how they touch, how they interact, and Auckland is a great place for discovering that cultural diversity and my own place in it.”