“I’m Samoan and hip hop is everywhere in that community,” he says. “We have our own influence from our uncles that come from Los Angeles. I went to every high school in Auckland, then back in Samoa, and in Sydney too. Everywhere I went, there were always people at school doing freestyles or having rap battles.”
Poetik was particularly taken by West Coast rap, which he found was popular among Samoans because of the large immigrant populations in California and Utah. He started his first group, called Vital Status, while living in Samoa and got a track, ‘Thug’s Paradise’, played on local station Magik FM.
Returning to Aotearoa, his involvement in the South Auckland scene led him to appear on the debut album by Sara-Jane Auva’a, who’d just split off from hit group Pacific Soul. Poetik’s rapping was central to the single ‘Starlight Wishes’ and his crew appeared on ‘Bounz To This’. Auva’a won Best Pacific Female Artist for the resulting album, Sara-Jane (2004), at the first Pacific Music Awards in 2005.
The golden era of hip hop was just kicking off in Aotearoa and Poetik seemed to be on the cusp of a breakthrough, even going into the studio to record never-released tracks with Savage and King Kapisi. Instead the years passed and Poetik slowly began to feel his music career slipping away from him.
The Come Up
Poetik spent much of the years 2003-2009 in South Auckland and found himself getting into trouble on the streets and dabbling with drugs. He eventually relocated to Sydney where he hoped to put his bad habits behind him and on the track ‘The Come Up’ he reflected on his more settled lifestyle: “… first time the fridge was full, drug-free, and a lightbulb in every single room.”
He’d just had his first child and even considered quitting hip hop, but was introduced to DJ Manny, a local producer who suggested they work together. They kicked off by writing the track ‘Don’t Want To Waste Your Time’ and built from there.
He considered quitting hip hop, but was introduced to DJ Manny, a Sydney producer
“Manny came up with the idea to do a full mixtape instead of just one song. I was used to the gangster stuff, but he introduced me to other old school acts like A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul – all this great stuff that I’d been missing out on. Manny and I recorded in a studio that we built with our own hands in the garage.”
The result was the 2013 mixtape The Ambassador, which included an impressive 17 tracks (not including the intro and two interludes). The West Coast-influenced street raps remained, but it was also clear from the start that Poetik wanted to represent for his people: he constantly referenced “685”, the area code for Samoa. His positive side also came through on the standout track ‘Polynesian Girls (feat Jverbs)’, on which Poetik gives “respect to my queens for the struggles that you go through.”
The mixtape gained some interest in the underground back in Aotearoa, but Poetik continued to live an unsettled life; it was a few years before he had a chance to record a follow-up. He returned with a new energy by releasing two mixtapes in two years, For The Ville (2016) and Poetikly Done (2017). He had seen how well CDs sold at the markets in Auckland and back in Samoa, so he booked his own stalls to sell them directly to customers. He started going door-to-door in his neighbourhood and was often warmly received by other Polynesian people who were impressed with his hustle.
“It’s like I say in my track ‘Khakis’ – I’m an old school hip hop guy, even though I’m a new artist. I don’t get into the new fashions so quickly. I’m old-fashioned even, with the CDs out the trunk and going door-to-door like a Jehovah’s Witness. Friends tell me, ‘you know you can do it all on an online store?’ I say, ‘Yeah, I know I can, but just let me have fun with my people here, I want to go out and meet everyone.’”
He found an audience online too, with his mix of laidback beats and attitude-filled street raps. ‘Around Here (feat Marlie Music and Storm E)’ was a prime example, with its funky guitar and live drumbeat. It sounded like it could have come out in the 90s, but its groove made it timeless and it eventually became a multi-million streamer. Poetik had plenty of hard-edged battle raps too, and the video for the ‘Wrong Side Of Town’ was a favourite amongst hip hop heads.
The Hamofied Breakthrough
Poetik eventually decided he needed to more fully engage with the modern world of digital music so he sought advice from Andy Murnane, one of the founders of Dawn Raid Entertainment.
“I asked Andy Murnane ‘how can I get my songs on that thing called Spotify?’ I didn’t understand it back then. He didn’t tell me, instead he goes, ‘Oh man, don’t worry about that. Here’s two beats. Go write me a song.’ So I went away and wrote two songs to these tracks he’d given me, both produced by Smokey [Smokeygotbeatz from SWIDT]. One of them was ‘For My City’. I bought it off them so I could release it on my EP and it blew up.”
The Hamofied EP (2018) also included ‘Lets Kick It’ which had a guest verse by Melodownz. The pair had first met on the video shoot for a song by Lukan Raisey back in 2016. They subsequently realised that they shared the same great-grandfather on their European side. The fact that they were part-European had sometimes seen them being harassed by full-blooded Polynesians, who tried to make them feel like outsiders for their white heritage. They bonded over this, as well as their love of hip hop.
His friendship with Melodownz meant it was inevitable they would work together
Their friendship meant it was inevitable they would work together, and Poetik managed to drop ‘Lets Kick It’ just as Melodownz’s career was taking off. The accompanying music video by Jordan Cherrington perfectly suited the party vibe of the song, with Poetik hosting a backyard party at his place with Vailima beer (from Samoa), a large bowl of kava, and a BBQ filled to the brim. The guests at the party include Jess B, Spycc (SWIDT), and Feleti Strickson-Pua (Nesian Mystik).
This pair of songs created a massive online buzz and this time Poetik put some careful thought into how it should be released.
“The Hamofied EP was our first proper step into the industry. Prior to that, we were just rocking without much thought to it – we weren’t doing no full rollouts, we weren’t doing marketing and promo. We were just like ‘hey, man, here’s a CD’. Then we just hoped that radio might play a song. We didn’t know the game. We didn’t know the tricks to the trade. From Hamofied onwards, we started learning more and taking it more seriously.”
Yet Poetik kept a connection to his roots. The EP features skits by Fresh TV comedian/director Darryl Laumua, who’d been part of Poetik’s first group back in Samoa. Poetik showed off his love of old school g-funk on ‘Hamofied Funk’ and he still made much of his income from selling T-shirts and CDs, though he did have an online store by this stage. He raised enough to fly to California to film a video for ‘Life Is A Hustle’ with the featured Samoan-American rapper on the track, Zeek Uc (who appears alongside Rolexx and Tha Uso KD). Poetik also took time out to return to Samoa to be tattooed in the traditional tatau style, which he saw as a way to represent the customs of his people.
By this stage, Andy Murnane was helping Poetik in a management capacity and suggested he promote the EP by going on tour with a line-up of up-and-coming reggae artists to expand his audience. The Runtingz tour also led to a collaborative track by all those involved and the ‘The Runtingz Anthem’ joined ‘For My City’ in racking up many millions of streams.
A few years earlier, Poetik was in a hip hop crew with Tha Movement and Anonymouz which led him to join them on a Samoan hip hop all-star track, ‘Masta’. Other Samoan hip hop luminaries on the track include King Kapisi, Kas Tha Feelstyle, and Mareko. Poetik was surprised at the reach of the track.
“I got a phone call one day from Tha Movement and Anonymouz. Their team wanted me to sign a piece of paper that gave them the rights to put the song in a movie. I asked what movie and they said, ‘oh, just the new Fast and Furious movie, Hobbs & Shaw. So I was like, ‘wait, what? Are we rich now?’”
Jokes aside, Poetik’s career was on an upward trajectory, with him being given the Phil Fuemana Most Promising Artist category at the Pacific Music Awards. It was suggested he do a more accessible, acoustic track for his next release, the Hamofied 2 EP. He wrote a song dedicated to his mother, though he ended up being unhappy with the resulting track.
“I’ll be honest, it wasn’t my style. I loved that Tenelle was on it. I love her voice. The guitar on the track and the beat sounded great, but I never expected to rap to that kind of music. It was more the guys from Dawn Raid trying to guide me towards what they felt was best for me. I think when it comes to writing a song for my mom, I would’ve been better off taking an approach more like Tupac or DMX, but I still appreciate everything that the team put into that track, we worked hard on it.”
Despite his misgivings, the track gave him another million-plus streamer. He aimed to follow up on his run of EPs/mixtapes by producing a fully-fledged album next and gained the support of NZ On Air for the project. However, the roll-out of Poetik Justice (2021) was derailed by the disruptions of the Covid-19 years. The album did give him one online hit ‘All In’ which featured reggae singer Lion Rezz, though Poetik believes it could have done even better.
“That was one song that I really believed in, because Lion Rezz really ripped it up. I felt like we were crying on the track. We poured our heart and soul into it, but it was gangsta at the same time. Plus it’s got a DJ Spell beat that was cut up by Brotha D, so it’s dope. We filmed a video for it, but I didn’t like it so we didn’t use it, even after we’d paid for it. Shout out to Connor Pritchard who made it, because he did a whole edit before we canned it.”
The following year, Poetik kept fans happy with a new mixtape Hamofied Tre (2022), though his big song of the year would end up coming through an unexpected route. Poetik was asked to feature on a track by Samoan singer Victor J Sefo, who was another former winner of the most promising artist category at the Pacific Music Awards. The track was an ode to their homeland ‘685’ (also featuring BIGGs 685) and it won Best Pacific Song at the 2023 awards, while Poetik won Best Pacific Hip Hop Artist for the second year in a row.
Big Village
In 2023, Poetik kicked off a new, ambitious stage of his career when he opened his own store in the heart of the Avondale shops in Auckland, along with his business partner Bass Tauiliili. On 9 September, the ribbon cutting was done by Poetik’s daughter Lanuola and Bass’s daughter Lyrika.
They chose the name “Big Village” not only as a reference to the villages that his Polynesian ancestors came from, but also the ones that his Irish family likely lived in before relocating to America. The store primarily sold clothing, with the designs that not only had the “685” area code of Samoa, but also the codes of the other islands, including 676 (Tonga), 682 (Cook Islands), and 679 (Fiji). Of course, Poetik’s CDs held pride of place behind the counter.
Poetik’s approach might be old school, but he stays open to new styles of hip hop
Poetik and his team also created the Village Council podcast, as another form of outreach to their community. His growing workload and his role as the father of four children meant he had less time for his hip hop career, though he managed to get back in the studio in mid-2024.
His own approach might be old school, but he tries to be open to the new styles of hip hop coming through.
“I try to listen to everything and try to appreciate everything for the art, as well as the stories they might have in their songs. We Island People, we like stories, that’s how we tell our history. A lot of our history isn’t written down – the last two thousand years of it is all stories. Whatever kind of song I hear, if there’s a story then I get drawn into it … I embrace it all because I’m trying to tell my story too. I’m reporting through music what I saw growing up in the streets. It’s the same in South Auckland as it is in West Auckland or even in West Sydney where I was living, or over in California. I’m trying to show people that the struggles are similar, no matter where you live in the world …
“These days, I’m not looking back so much because I used to always be stuck in my past. So now it’s more like – ‘let’s get up and go!’ I’m focused on just setting my goals properly and accomplishing them.”
