In between finishing up work on my new project, I’m doing a couple of special shows outside of Auckland. I never got to hit up the whole country after Something Awesome dropped so it’s good to be ticking some spots off the list. Expect to hear all that Something Awesome-ness, and some sneak peeks of this new stuff I’ve been working on. I figure you guys can help me test it out, see if it’s good or not.

Probably won’t be back for a minute so if you’re anywhere near these spots, come through. Let’s do it up.

• September 11 @ Soho, Gisborne
• September 17 @ Blue Pub, Methven
• September 18 @ Concrete Club, Christchurch

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Once again it’s on

The stakes have officially been raised for this edition of Mean As. Straight out of Ann Arbor, Michigan we bring you outlandishly good MC: Buff 1

Picked as one of URB magazine’s next 100, Buff has worked with everyone from Black Milk and Elzhi(Slum Village) to Mr Porter. Hailing from the same crew that gave the world renaissance man Mayer Hawthorne, Buff’s pedigree would make DMX bark and send Michael Vick back to jail.

Also on the bill are local legend P-Money(in full hip hop mode), Trueschool’s CheKamikaze,and reknowned producer duo turned DJ duo Fire & Ice.

Hosted by David Dallas who will also perform alongside Buff, this is a night NOT to be missed.

Everything’s history in the making, only some of it’s worth showing up for.

Meanage.

RSVP here

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Mean As 2 coming thru!

The crew returns for a back to the essence celebration of urban music that isn’t wack.

New songs from the NEW David Dallas project, Che Kamikaze and Fire & Ice on the wheels of steel(AKLiens) and a special DJ set from PNC. If you’ve been round his house when the drinks are flowing you’d know – the bro knows how to choose a song or two.

It’s gonna be epic, it’s gonna be true, it’s gonna be real.

“Tat tat tat what the fuck?!?”

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Life is a funny beast. Sometimes you’re up, sometimes you’re down. The worst day ever can be salvaged by a tidbit of good news, alternatively everything can be going swell then come crashing down in an instant.

Regardless, we all look to tomorrow with some hope that it might be better than the day before it.

Jordache from Fire & Ice had been looping up this Ratatat song(“Loud Pipes”) when I was over his house to pick up some beats. I wasn’t familiar with the song prior, but I dug it straight away. I don’t really know why but it reminded me of Dead Prez “Hip Hop”. After picking out some actual beats I still had some space on a CD, so I told him to chuck that ‘Ratatat loop’ on the disc and rolled out. Couple months later when I should have been working on an actual project, ‘Ratatat loop’ popped up on my iTunes and in trademark fashion I procrastinated on doing what I was supposed to and wrote this.

Til Tommorow.

Motivational speaking by David Brent.

Til Tomorrow by DdotDallas

Download: David Dallas – “Til Tomorrow”

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Mean As

For many in Auckland, being a fan of “urban” music ain’t easy. Sometimes you don’t want to go to a club and hear guys who sound like robots harping on about Patron and shawtys ALL night. Alternatively,  it can be hard to actually have a good time and stay awake through a whole night of obscure conscious raps over some jazz loops. All things in moderation they say – so for the people that can appreciate Slum Village AND Snoop Dogg, people who like D’Angelo who don’t hate every song that’s on the Radio or TV, or people who wanna hear the new shit they just downloaded off Nah Right in a club – once every month, we’re gonna try and do something Mean.

Shucks… we might even play a 2Pac song that ISN’T “How Do You Want It” or “California Love”.

Featuring Live Performances from:

David Dallas
Vince Harder(Acoustic Set… you don’t wanna miss this)
Spycc

DJ’s:

Fire & Ice
Dj PayDirt
Dj Mouli

& special guest
P-Money

To top it off we’ll be having a Street Fighter Hyper Comp with the winner scoring themself a copy of the brand new Super Street Fighter 4 which drops the end of this month.

Too mean.

Mean As
May 7th @ Khuja
Doors open 10 pm

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Quick update from me, as I’m just snatchin a couple minutes on Che’s laptop. If you weren’t aware, I’ve been in the U.S for the last week. Spent the last 5 days at SXSW havin the mean time, performed on Friday night and spent the rest of the time checkin out shows from pretty much every emerging rapper of note. I bought only my phone out with me for internet purposes, so I’ve been keepin in touch with the world via Twitter and Facebook updates. Add me on those if you wanna be kept more in the loop with what I’m up to… or to hear me randomly talk shit.

Above is a vid of myself and Michigan’s finest Buff 1 performing the “Front to Back” remix at SXSW, below is a vid of “Big Time”. Both brought to you courtesy of The Smoking Section and official stand up dude – Gotty. Salute. I’m in New York for the next couple of days then I’ll be heading home where I can give you’s the full run down.

Shot

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I like clothes to be functional, clean and simple – so I tried to make something that I’d actually wear and that you could easily fit into an outfit, as opposed to some big gimmicky print. The lettering was taken from the blackboard montage in the Something Awesome artwork, and was drawn by my niece Tiana Miller. Proud uncle here.

Guys T-shirts will be available from Closet next week.

Shouts to Jay Brown for the shots.

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The following is a discussion I had via MSN with Jordan a.k.a Jordache, one half of West Auckland production super-duo Fire & Ice. F&I produced 6 of the 12 songs on Something Awesome, aided in the completion of 2 other songs, and Jordan guested alongside Young Sid and Niko on the song “First Time”. Needless to say, he played a substantial role in the creation of this album. Never short on humour, here’s what he had to say for himself.

D.Dallas says:
is there anything you want to get across to the people in particular about fire and ice? That’s my bad interviewer question.

Jordan says:
she said she likes me… she said she needs me…. she wants to see me.. coz i’m the shit… probably just that aye

D.Dallas says:
hahaha

Jordan says:
haha nah i dunno ay

D.Dallas says:
when did you start sending me beats for this album again?

Jordan says:
many moons ago

D.Dallas says:
woulda been like 07 ay

Jordan says:
2 years? yea

D.Dallas says:
Did you have in mind what you thought would fit me or were you just doin what i told you? i.e tryna give me what i was askin for

Jordan says:
yea. i think i just gave you what we had, haha. But tried to give you stuff that sounded different from your Frontline stuff.

D.Dallas says:
do you reckon it’s important for a dude who makes beats to go with his gut as far as what he gives to the artist? Like if i’d said, oi i want beats that sound like Pitbull. Would you be like “nah you don’t suit that”. Or would you jus try and give me something like that?

Jordan says:
yea the way i look at it now is like the producer is as much an artist as the artist, if you know what i mean… like its important for us to make music that represents us and what we like.. so if you had asked for pitbull type shit i probably wouldn’t have told you not to do that, if that is really what you wanted to do, i wouldve just said we dont make that.

And then i wouldve laughed at you when you dropped your pitbull single. Oye Loca!

D.Dallas says:
haha. Ok, so you feel like fire and ice has a sound then?

Jordan says:
yea i guess.. you could say we have a ’soulful’ vibe.. kinda hate that term ay.. but yea we tried to give you our sound.. like the Frontline sound was quite moody and dark.. so i thought it was important for you to come out on our stuff with a more lighter side, otherwise there wouldn’t be much difference between David Dallas the solo artist and Frontline the group, ya know

D.Dallas says:
hard, shucks you guys are soulful

Jordan says:
hahah

D.Dallas says:
i feel like we got a good vibe going on this album, like the stuff you were sendin me after i’d done the indulge me demo was all on point.. in the right direction for where i was goin.  Why do you reckon that is?

Was it cause in your head you had an idea of how you wanted the album to sound or what?

Jordan says:
yea i guess so, it continues from being different from the FL stuff, like when you were in Frontline i always thought it’d be mean if you did  ‘lighter’ songs.. and when i got the indulge me demo back it was mean, so i tried to send you more stuff on that buzz

coz i dont think we actually discussed what direction the album should head in.. i think we were just on the same page

D.Dallas says:
are you happy with how the album turned out?

Jordan says:
yea definitely. its my favourite hiphop album from here. its just cool. Evan killed it on the mix too, made us sound mean, with our budget time-stretching and such haha

D.Dallas says:
haha

Jordan says:
what happened to that other song you did over ours? it had 16th hats on it too.. i think it was called phillip? i never got a demo of that

D.Dallas says:
fuck, i wrote one verse and had a hook in my head. Never got it demo’d up tho cause shit was in disarray at that time

Jordan says:
haha

D.Dallas says:
i might needa pull that out

Jordan says:
yea. i need to clean that up. drums suck. mud clap

D.Dallas says:
you had a big hand in this album outside of the beats you made. i.e hookin up your friends like Niko and Toma for vocals and arrangement/instrumentation duty. What made you decide to be so helpful/hands on?

Jordan says:
i guess i just wanted to put on people who i thought had talent.. had to put on for the West ya know haha.. but yea i liked where the whole thing was going so i tried to get involved as much as i could

Toma’s a close friend of ours and i met Niko through him, they’ve been working on stuff for a while, then we started working with them as well.. so when you told me you were looking for vocals it was only natural for me to try and get them involved

D.Dallas says:
what made you decide to get your rap on? who gassed you bro? LOL

Jordan says:
drugs, haha. i was drunk and smoking a joint at my mates when i decided.. was thinking bout the demo and thought i could rap about that lol.. first rap ever on a song with dave and sid.. fuck it lol.

Sorry i had to murk you on your own shit ay lol

D.Dallas says:
it’s all good.

sorry i have to not pay you for those 6 beats ay. LOL

Jordan says:
hahaha. shucks whats august doing? i emailed him yesterday

D.Dallas says:
shoosh man

Jordan says:
lol

D.Dallas says:
lets just pretend we’re rich over here

Jordan says:
once i told Toma i was gonna record it at his there was no backing out

D.Dallas says:
is that your first rap ever? did you write any bullshit verses when you were a kid?

Jordan says:
yeah thats my first rap ever.. i never wrote any as a kid.. i didnt even write that verse though.. yeah im Hov.. ‘cept i rapped the last line first and the first line last..

Toma can attest to my amateur recording.. we punched the whole thing, as I came up with ideas haha. Halfway through I thought i was in over my head… then when he played back my voice it was like.. ‘arrgh i sound gay’

D.Dallas says:
i was suprised when you sent it thru to me. Cause you actually text me one time, i think you were drunk – “bro.. i’m gonna do a verse for first time”

I thought it’d be crack up, but i didn’t think you’d do it

Jordan says:
lol that was probably the same night i decided.. Toma tatted me the next day when i was still drunk and i told him.. couldnt go back after that haha

D.Dallas says:
it’s crack up cause soon as you said you’d done a demo, I’d already decided it was goin on the song. Hadn’t even heard you rap.

I just liked the idea of it, it reminded me of readin about 2pac and how he’d put the Outlawz on songs.. jus whoever had their verse ready first was on the song. If you didn’t have the verse, catch you up.

Jordan says:
haha. yeah wasnt scribble supposed to be on it?.. so you weren’t sweating me coming on and being “magazines call me a rockstar…”?

D.Dallas says:
ha i reached out to scribble… he didn’t reach back. that was early on tho, think i just sent him the beat.

Don’t think he could see the vision, LOL.

Do you think your verse measures up to Kanye’s on “The Bounce”?

Jordan says:
being that the actual GingerBread man himself said he was a Monster, i’m inclined to say no.

D.Dallas says:
haha

D.Dallas says:
do you have a gripe with music these days? Is there certain stuff you’d like to hear on the radio/tv more?

Jordan says:
i dont listen to the radio… ever. so i could care less what theyre playing. i dont watch that much tv either so same goes… internet is good like that.

D.Dallas says:
how’d you get the name Jordache?

Jordan says:
you gave it to me haha.. and it stuck.. thought i’d run with it, coz i couldn’t think of a cool rap name… slash rap names are gay… slash i have my own clothing line

D.Dallas says:
is the name catching on? have any females addressed you by that name yet?

Jordan says:
yea, amongst the usual hunk, dreamboat, hearthrob comments, occasionally the opposite sex will refer to me as Jordache

D.Dallas says:
nuff said. “Every daaaay a star is boooorn – clap for him” © Jay Z

Jordan says:
ha, the names all good actually, people seem to like it… that and the fact that i referenced Glendene haha

D.Dallas says:
oh tru, are you gettin the local support? i.e “thanx 4 puttin us on the map g”

Jordan says:
haha.. its all about Glen Eden to be honest.. but thats doesnt really rhyme with green… maybe Weedin’ ?… Weedin’ in Glen Eden… sounds more like im doing community service or gardening with Nana.

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Something Awesome drops in exactly 7 days.

If you needed some further proof you should pick this album up, Real Groove has come to the rescue with a nice write up and free download of the track “Slow Down”. It’ll only be up for the next week so get in there fast.

Some of you may remember me writing this piece about a year ago. The verse I spoke of there is the 2nd verse of this song.  Check it out.

Free Download:  “Slow Down” produced by Fire & Ice

also

Something Awesome is available for pre-order now on Amplifier (this is good for the dudes in Oz who don’t wanna wait a month or 2 to get their hands on the CD)

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