Bio

Percieve wrote this bio himself, so rather than opening with an awesome metaphor about the wind of his Wellington city home and exaggerating about what makes him the greatest rapper you’ve never heard, I’m going to stop talking about myself in third person and tell you what you need to know.
I’ve been rapping and making beats for a while now, performing for 10 plus years in and out of the capital. I learnt my stage-craft from local legends like The Footsouljas and Hamofide, and I still love sweating it out in front of the crowd then figuring out how I can do it better next time. I’ve opened for acts like Mobb Deep, Tech N9NE, Freddie Gibbs, and recorded with NZ’s finest from Che Fu, David Dallas and PNC to Drum and Bass heavy hitters like State of Mind.

When I’m not lending a voice to my friends/family doing it rough in glacial slow Otaki or sneaking cognac out of the green room, I’m a bank manager (classic MC occupation). Which I really enjoy. So my subject matter has changed a bit over the years. Don’t expect to hear any financial advice in my tracks - but don’t be surprised if you see me in the city wearing a nice shirt and shiny shoes.

My tone has been compared to a mix of Zack de la Roche and Freeway after a year long vacation fishing and diving on Kapiti Island. When I’m not raging against the machine, my tone is laid back but always contrasted against the multi syllable patterning that I still consider the essence of MCing.
Musically I’ve been influenced by everyone and everything I grew up listening to; from NWA and Nas, to the Ink Spots and Che Fu, but I remember definite inspiration watching (and recording on VHS) Dam Native’s music videos and realising that you can be yourself, rap, AND sound good even if that ‘self’ is a small-town New Zealand maori. That was good news for a young aspiring rapper growing up in Otaki.

These days I take that rural Aotearoa and weave it into whatever kind of hip-hop inspires me to say something, I’ll always be a sucker for smooth soul samples - but you can catch me on whatever sounds good coming out of my Maschine, or whatever trap/electronic goodness my mate Lance aka Trek-One cooks up in his Linden flat.

I’ve tried my hand at a few Drum & Bass tracks after watching people tear wallpaper off the club to my first crack at it with State of Mind (Mr. Cover Up). The aggression and quick flow that I usually reserve for angrier rap songs can turn a D&B tune into something fairly epic.

My last full length release was the 2008 album Second Chances. DJ Sir-Vere called it the best local release of the year, and after that... I started full time work to take care of the financial impacts of a fatal car crash I was involved in back in 2005. But that’s a story too long for my bio.

I make music that makes me happy, and these days my only real motivation in sharing it with the rest of the world is the possibility that it just might make someone else happy too.

Links

• Artist Website
• Facebook Page
• Twitter Page
• SoundCloud Page
• Apple Music Page