i second that

Grusome, you have to understand that vocal wise you have to say stuff about your local environment in the same voice you talk in. That's why anyone who likes any of Tom Waits, PJ Harvey, The Beatles, Beck and Nick Cave is a sucker.

or sing, dirt theory is a classic example.

haha yeah i suppose it is a bit...kinda like the rap version of 'hoe-down'

hehe good call.

why start a new thread instead of reply?

yay someone else who's heard of mc tali!!!! i love her she's so great.

yeah she's great

our ancesters care,
our cultures care,

the more we use another accent - the more our own cultures disapear.

how about if I just promise to pronounce the "l" in salmon?

Yeah, but you're throwing away the entire cake just because the icing has a funny accent...so to speak...

PS - use 'Reply to this post' at the right top of the blue boxes to keep the conversation going.

hmmm..well that's a good point...

Not sure about *all* the hiphop artists in NZ, but I know that I've heard a lot of people talking like Nesian Mystik rap/sing...I'm not saying that makes everything ok, but I'm starting to think that your issue isn't just with rappers/artists/whatever, but it's with the entire maori/polynesian youth culture. Perhaps artists aren't deliberately putting on a fake accent to rap in, but their influences - often american - are having an impact on their (and their peers') accents.

I don't think there's necessarily anything wrong with that - I've got a slight OE accent just from spending time in the UK. In general accents change considerably even between generations, so I doubt you could place too much ancestral/historical significance in it. I imagine even the great maori accent that half my schoolfriends in Whakatane had isn't necessarily more than 50 years old.

good points but your voice defines who you are, who you are defines your culture.

I think it's a major blow in the heart that Maori and Polynesian youth want to be American.
it's perhaps the beginning of the end for these amazing cultures.

Fair do's. Cue Moana Jackson.

If a New Zealand-based MC was born in Samoa, speaks Samoan as his first language, and learned English when he was a child, why should be be required to speak English with a New Zealand accent? Why is a New Zealand accent more real for someone speaking English as a second language?

Not everyone who lives in this country speaks English with a stereotypical New Zillun accent.

throw it all way then!

i mean 'dark' tower...allthough drak tower sounds pretty cool

good point,
Aussie hip hop is way more advanced than NZ hip hop, they actually know themselves.
most English emcees keep it real.
French and German emcees keep it real.
American emcees, well they are American arent they!

and there's NZ trailing behind the pack with a bunch of imitation emcees.