Upper Hutt Posse Wellington Show Announced Ft. Whaea And The Rumble, Miss Pou

Aotearoa hip hop pioneers Upper Hutt Posse are joining forces with Tāmaki Makaurau performance trio Whaea & the Rumble and rising Tūranga-nui-a-Kiwa (Gisborne) songwriter Miss Pou, for a "special evening of indigenous activism, avant garde Māori performance art and soulful te reo Māori waiata" at Pōneke's Moon this September. Fronted by Dean Hapeta (Te Kupu / D Word), Upper Hutt Posse's 1988 debut 12" single ‘E Tū’ was the first hip hop track recorded and released in Aotearoa (announced as the Independent Music NZ Classic Record in 2016), they were welcomed into the Te Whare Taonga Puoro o Aotearoa/ New Zealand Music Hall of Fame in late 2018, and they're still going strong with a forthcoming festival appearance lined up for The Others Way 2020. Grip the details for the Pōneke event below...

Upper Hutt Posse / Miss Pou / Whaea And The Rumble
Saturday 19th September - Moon, Wellington
Tickets available HERE via UTR

Learn about the significance of Upper Hutt Posse's 'E Tu' with the first episode of NZ Hip Hop Stand Up...

Press release:

E tū, stand proud! Kia kaha, say it loud!

A special evening of indigenous activism, avant garde Māori performance art and soulful te reo Māori waiata from Aotearoa hip hop legends Upper Hutt Posse, Tāmaki Makaurau radicals Whaea & the Rumble and Tūranga-nui-a-Kiwa (Gisborne) based up and coming singer songwriter Miss Pou.

Having become the first act in Aotearoa to release a Rap single in 1988, Upper Hutt Posse have remained a strong māori presence in the country. In 2002 UHP received a Tui Award at the 2003 NZ Music Awards for 'Best Mana Māori Album' with 'Te Reo Māori Remixes', a 10-track album of earlier favourites remixed and featuring only Māori-language lyrics. Their latest album 'Declaration of Resistance' was recently re-released on vinyl and the band's last live performance was a stunning set at the 2020 Newtown Festival. Te Kupu and the band return to Newtown (Omāroro) on election night and they'll be sure to have a kōrero or two about that and the revival efforts of te reo, the māori language.

Misty Frequency (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngā Rauru, Kai Tahu, Ngāti Tuwharetoa) & NahBo (Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Samoa) are Whaea in the Rumble, residents of Tāmaki Makaurau and Pōneke.

Formed in early 2018, 'Whaea and The Rumble' is a performance group who incorporate industrial rhythms and Te Reo Rangatira as a means to express self identity. They are an interdisciplinary performance group merging kapa haka, spoken word and industrial beats drawing from Te Ao Māori which filters into our Tuakiri as modern day Tangata Whenua.

Miss Pou is a young, bilingual, talented, up and coming singer/songwriter who has a growing online presence with over 100,000 views on youtube and facebook. Her EP 'Akahoa te Iti' was released in 2018. Having previously performed with Tama Waipara, and workshopped with Maisey Rika, Fran Kora and Tiki Taane she is looking forward to sharing the stage with UHP and Whaea and the Rumble.