In their final music offering for 2019, Red Bull have teamed up with A Label Called Success to curate Royal Flush, featuring local rap superstars SWIDT, multimode artist HIGH HØØPS and producer/DJ extraordinaire, k2k. Shows are confirmed for Friday 4th October at Meow in Wellington and Friday 18th October at Mantells on the Water in Auckland.
In October 2013, Auckland musicians HIGH HØØPS, SPYCC, and Taste Nasa hopped on a plane to Wellington for the inaugural edition of a new event series Red Bull Sound Select. Held at the now-shuttered Mighty Mighty bar on Cuba Street and hosted by a young Connor Nestor (A Label Called Success), the intimate party opened the doors. Six years later, Red Bull has helped launch several new waves of local hip-hop, R&B, beats, and indie artists on their musical journeys.
SPYCC reflects: “Those times were A1 for me. I always got love for my OG DPTRCLB family, good peoples. I learnt a lot in those days too being exposed to different genres, vibes and even just different conversations. Even though our sounds and styles were different, they really did complement one another.”
This October, Red Bull and A Label Success are regrouping around the poker table to honour the spirit of that first event with ROYAL FLUSH: two shows in Wellington and Auckland. As this suggests, when it comes to the line-up, they’re playing a winning hand with SWIDT (the Onehunga rap collective that counts SPYCC among its members), HIGH HØØPS, and k2k.
“Its crazy for this occasion to come full circle. Im looking forward to sharing the stage with SPYCC and his SWIDT collective - weve had similar timelines of creative growth and mutual respect for each others work ever since those first curated shows all those years ago,” says HIGH HØØPS.
A Label Called Success’ founder Connor Nestor adds: “Its with much joy that we can look back six years and see the wave that both HIGH HØØPS and SPYCC have been riding as solo artists and as part of their collectives. Working across each others records and often being sounding boards for new ideas. Were excited to see how this will unfold on stage across these two shows.”
