I just remember thinking,
you can't miss this cue.
I just remember being very sweaty.
You can't fuck it up.
Being like...stop
sweating...Here's Sheelahroc.
And what do I see?
Some people on their brink
of international pop stardom!
Sheelahroc!
If you gave me the mic as a
track, that makes me happy.
Sheelahroc MCs...Because it was the
first all-female hip hop clique.
They could rap, but not just rap.
They were rapping at rapid pace.
Like, I mean, straight spitters.
Rap all day.
Dope, talented women.
It's like, really fun.
We get to like go around New Zealand
going, yeah, we're an all-female hip hop
crew and people just get,
they're just stoked off it.
Action.
Hello.
My name is Tyra.
Hi, I am Tyra Hammond.
I'm Ladi6.
I'm Ladi Park-Tamati aka Ladi6.
Voodoo Child!
Kia Ora, I'm Voodoo Child, member of
all-female hip hop crew Sheelahroc.
We were born and raised
in, Aranui Christchurch.
Ladi lived all of like
two streets back from me.
Scribe two houses down from me.
I go, since day one with Sheelahroc.
You know, Ladi6 is my first cousin.
Tyra, of course, is my cousin as well.
Sarah grew up on my street.
Everyone else who was MC'ing at that time
that I was around were all male, but I'd
heard from somebody else that there was
another um, chick in Christchurch that was
also writing raps.
Yeah.
That was kind of how I ended up finding
Sarah Tamaira, also known as Voodoo Child.
I'd never heard any other
girl spit like Sarah.
Boys would be like, oh, far, that
girl Sarah, oh she's real fast eh?
I'd be like, yeah.
I joined Sheelahroc
when I was 14 years old.
One day we went into the mall, a talent
quest at Northlands mall and we were just
going there to like
support my little cousin.
It was when I hopped off the stage, she
was like, will you be in Sheelahroc?
Oh my god cuz, you was so good.
Do you want to be the
singer in Sheelahroc?
And I was like, yes!
I think for Sarah, she was a little bit
like ah Ladi, why have we got your little
cousin here?
Internationally.
I was really getting into hearing about
all these all female hip hop crews, and I
really had a vision of what I wanted to
see represented in hip hop in New Zealand.
We really worked hard to bring
other women into our crew.
We had four, Japanese
exchange, student beat girls.
So we went straight to like
practicing up at Sarah's house.
She was kind of the oldest.
We tried to run it like a small business.
We'd run meetings and have minutes.
She still has like copies.
I picked up some old minutes the other day
and it was like, 'Find out where to get
the Source magazine.'
China store owe a dollar from last week's
kitty and I'm like what did they even owe
a dollar from, I don't even know
what they owed a dollar from.
Being a female MC wasn't really a
thing, it was just we were all rappers.
We're female MC's too and that doesn't
necessarily need to be said within our
rhymes, it's just there in action.
They kind of opened the doors for a lot of
us, made me kind of like be like, oh hang
on, I'm going to get left behind here
if I didn't get my shit together.
And I think, it shows you the power of
women.Because New Zealand recorded hip hop
comes from the white rock and
roll game, it's sexist as fuck.
There are definitely attitudes out there
that women should be a certain way, like
gentle or low key, but when you see a
woman with mad skills, you cannot deny
almost like the power there.
You need the the natural balance of the
female MC to bring in a feminine side
because really when you break it down,
hip hop is just, rapping is just about
stories.
We kind of like got discovered by all
these other people that started to try and
like get us into the studiom
recorded 'If I gave you the mic'.
It went out on student radio, we were
nominated for a bNet award, and things
moved really quickly after that.
I had no idea what bNet
awards were or anything.
They wanted us to come up to fly up to
Auckland which was a really big deal.
And then we showed up to the awards show
and it was all, you know, fancy tables.
My mum had to come with
us cause of how young.
we were.
We were so nervous that I can't even
remember being on stage at the bNet's, but
I just remember thinking,
you can't miss this cue.
I just remember being very sweaty.
You can't fuck it up.
Stop sweating.
This is next level.
And my mum got really drunk, Auntie Losa
did get quite wasted because it was free
alcohol and was and was fanboying Che
Fu and we had to look after in the end.
But we did make a music video for it.
'If I Gave you the Mic'
video - total fail.
It's just a bit of a shocker
of a video, to be honest.
We're going to play the music video.
Why?
We made it with this guy who
was like a friend of my family.
I remember like being told the concept by
the director and I didn't understand it.
He lost like 70% of the
footage at the last minute.
So the video really didn't
make any sense in the end.
So if you watched the video it
can be a little bit confusing.
It's meant to be in black and white,
that's why I'm wearing all that ugly make
up in it and the boots.And sorry about
my hair and what's up with my vest?
Anyway, here's their video that they hate.
I remember specifically the video
finishing and me, Ladi and Sarah just
looking at each other like, what the fuck?
What is this?
Either way, I mean we were very proud, we
were so young that we really didn't care
too much.
We were just like stoked to
have the song and have a video.
It's a weird video.
Cause, I mean, I listened to 'If I Gave
you the Mic' now and I hate it, sorry to
say, I'm like, wow, why did no
one tell me not to open my mouth?
But.
You learn.
but I mean, they did it.
They smashed it out, the won a bNet.
Song's dope.
Amazing grou, I wish they
was still rocking shit.
I can't remember the exact
year that we broke up.
I ended up being pregnant with my
daughter and all of my family had moved to
Australia and I'm like, why don't I
just move to Australia for a year?
And yeah when she actually
told us that she was leaving.
I remember feeling really like gutted.
I was a bit mad too to be honest.
I felt like we were on the precipice
of doing something really significant.
Man, I wish we could have just had
one little tour around New Zealand.
It would have been fun.
Oh mate, I held it
against Sarah for years.
I didn't talk to her
for a really long time.
It sounds like I got beef eh.
You know, it's an inside joke.
There's no hard feelings
or anything like that.
No beef, I love you.
The boys look so good, but
their minds are not ready.
When I think of Sheelahroc and
I see Ladi around, when I give her a hug,
she knows that I'm hugging her because I'm
sharing love and light and strength as
much as possible in that exchange with
her.
Cause I know it's not an easy path.
When I look back on, 'If I Gave you the
Mic', I just feel like ultimate pride.
And it was just so much fun.
Like it was just, it was just the
greatest time of my life to be a part of
Sheelahroc.
I pinch myself like how did they happen?
Cause yeah, I was 14 and then I'm just
thankful that I met those girls and that
Ladi saw something in me.
In hindsight now, you know, the time and a
place and it was all, it was all meant to
be.
