Religion has gone around the South
Pacific, around the world and fucked
up a lot of lives of a lot of people.
This is what I believe.
This is me personally.
Growing up like I, he was probably one
of the people I could, if I walk down
the street and saw it's King Kapisi,
I'd be like oh shit it's King Kapisi.
I knew of him as bran muffin,
cause he's always been a DJ MC.
I remember just feeling like
he was like the coolest cat.
You know, he was out
there with it, you know.
Samoan pride.
He exudes hip hop.
Yeah.
And Pacifica as well at the same time.
So he's always been, that dude.
That's why he's the King.
Religion has basically affected the
whole world, it's altered a lot of
mind states where you actually you
don't start thinking for yourself.
I'm an atheist.
Glad to meet ya Talofa Lava, my
name is Bill Urale, AKA King Kapisi.
Born in Whanganui-a-Tara Poneke
or Wellington, but I have a
very strong, cultural roots
connection to my home of Samoa.
I decided to make the difference between
me and most rappers was going to be,
I was going to represent my hood, my
country and the area that I'm from,
and so I make South Pacific hip hop.
I think when you look at your
culture as a weapon or a tool, Kaps
has done super well by doing that.
You know what I mean?
He's more than just a rapper.
He's essentially a Pacific Islander
rapper, or a Pacific rapper.
One of my early memories was a group
called The Mau and as a Samoan, The
Mau was a movement that was back in
Samoa, and that was the first time I
ever saw three Samoans on stage rapping
and they were called a Samoan name.
That was a, you know, the birth of,
of like, okay, that's what we can do.
One dude that was super pivotal
was a guy named Submariner.
His name was Andy Morton, and
his nickname was Red beard.
I had a studio in the 90s and it
was in a old building, the old
TVNZ building on Shortland street.
I was on the dole just prior
to this and, um, they had like
a, be your own boss scheme.
I didn't charge anybody any money.
I think sometimes I charge
$2 for a cassette if you
want to take something home.
Reverse resistance turn is not your,
your average everyday kind of song.
Because it was so like different.
It was underground.
The beat is crazy.
He was raising the bar for
me as an underground MC it
was another kick up the ass.
And I think lyrically it was
a bit of a challenging song.
The truth emerges.
Finally, the coin drops.
Thoughts be-witched like Salem's lot.
Presence of preachers, I'm an atheists.
Glad to meet ya.
The song reverse resistance is basically
reversing the colonization and how
religion has gone around the South
Pacific, round the world, and fucked
up a lot of lives of a lot of people.
This is what I believe.
This is me personally.
So in reverse, I was reversing,
you know, the, the powers that
be, and I was resisting it.
I was actually there when Reverse
Resistance was demo tracked and it
was actually supposed to be my song.
I just remember the different parts being
pulled together, and I remember being
excited when the beat had kicked in.
I was like, yeah, I can sing it on this.
And then no...so, not that I would
hold it against him or anything.
Bill I wanted to play a lot of things.
He was, he's the kind of guy who likes to
be the guy that gets to play the thing.
So you know, I played the
drums...the guitar line...
People are like Sole,
do you play the guitar?
That was my one guitar line,
and we brought in also a
couple of string players.
There was a Samoan violin player
and he was the first violin
player for Pavarotti at that time.
And so what you see in Reverse
Resistance is like a mini
little version of an orchestra.
I remember just feeling so
inspired, like just truly and
utterly inspired by the video.
I'm not Samoan but I can only imagine
the pride felt after seeing their
people represented that way on the tele.
I wanted to imprint it.
It was a high conceptual idea, you
know, very visual, very cinematic,
and take it out of the, um, gangster
hood look, graffiti look and put
it in somewhere new and refreshing.
And basically we went to our
village of Fagamalo and we
shot stuff around our savai'i.
People have seen the islands, it either
looks like national geographic or it
looks, uh, commercial, you know, palm
trees, beaches, and the rest of it.
I grew up with my grandmother
who's full Samoan.
So when that used to come on TV, my
Nan was like, 'Oh that's that bus
from...' like, cause I had never been
to Samoa so she was telling me about
like where things were and stuff and
that video and that made her happy.
Now our churches in Samoa is
something I wanted to convey, there's
a fricking church in almost every
corner off the village because
it's a symbol of colonialism.
Missionaries.
Religion.
But at the same time, there
is a beauty to it as well.
My family, uh, we're
very, uh, strong headed.
Of course he has his opinion.
He's got every right to, he's, the artist!
I ended up editing that one because
me and my sister had a disagreement
and she said, 'Well, you go edit it'.
I don't know what he said in his interview
but...So she walked off and then I had to
sit there with the editor, go, OK mate,
it looks like it's just me and you buddy.
I didn't think I'd ever
fought with my brother anyway.
Um, cause he's adorable.
In Auckland a short time ago, one of the
last big local music awards of the century
was made for New Zealand songwriter of
the year and it was out with the old
and in with the new for the songwriting
award went to a turntablist KingKapisi
for his song Reverse Resistance.
It's the first time a hip hop
artist has won the silver scroll.
I felt that when I won that I was like.
you know, hold up the flag for hip hop.
It's a fantastic achievement
to have in your career.
We were still representing our hip hop
community, you know, the breakers, the
DJs, the MCs, the, the graff writers.
That was us and it was, we were
such a small community...It
elevated his profile even further.
To be honest, I was annoyed because
I was supposed to be a writer on
it and I didn't get my credit.
Sorry, I'm don't quite
know how to touch on that.
What I wanted?
Most of hip hop didn't know.
The hip hop community don't care
about fucking Silver Scrolls
and shit cause it's a scam.
Yeah I don't remember the hip hop
community kind of caring either way.
I don't know if many of them really
realized what Silver Scrolls were because
majority, you know, of, of hip hop dudes
don't even really even register to Apra.
It was just one of those things.
Oh yeah bro, congrats.
But artistically, of course,
it's not really that important.
If anyone in hip hop wins, that's
a good thing, but I don't think
that we need, um, recognition from
people to say that we're dope or not.
When I think of Reverse Resistance
it's a, it's a dope, quality,
well composed song and is really
reflective of Bill's writing skills.
Even if they weren't my lyrics, I'd
still listen to the lyrics now and
go, damn, those are dope lyrics.
Cause 20 years later I still rap
those lyrics so I'm very, very lucky
that my whole career I've made music
that I like and I actually dig and
you know, I can live with it because
I didn't have to change for anyone.
Just me.
