Feature: Flowz - The Flow of Wellington City
Author: Martyn Pepperell (photography by Sarah Hunter)
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There is something different about the tone, delivery and content of Flowz' vocal performance as a hip hop artist, and a similar irregularity lies within the 'east-coast boombap' meets 'southern crunk' driven backing tracks he rhymes over. Similarly in the selection of artists featuring on his recently released debut solo album 'In The Heart Of The City'.
It is perhaps a blend of very human contradictions we could call 'art imitating life'. A blend of undeniably homegrown Polynesian quirks and themes, underpinned by a commitment to depicting his story and the world he has witnessed in a forthright manner that suggests light is always at the end of the tunnel for those willing to work hard. Actually, scratch hard. When you think Flowz, think relentless.
"My life is in a new location", Flowz is quoted in the album's press release, and it's a telling statement.
Over the past couple of years, despite experiencing numerous roadblocks and setbacks Fiso Siloata (his real name), has formed his own record label, recorded a solo album, with production from DJ Raw and Chong Nee, secured a management, publicity and distribution team and assembled a live backing band called The Uso's.
It was back in the early '90s in Lyall Bay, Wellington (still his home) where, through hanging with a group of Pacific Islanders on the local basketball court, Flowz discovered a love of hip hop. That group included the likes of King Kapisi, The Feelstyle, DJ Raw and Kos 163. While shooting hoops with the boys Flowz crossed paths with the soundtrack of the streets of New York and LA circa '93, and formed his own opinion of what it meant to be a New Zealand hip hop artist.
"That's how I met hip hop, all these local dudes. I always referred to them as my reference for how cool I should be, how I should look, how I should flow... you know, what kind of emotion you need for certain songs. I used to listen to their rhymes, to the detail, the delivery, the flow. I suppose those are the dudes who really schooled me up, then the American culture kind of came later for me."
Flowz teamed up with Kos 163, DJ Raw and later MCs Shogun and Ali to form The Footsouljahs, a pioneering underground hip hop outfit that carved themselves a vicious reputation on both sides of the Tasman, between the mid '90s and early 2000s, with an undeniably raw, rugged and uncompromising DIY local sound. The Footsouljahs established a clothing line and record label, 2Much Records, through which they released an EP 'Styles, Flowz, Deliveries' and eventually their 2004 debut album 'Putting in Work'. Although 'Putting in Work' won underground acclaim, the hip hop public impact was not what had been hoped for, the Footsouljahs had become an anachronism. Flowz however already had his sights set on a solo career.
