Unique: Unique Rhymes

You would have to rate yourself as something special to adopt a moniker like Unique but 21-year old West Aucklander Zeb Bult - who admits in one of his songs that "some people think I'm an arrogant prick" - is brimming with confidence as he prepares to unleash his hard-hitting debut album, 'Jerry 4 WA' upon the nation's unsuspecting ears.

"I called myself Unique because my style is unique to New Zealand," states Bult. "I like to have at least eight to ten rhymes per four bars while other rhymers might have two rhymes per four bars. That's my main thing. To always make sure that I have plenty of rhymes, about 200 per song. In terms of just rhyming, I would be the best rhymer in New Zealand by far. That doesn't necessarily mean subject or even punchlines or word play, just pure rhymes.

"At the moment, I'm influenced by a lot of punchline MCs and because that's the stuff that I feel, I want to be the same and have other kids feel my shit. But now my rhyming style's changing again. This album is kind of like that but a lot of the material is a couple of years old. I'm now moving into writing about other stuff. But that's how I started and it's what I'm mostly known for, punchline styles."

Te Atatu South-based Bult first started rhyming at 15 but didn't start taking his craft seriously until he was 18 or 19, when he composed his first song. "I met P-Money and started doing the underground stuff and MC battles," recalls Bult, who currently spits his raps through a Rode NT2 microphone and produces tunes with the help of a Boss Dr. Sample 202, an Akai MPC 2000, a Boss 808, PC AMD 1700, a Delta Midiman soundcard and Tannoy monitors.

"The only reason why I started making beats was that I thought it was the only way people would hear me rapping," he concedes. "Like no-one would give me a shot until they heard me do songs so I started making my own stuff and, in the end, I got into making beats because it's enjoyable."

In future, Bult would prefer other producers to make beats for his rhymes while he returns the favour for other MCs. "It's better for writing rhymes because when you first hear a beat that's been made or structured together, you get more inspiration," he explains. "You hear it and know straight away if you want to rap on it. But when you make a beat from scratch, everything's kind of separate and it's hard to keep that original inspiration."

However, Bult did not produce 'Jerry 4 WA' entirely by himself as the album also incorporates beats by P-Money, 41/30 and ex-pat Brit Derek B as well as scratches and samples from Unique's regular DJ, D-Form, aka Te Atatu North-based Greg Harper.

"For this album, I wrote most of the instrumentals and rhymes," says Bult. "Then D-Form would then take whatever subject was in the song and would go away and look for samples of, for example, other MCs that we like. And he does all the cuts, choruses, outros, intros and scratches."

'Jerry 4 WA' is destined to rank alongside P-Money's 'Big Things' and Deceptikonz' 'Elimination' as major releases during what has so far been a watershed year for New Zealand hip-hop. In fact, Unique's debut is only the second release on P-Money's hip-hop dedicated, Kog Transmissions imprint, Dirty.

"Kog are good because rather than try and tell me what to do with marketing or album sales, they're more into telling that they'll make my album sound phat," declares Bult. "They're more into the music and they know their gear. Everyone (at Kog) has a digital and an analogue history so it's better than going somewhere that has done mostly pop or rock bands. Everyone knows what they're doing."

With 'Jerry 4 WA' ready to hit the shelves at the end of August, Bult is contemplating touring to promote the album although, unlike many other DJs and MCs, he doesn't play out regularly and is instead waiting until the time is right.

"If I tour, I want to do it right so I need to make sure that I cover as much as I can," he says. "I've been waiting until I get better mastered material. Then me and D-Form can go out, having made sure that everything we play is tighter than everybody else."

Bult's sky-high standards are a reflection of his almost religious belief in hip-hop's core principles, which he explores on the character-defining track, Definition of Real. "That's why I started rhyming," he notes.

"I loved listening to hip-hop all the time. You go to sleep and it's like a dream. You put these rappers up on a pedestal thinking that's what you want to do because you love what they do. You want to be as good as them so that's what you aspire to. Eventually, some of your goals will change and you'll aim for higher things but the main thing is that you want to be as good as the people you idolise and that's what I'm into hip-hop for. I love doing it!"