From Big Things Comes Scribe

Known best (until now) for his rap contribution to P-Money's big hitting 'Big Things' album, MC Scribe has parlayed his hip hop underground reputation into mainstream anticipation. His debut album 'The Crusader', due for release in October, is being touted as the most emotive, charismatic and inspiring hip hop release of this year.

My meeting with Malo Luafutu, aka Scribe, began with a walk up and down New North Rd in search of Kog Transmissions' well-disguised Kingsland offices.

A locked door littered with Kog-related stickers at the top of a dark stairwell revealed I was finally on the right track, but the quiet inside threw me. Turns out the Kog people were just busy, in the process of releasing a number of albums on the various imprint labels, at the same time as bringing out a new Concord Dawn album and breaks compilation 'Return of the Booom Shwack' on Kog.

Dirty Records, Kog's hip hop sub-label started in 2001 by P-Money and Callum August, has recently become a company in its own right. Mastering will still be done in-house at Kog, so perhaps the most significant change is that Festival Mushroom Records now handle Dirty's distribution.

Scribe was running late, giving me a chance to listen to some of the tracks off 'The Crusader', and admire the different styles of songs, and rhyme flows. He has earned a spot at the top. No other New Zealand MC has conquered such a wide range of hip hop styles, let alone experimented with them all on one album.

In the early hours of the previous Saturday, Auckland's Fu Bar was packed, the crowd there to celebrate the release of his debut single Stand Up and video release. As the song came on the reaction was intense - P-Money saying that it was the loudest reception he'd heard at Fu. Subsequently in its first week of release, Stand Up sold over 1000 copies and entered the Singles Chart at number six.

'The Crusader' is aptly named given Scribe's Cantabrian background - his story began 22 years ago at Christchurch Women's Hospital.

"I grew up in Aranui, which is like the Otara of Christchurch I suppose. It's where they put the sewers, over that side of town. We were pretty poor."

At seven Scribe rapped in a Sunday School play his auntie wrote. "I knew what rap was, but hip hop culture and the four elements I knew nothing about."

He attended school with his cousins graf artist Spex and MC Ladi6, who are now paving their own paths through New Zealand hip hop. By the time he turned 14 he was really starting to make moves. "That's when I started being a bedroom MC, listening to Pharcyde, Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul."