King Kapisi: In The Clothing Of The King

King Kapisi clearly doesn't like to be idle.  Not only has the rapper, otherwise known as Bill Rangi Urale, recently launched his own streetwear clothing line, but amost simultaneously '2nd Round Testament', the much anticipated follow-up album to his 2000 debut 'Savage Thoughts'.

"I’m just trying to keep busy, bro," smiles Urale, who is wearing one of his trademark Overstayer hoodies as he holds court in the boardroom of his record label Festival Mushroom Records. The label’s range includes hoodies, T-shirts and jeans which he describes as being "affordable for the people". The branding reflects the strength of his politics rather than personal situation, Urale was born in New Zealand after his parents and siblings emigrated from Samoa to Wellington.

"It’s the way to go. You can’t put all your eggs in one basket and this is something that if one thing doesn’t work, I’ve got something else to fall back on."

But the King probably doesn’t have to worry about getting a day job any time soon. 'Savage Thoughts’ has nearly reached the 15,000 sales required for platinum status, 'The Navigator’, sophomore album of fellow hip hopper Che Fu has been certified triple platinum, but Urale seems none-too anxious about producing hits. His second album was originally going to be called '2nd Testament’, another dig at organised religion from this self-proclaimed atheist, but he decided that sounded too "gospelly" and amended it to the battle theme, pursued with the album’s boxing ring imagery.

"I’m happy with it," says Urale, who is modest in person despite having no qualms about boasting of his considerable lyrical skills when on the mic. "It’s a step up from the last album. I made the tracks from start to finish and now I’m just looking forward to the next one."

Urale recorded '2nd Round Testament’ in his bush-surrounded West Auckland home studio. While the budget was approximately the same as that for 'Savage Thoughts’ having a studio at home meant he could spend "way more hours" trying out ideas at no extra cost.

"This album bought me a studio and all the stuff to do it with at home, whereas for the first one I had to go to someone else’s house," he explains.

"So for this one, I just stayed at home in Piha and did my own shit. I found it better that way. I then went into Rising Sun studios and recorded most of the vocals with (engineer) Luke Tomes on the mix. We mixed it down there and then took it over to Studio 301 in Sydney for mastering.

"I found this album easier to do than 'Savage Thoughts’ because I didn’t have the stress of having someone waiting in that studio for me. Sometimes you wake up in the morning and you don’t want to go into the studio that day. Then you start rebelling against going into the studio! But when you have a studio at home, after the kids go to sleep, you can still go and have your time in there. The only problem is that you still have to wake up at seven in the morning when they get up!"

Urale could not have ushered in '2nd Round Testament’ with two more different singles than last year’s confrontational Conversate and his current pop friendly Che Fu duet, U Can’t Resist Us (which quickly sold to gold single status).

"Conversate was for all the hip hop people out there," says Urale. "As for U Can’t Resist Us, Che used to be my back up singer in Token Village and I used to be his back up singer. Then at some stage, I decided 'Okay, bro, I’m going to go and buzz by myself.’ But we’ve always been close. I just asked Che 'Dude, will you come and sing on this song with me?’ and he did."

This second album confirms King Kapisi’s status as New Zealand’s most eclectic-sounding hip hop artist. On Back2Basiks, Urale states that "I just wanna be a jazz player". Problems opens with shout outs to TrinityRoots and Salmonella Dub and a live recording from the Rippon Festival of him announcing to the Wanaka crowd that "... we’re going to bang out a reggae song."

"When I first met up with Che, he was in 12 Tribes," recalls Urale. "And when I was in Token Village with all those guys, it was interested hearing what they were listening to when I only used to listen to Bob Marley. Bob was the be all and end all of reggae for me but then I started listening to other guys like Sizzla and Beenie Man. When I got introduced to guys like that, it opened my eyes. Problems is my tribute to the reggae massive."