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."

By 17 Scribe had met up with 'Beats'n'Pieces', a group he would eventually start touring with. Doing live shows with them gave Scribe the experience and fulfilment he was after:

"We did gigs around Christchurch and the South Island for two years, pretty solid, from '97 to '99 and that's where I met Ali".

After the group disbanded Scribe and Ali Toto stayed tight. DJ Ali, co-organiser of the annual Aotearoa Hip Hop Summit, is now Christchurch's veteran hip hop DJ, hosting radio shows and live events. Earlier this year the duo released a mix tape titled 'The Boilup' which has proven popular in Auckland. Scribe plays host with Ali mixing and scratching.

"We had always planned to put out a mix tape, it just never happened because we have all these other things that we do. The opportunity came up where we were both at his house, so we just made a mix tape over a couple of days. I came up with the name, it's a piss take and a bunch of our favourite songs basically."

A resident of Christchurch for over 20 years, Scribe is now based in Auckland but is in no hurry to forget about his hometown.

"It's not about east or west, nothing like that, or North Island vs South Island, it just comes down to representing where you're from. Everyone writes about their environment, but I'm definitely representing Christchurch hard on my album."

Recording his vocals at Kog meant a limited 13 days studio time - Scribe averaging two songs per day. At this hasty rate, he managed to record what was needed for the album and still have studio time to write two extra tracks which he says will be recorded in better quality sound booths.

'The Crusader' is due to hit stores in October. Not surprisingly it features the likes of P-Money, Ali, and DJ Shan in beat production roles as well as Ladi6 and Tyna from Dubious Bros. on the lyrical tip. Scribe helped produce some of the beats but says he was after a variation of sounds on the album.

"I try not to be restricted to one kind of style. I've got some happy songs, I've got some dark shit and I've got some cool shit. So I'm trying to make a complete album that's not just dark, but also colourful".

Where many artists struggle to find a way of stretching their sound to reach a wider audience, Scribe manages this with ease. Witness those P-Money tracks Synchronize Thoughts, '99's b-Net award winning Sunshine, Remember? and the new banger Stand Up.

Scribe's lyrical skill plus P Money's rock-infused beat on Stand Up has helped the single reach new audiences - 91ZM and Mai FM as well as A rotate on Channel Z - airplay that even P-Money couldn't conjure up.

Chris Graham, who has worked with the likes of Bic Runga, TrinityRoots and King Kapisi, was charged with creating a video for Stand Up to catch the youthful eye. They wanted it to be more like a rock clip than a hip hop video. Shot in one day around Real Groovy record store in Auckland, with 35mm film, the result is an energy driven riot scene, complete with cameos from nearly every one of hip hop's local elite, plus over 100 extras. Funding came from NZ On Air as well as Dirty Records.

"And Red Bull contributed big time," Scribe laughs. "100 people on Red Bulls - you can't go wrong!"

The video includes some overt T-shirt promotion and I ask if he will be joining King Kapisi in the clothing industry. "Definitely at some stage. It's cool because I own my own merchandising, but it's pretty much in its teething stages. I'm talking to a screenprinter at the moment and we're doing some designs."

We have witnessed Scribe evolve and mature as an MC over the past four years. As his dreams become reality he assures me that his rhyming discipline is still in action.

"I started off doing underground stuff, at radio shows freestyling, trying to get guest appearances, then I started doing gigs and then support for groups like Bone Thugs 'n Harmony, then I began to do videos and now an album, so it's been level after level.

"I think that I'm evolving still, I keep trying to go to the next level, but the day I do stop progressing I think that will be the day I give up, because there really will be no point. I can't see myself trying to crack a number one album when I'm 40."